Bill Johnson Interview

I'm here with Bill Johnson and obviously bill and I have been together I don't know we've been together some 28 years 28 28 29 years we we met as pretty young men were still very young man traveling my my opinion me being quite a bit younger didn't my elder Bill you've had a lot of lot of experiences in God and I I've walked been with you and thrown a lot of those experiences what would what do you what would really mark do you have a hallmark experience in your life that actually like thrust you into this revival I know that you had that experience in your bedroom that time is that when you came home from Toronto wasn't were you in Toronto yet no dick Joyce was with us yeah it was yeah for several nights and we had just a real blow-up renewal time you know yeah to like meetings and it was just great but I just I woke up being electrocuted you know in the middle of the night just a visitation it was just beyond words and in the Lord was after something because I'd been praying for months you know I want more at any cost and and he really he showed up with such power that I thought I may actually be in bed the rest of my life I thought I thought it'd blow all the circuits I really did and it was I was like we getting electrocuted oh I had no control of my limbs from my neck down I had no control I couldn't do what I wanted it all from my neck down I could turn my head but I had no control other than that it was just this power I didn't know how to describe it just pressed in on me where I have no control of my limbs because of a number of circumstances I woke up instantly 3 o'clock I knew it was him because I would prophecy had given the night before and and I knew exactly was he in fact I said a lot because I gave this word to someone else that the Lord may visit him and it could be at 3:00 in the morning yeah and and as soon as this hit me I looked at the clock is 3:00 a.m. I have no control I said out loud to God I said you set me up because he brought instantly mind my prophecy yeah yeah and and so I knew I knew that I'd been set up by God and and it just increased and I tried to get control I tried to not fight in a sense of resisting the anointed yeah but trying to see what is going on can I walk yeah can I actually go through life like it wouldn't let up in fact isn't it's weird but if I if I clench my fist and try to get control my items my legs got worse it was like it was X amount of power that had to go somewhere was there was there any fear in it at all no it's a fear of God so so there was a there was a there was a different kind of fear yeah it wasn't the fear Phil wasn't like oh no you know this is horrible or Yarger demonic or what's happening to me I mean I didn't know what was happening but I knew it got us after something cuz he thought she's pictures before my eyes I could see myself trying to teach in this condition well you were having that yeah what I'm having it cuz they went on all night so I had this flash before me I saw myself trying to teach and oh my goodness and realizing that I'm an embarrassment to me my family the whole church no one's gonna believe this is gone and then the next scene walking in front of my favorite restaurant in town you remember the mustard yeah and the same condition realizing it could affect the entire city except it every part about me there's no control well you made a decision that night yeah yeah he he was after something he reminded me says you know you you just put it in front of me yeah you said more at any cost and then he flashed the pictures of functioning socially I can't functioning in ministry I couldn't and did I really mean it and I said yes I said if I get you in the exchange I can be bedridden the rest of my life if I get you was that an easy decision for you to make that night yeah it took you a while to make it or no no not after I knew what it was after got it you know he prayed the scenes before me when I finally realized what he was it was like he was drilling for oil or something you know it's windy NIT when I saw what he is after and I knew what I had been praying Dan that I'd wake up in the middle of the night find myself praying more at any cost and so when he when I realized what he wanted I said I'll take it I'll take it now what year was that do you remember what year that was that was October you came to Bethel came in January fall time February of 96 at 96 yeah do you think that now when you came to Bethel and you you told the elders and all the leaders you said if you want me we're going after God at any cost yeah yeah if you don't want revival you don't want me yes isn't optional yeah this affects it this isn't negotiable yeah and it's almost like I don't know if I've never heard you say this but I'm just looking at it from you know obviously from perspective now it's almost like that night set you up for it was almost like if I could say that decision you may visit s like you know here you are having all those manifestations and you're interesting these pictures and you're like okay am I willing to look strange for God in a sense absolutely and you make a decision you're like yeah okay if if if this is if this is what it takes to have more of you I'll take that up and then you know a year later less than a year within a year you're at Bethel and you come to Bethel and you tell them you know if you if you if you don't want revival you don't want me yeah and then and then what happens when you get to Bethel like this revival