Devotions

Shortly after my eldest son went off to boot camp to become a Marine, he began to send me fairly desperate letters. He even reached out to the heavyweights, asking me to please get Pastor David Wilkerson and others to pray for him.

It was easy for me to empathize with his desperation once I went down to North Carolina and got a tour of what these young men and women had to experience. Our country’s military has procedures designed to make young men and women into soldiers. These tests and challenges are so severe that they are almost impossible to endure. These young people go in, believing they have the world by the tail, but not long into the process, they realize that their perspective is not true at all.

They often don’t realize at first that all this hardship is necessary in order to prepare them to be soldiers. They are being trained to be obedient and to take orders; they are building stamina that will enable them to stand against insurmountable odds. They are being taught about unity and perseverance; fear is being driven out of their hearts.

God desires the same end result for us as his church. It requires us, however, to undergo intense training. We would all like to come into the kingdom of God, to hear from the Lord, to get filled with the Holy Spirit and then to move forward unhindered as we wield the sword of the Spirit. Those kinds of easy accomplishments, though, will never prepare us for true spiritual battle.

Psalm 105:19 says, “…the word of the Lord tested him.” Another meaning for the word “tested” is “to be fitted for the battle.” When we find ourselves on a long journey or in an intense struggle, it will be easy for us to lose heart along the way.

That is why we must remember that the Lord is fitting us for the battle ahead. Just as men and women are trained for battle once they join the military, there is a process that the Lord must take his people through in order to prepare them for the spiritual war that they either knowingly or unknowingly find themselves in. With this in mind, we gain a better perspective on the trials we may be going through. They are for our benefit.

^{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.}

When a prophet comes with a message of warning, often people want the prophet to give them specific advice about what to do in response. At times, God gives the prophet a word; but more often, it is up to every man of God to take the word into account for his own family. Just as a pastor has stewardship of the church, a man of God is to give an account of his own family.

Joseph heard God say to store up food for the season to come (see Genesis 41). Moses heard God say to receive gifts from the Egyptians for their journey (see Exodus12). We can also hear from God for our situation. Sheep do hear the Shepherd’s voice. Jesus will not only guide his people and comfort his flock but will also give them boldness and a heart to serve those troubled by afflictions.

The wisdom of Paul in his letter to the Ephesians speaks most to what we need. “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:15-18, NKJV).

We can hear from God. We must evaluate our own lives. Are we sitting on the fence? This is no time for compromise or close affiliation with the world. Partying in the house of an Egyptian on the night of the Passover is definitely not a good idea.

A prophet once came to Paul and prophesied that if he went to Jerusalem he would be bound and put in prison. The prophet was faithful to give his word; it was up to Paul to hear from God about how to deal with that warning. Paul still decided to go to Jerusalem. He was willing to risk his life for the gospel (see Acts 21). Some will hear a prophet’s warning and seek their own safety. Others will hear and search out a place to serve where people will need their spiritual strength and compassion.

This troubled time is an opportunity for us to call out to those outside the gate. Shrinking behind a double-locked door or fleeing to a rural farm does our unbelieving neighbor no good! Our desires should be like Christ’s: that all men should flee the wrath to come and find salvation.

We are to listen carefully to the warnings of the watchmen, but we are not to become obsessed with their warnings. We're to gather all the knowledge we can about the coming storm so we can prepare our hearts for whatever destruction it brings.

However, we are not to let fear or anxiety consume our thinking, dominate our minds or take hold of our hearts!

Darkness is certainly coming, and judgment is at our very door. As God's people, though, we cannot allow any cloud of darkness to hide the light of his great promises of love and mercy toward his children. We are to be well informed by the Lord's words and prophets, but we are not to dwell on prophetic knowledge so much that it takes over our lives.

The devil would love for that to happen. He knows if he can't get you to doubt God's Word concerning judgment, he'll take you to another extreme by driving you to a fearful obsession with perilous times. The deceiver will try to rob you of all hope by consuming you with thoughts of foreboding.

The apostle Paul reassures us about such things with this instruction: "Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things" (Philippians 4:8). Paul is telling us, "You've heard all the warnings. Now simply take heed to what God's Word reveals and to what his watchmen are saying. Then, finally, fix all your thoughts on Jesus and his goodness."

I have warned that Christians are going to suffer, that there will be great loss and hardship, and that right now multitudes of precious saints all over the world are enduring unbelievable tribulation. None of these things is the focus of all my energies and ministry. No, the deepest expression of my soul is to proclaim the love of the Father and the tender mercy of our savior Jesus.

I acknowledge the world’s evil, and I grieve over it in my prayer closet; but I know that God alone is in control of all these things. When I go to bed at night, I fix my mind on whatever is pure, noble and praiseworthy.

When God’s people face a seemingly impossible crisis, the cry I most often hear is “Where is God in all of this? Is this punishment for the besetting sin I’ve struggled with for many years? Has he abandoned me?”

The story of Elijah shows how the Lord’s children ought to respond. As the prophet looked ahead to the coming famine, things must have looked absolutely hopeless to him; but God had a specific survival plan in mind for his faithful servant. He instructed the prophet, “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there” (1 Kings 17:3-4, NKJV).

How could any person ever dream up this kind of a plan for survival? How could Elijah ever have imagined he’d be sent to a hidden brook to find water to drink when there was nothing but drought everywhere else in the land? How could he ever have thought a daily supply of bread would be brought to him by ravenous birds that normally ate everything they sank their beaks into?

Later, times got hard for Elijah because the brook finally dried up, but God stepped in again, giving the prophet another fresh word of direction. He said, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you” (1 Kings 17:9). How could anyone ever think a poor widow woman, in the midst of a depression, could feed a man for days, weeks, months on end?

The fact is that God uses the most despised, insignificant things of the world for his glory. The evidence is overwhelming. God — our adviser, counselor and survival expert — has a detailed plan for every one of his children, to help us face the worst of times. The Lord declares, “’I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,’ says the Lord, ‘And I will heal him’” (Isaiah 57:19). The Hebrew word for “peace” here is “perfect peace.”

In the time of panic, God’s trusting people will be blessed with perfect peace.

I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message to friends and to church leaders we have met all over the world. An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen. It is going to be so frightening that we are all going to tremble, even the godliest among us. We are under God’s wrath. In the psalms, it is written, “For look! The wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:2-3, NKJV).

In Psalm 11:6, David warns, “Upon the wicked He will rain coals; fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup.” This is a righteous judgment, just as in the judgments of Sodom and in Noah’s generation.

The prophet Jeremiah pleaded with wicked Israel, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.’” (Jeremiah 18:11). Instead of repenting, though, “They said, ‘That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.’” (Jeremiah 18:12).

God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations, but what about God’s people? What shall the righteous do?

For our spiritual reaction, we have two options. This is outlined in Psalm 11. We can “flee like a bird to a mountain” (v. 1); or do as the psalmist did: “In the Lord I put my trust” (v. 1) because “He loves righteousness; his countenance beholds the upright” (v. 7).

I will say to my soul, “No need to run. No need to hide. This is God’s righteous work. I will behold our Lord on his throne with his eye of loving kindness, watching over every step I take. I will trust that he will deliver his people even through floods, fires and calamities of all kinds.”

I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off. I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose.