Devotions

It was December 2002. My father was eighty-one years old, and he was battling colon cancer and underwent a colostomy. The nurses who came to change the bag wore masks and plastic gloves. During my previous visit, the bag needed to be emptied, and rather than wait for a nurse to visit, I did it. Although it wasn’t necessarily my place to do such a thing, it was just a way that I could help my father live in a slightly more dignified way and demonstrate to him and my family that love doesn’t hesitate to get its hands dirty.

There had been a remarkable softening in my father for a man who had been angry with me for many years, ever since I became a Christian and resigned from the police force. A few weeks before my final trip to see my father, my senior pastor at Times Square Church, David Wilkerson, said to me, “God is going to give you a window with your father.”

When I arrived at the hospital, my father was seated in a chair next to the door of his room. “Hi Dad,” I said. “Are you ready to pray with me?”

“I would like to do that,” he said. He knew what he was agreeing to. We had covered that territory on my prior visits. We prayed in great detail. I didn’t want him to go through the motions to appease me, and I didn’t want him to be the least bit confused. To know my father was to know a man who wouldn’t have prayed that prayer if he didn’t mean it. His word had always been his bond.

Once he was settled in bed, I touched my father’s arm gently. “I love you, Dad.”

“Carter, I love you.”

“It will be so awesome when I get to heaven to see you there, Dad.”

“I’ll be there.”

God brought my dad to himself, and a twenty-four-year journey came to a marvelous end. The scriptures say, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9, NKJV). Patiently waiting for God’s answer is not always something we like to do. Yet what we need to understand is that when God delays in answering prayer, we can be sure he is working in the hearts of all the people affected by the situation.

_{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.}

In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar erected a huge, golden image 90 feet tall and summoned every leader from his far-flung empire to a dedication ceremony. Once they arrived, however, Nebuchadnezzar commanded that they all bow in worship before the image. If they defied the order, they would be killed.

Three of Daniel’s friends—Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—refused to bow. These men, along with Daniel, had been taken captive from Jerusalem. It was not unusual in those days to punish violators of the king’s decrees by casting them into a giant, burning oven (see Jeremiah 29:22).

When the guards brought the three Hebrew men before the king, he bellowed at them, “If you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?” (Daniel 3:14-15, NKJV).

These God-fearing young men boldly answered in faith, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18).

The three Hebrews were finally cast into the furnace, but the king was puzzled. There had been no sudden flash of burning clothes and hair, no stench of roasting flesh. “King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, ‘Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’ They answered and said to the king, ‘True, O king.’ ‘Look!’ he answered, ‘I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’” (Daniel 3:24-25).

Jesus came into these men’s crisis for one reason, for their sake alone. He came to comfort and rescue them because he loved them. The Lord of glory committed himself to them in their hour of crisis because they were totally committed to him!

I don’t give financial advice, but I am in touch with the world’s one and only dependable adviser! For every question I have on any matter, my trusted adviser has an answer. He has been with our ministry since the very beginning. When we moved our offices back to New York City, he moved with us. He has directed every real estate transaction we’ve made here. He helped us buy the historic Mark Hellinger Theatre on Broadway, where Times Square Church now holds services.

The Spirit is not only our financial and real estate adviser, he’s also our attorney, counselor and travel guide. Indeed, he guides us in literally everything we do and face. The last time I talked with him, he assured me he would continue to provide steady guidance for us throughout the coming difficult times. He told me we had nothing to worry about.

Best of all, my adviser doesn’t mind if I call him every day and at any time during the day. My adviser encourages me, “You don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ve been through these kinds of things many times before.” It is amazing to see throughout the Bible that time after time, in every kind of crisis, God has always been intimately involved with his people.

The Lord was involved with David when he fell on hard times. David returned home with his army to Ziklag and found his town reduced to ashes by a band of raiders (see 1 Samuel 30). David’s home had been destroyed and his family taken captive; there was nothing left. Everything he worked for, his cattle, his furnishings, his possessions were all gone. David had no one to turn to in that moment, since his own soldiers were ready to stone him because they blamed him for leading them into battle and leaving their loved ones unprotected.

Scripture says David turned to his adviser (and mine). “So David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?’ And he answered him, ‘Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.’” (1 Samuel 30:8, NKJV). David followed his adviser’s counsel, and he did recover everything!

The prophet Ezekiel was given an incredible vision. Scripture says the hand of God carried him to a very high mountain, where a man appeared to him “whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze” (Ezekiel 40:3, NKJV).

Of course, the man was none other than Christ himself. He ushered Ezekiel to the door of God’s house where he gave the prophet an amazing vision of the future of God’s people. It revealed what the body of Christ will become as the end-times draw to a close. “He brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east…” (Ezekiel 47:1).

Images of water in the Bible almost always represent the Spirit of God. This vision clearly reveals a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days. The vision was so overwhelming in scope, Ezekiel couldn’t comprehend it. He couldn’t even comment on its meaning; all he could do was report it. In fact, before the vision was finished, the Lord stopped and asked Ezekiel, “Have you seen this?” God was asking, “Do you grasp the magnitude of what you’re seeing? Do you see what these rising waters speak of? I know this revelation is awesome and mind-boggling to you, but I don’t want you to miss the true meaning. The waters indicate the way all things will end.”

The prophet Isaiah had a glimpse of the same river that appeared in Ezekiel’s vision, yet Isaiah saw even more. According to Isaiah, God’s people in the last days will enjoy great protection against all satanic attack: “There the majestic Lord will be for us, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will sail, nor majestic ships pass by” (Isaiah 33:21).

Isaiah is speaking here of slave-driven warships. He’s giving us a picture of the enemy, the devil, as he tries to launch an attack on all who swim in the river. God is making it clear to us in these passages that his living waters are off-limits to Satan. As the psalmist testifies, “Let those be put to shame and brought to dishonor who seek after my life; let those be turned back and brought to confusion who plot my hurt. … let the angel of the Lord chase them” (Psalm 35:4-6).

Moses had a disposition like many of us today, so there was only one way for him to stay in victory. He continually communed with the Lord. “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11, NKJV). I believe the secret to holiness is very simple: Stay close to Jesus! Keep looking into his face until you become like the image you behold.

One evening, a hysterical woman stopped me on the street and blurted out a desperate confession. “Mr. Wilkerson,” she cried, “I’m facing the darkest hour of my life, and I don’t know which way to turn. My husband has left me, and it’s all my fault! I have failed God and my family. What in the world am I going to do?”

I was moved to tell her, “My friend, lift up your hands right here on this street corner and begin to worship the Lord. Tell him you know you are a failure, but you still love him. Then go home and get on your knees. Don’t ask God for a thing, just lift your hands and your heart and worship him.”

I left that lady standing on the street with her hands raised to heaven, tears rolling down her cheeks, praising the Lord and already tasting the victory that was surging back into her life. “But you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3). The Lord makes his dwelling with his people who are worshipping; and where the Lord is, victory follows.

Christ says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37) and “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Don’t be afraid of failure. Keep going in spite of it. Worship God until victory comes! This may sound like an oversimplification, but the way past failure actually is simple.