breaks out right yeah yeah it was it was either the first or second Sunday night invited everybody in the church to the front because the church was you know tired and they had been eight months about a pastor they were just you know discouraged yeah all the stuff that goes on yeah that kind of a absence and and they were just tired so I divided him to the front I invited the Holy Spirit to come any and fell on one woman we got hundreds of people whatever going he felt a one-woman bending I looked at each other and we looked each other we went we got it I can't stop it now it's like that Elijah small cloud I was it was exactly but you know what it was on it was there wasn't an ounce of discouragement at all because if the power got felt like we both instantly looked at each other like is it get her done no stopping it now you know and it was absolutely right and then you know they brought us because they wondered what was happy until interval you know they came up and down the eldership did I don't know him coming yeah they were they were awful they came up the spout this buyout go and and bring me back down of course this is the mother church work for a weaver bill and and so they they brought up because that's what they wanted they were hungry for what we were experiencing up there and had been for quite a few months before that encounter that I had we had been experiencing this revival but when it started here week after week after week then we started losing people of course we lost quite a few yeah just just a couple and when when those when there was a you know I don't know that may have felt like a mass exodus to some of the people at least you know the leaders oh yeah was there anything in you that said you know obviously we can look back I know you didn't turn around or anything but was there ever any struggle inside of you that said you know maybe we're going about this wrong or too fast too slow or anything like that no there was never a question so so it's it's it's almost like you were willing like sometimes revival comes at a price I guess and that that price is maybe I'm going to look foolish maybe maybe not everyone's gonna like what's happening you know in our life and the life of our body sure and how did the leaders react to that like were they did they get a little nervous or were they pretty much like you know whoohoo mixed it was both wins we had some that that left in some of the stayed with it but see I paid the price that night that's that's exactly what there wasn't you know it sounds really it almost sounds calloused or you know I know that would be you know it for sure it all sounds that way though yeah when you say it in effect but it didn't it didn't affect us because we only had one thing that we're after and we had that yeah and so all the other things are earned things that don't matter you know I mean if it doesn't matter how many people here doesn't it doesn't matter if it yeah if it's a hundred people first ten thousand people I mean if God shows up then that's that's really the the supreme value is that is him so feed comes and and it's verifiable because they break through the tapping and human alliance the presence the impact yeah tormented people destroyed bodies marriages that are messed up when you got that step being healed it just doesn't matter the numbers because you know you undo things right you know well stored it incorrectly you don't want to steward the moment that God's given you yeah you don't want to store the the anointing incorrectly you know and it's not like you don't like this like you have no compassion or passion for the people who have left or not at all not at all we blessed every one of them yeah but they went to churches that I know the pastor's yeah and they they um I've met with the pastors in the pastor's hungry for revival and so though though they'll experience it there they'll just it'll be in a different pace yeah it'll be with the unique flavor any of that tribe got a room belongs here it's it's not it's not a question like you know good people stayed and bad people well yeah there's great some great people yeah but they just they they weren't they weren't mine you know and that's a good thing to discover I don't belong here that's that's is that's a half way to find out where you're supposed to be is where you can't stay and they just didn't belong here so and less will migrate back you know the ones that that did that left incorrectly prematurely some of them left you know because their friends left yeah you know they got pulled in no I understand that they just didn't sort through it and after they went away they realize they were really hungry and they came back so they started seeing some fruit too you know I remember the first time I ever saw Stacey Campbell and I've told Stacey this story you know and he was at risen King yeah and we were still living and we were I think you were here but we were those at the meeting yeah and I remember she got up the first night and nobody warned me and Wes was preaching and she got up and shook her head and you know she's got that that kind of strange manifestation of shaking her head back and forth while she prophesized okay I jumped up out of the seat and I went out in my car and I'm sitting in my car my heart's pumping and I'm like you know I've seen demonic manifestations there everything but I was like you can't cast that out and I'm sitting in the car and the Lord says where are you going the Lord said well she has a word for you I'm not giving it to me unless you go back in there and so you know I know I just like am using eggs examples like sometimes people's first response isn't the right response that's right you know it's like I'm thinking about you know Jesus talks to tell us one get you know he talks to two guys and he says we do such as such and the guy says yeah I'll do it but he doesn't yeah that's the second guy will you do it he says I'm not going to do that but the nd changes it we had a lot of people that start to see that through didn't win that's right a lot of them started migrated back and so you know your your I know you really well and your passion has always been the central theme is about I mean you love people and and you know gosh but you and I don't even know if this is the right way to put it but you love God more in the sense that let me put this way you're you fear God more than you fear people don't fear people and you're always gonna set you're gonna set up your life so that you know God is pleased and you hope the people are pleased but not the opposite yeah yeah yeah that's true that's true I don't know if I put that exactly on your word that's enough obviously if the father's not pleased nobody that matters yeah that could that could be pleased you know so so it's kind of like one of the things that one of the things I've watched you do for years is develop a place like a like in this like in our services like I've watched you over and over not not play to the people so to speak it's not like you're you know anti the people or like well let's just see if we can offend as many people as we can or you know some kind of reactionary thing that I watched you over and over just talk to us as a leadership team about what does God want how can we how can we create a wineskin that you know in the terms of metaphor the Bible like that one that really draws the wine like how can we create what do you what do you think are some of the like even in our own personal life and in the life of like churches in ministries what do you think some of the keys are to developing a place that really causes the presence of the Lord to I don't know if want to rest is the right word but it doesn't quench the spirit doesn't doesn't you know it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't put the Holy Spirit in a box that that restricts him you know well you you can't you can't build a wineskin to accommodate people people's desires people's visions people's dreams all those things are valuable but they're secondary yes they're only valuable in that they're a compliment or do what God is saying and do it and if I if I create anything that puts in you know as a pastor your your primary concern is caring for people so I put the care of people ahead of creating a place for God to show up then I've really missed my call and my primary call is not I'm not to build the church he builds the church it's good I'm supposed to lay down my life so that he'll rest on it yeah discern a direction so that when I make decrees whoever belongs to that tribe that hears my voice and picks up that drumbeat that that the Lord has me pounding then they'll come and we'll go together and if it's a lot of its few doesn't really matter as long as we as we come into it that's called us to come into where we represent him in purity and in power there's got to be a good clear manifestation and God himself on the earth and it has to have both elements of purity and power so that's that's the deal for me it's just it's just somehow create room create room in in a life a life of yes in your life of relationships respect for people but also in the realm of risk the realm of what we declare what we teach we we all of those things help to build a wineskin then invites the one because the wines the treasure it's not destruction it's the treasures the wine and and our whole life is built on setting a focus of direction the set of priorities relational boundaries lifestyle risk all of that yeah just to walk on the wine because the wine is the treasure I remember that's that's that's exactly the way I know you be in you know revival has taken on a new definition as we've grown in war like it's gone from and I don't know that we would have ever defined it this way but for the lack of a better picture you know revivals gone from a good meeting where the holy spirit shows up to looking to see cities transform you now the nations are transformers and so it's gone from you know revivals not just an individual person who you know gets touched by God which is obviously a big a big deal to us but we're looking to see the power of God the presence of God like move into cities move into nations and and transform cities and I remember preaching I don't know if you'll remember this but stands out to me in my in that first prophetic manual that I wrote I had a statement that that we're on the edge of the greatest revival in human history I don't know if you'll remember this but do you know we're always kind of battering each other more preaching and you're sitting in the front row and I said we're on the edge of the Bible in human history and you shout it out why don't we just have one I don't know if you remember that I do in fact I rewrote that that paragraph doesn't say that anymore it says we're in the mist that the greatest reviled human history is true and and you've made the statement over and over in fact you you made it when we weren't in a lot of revival quote we didn't have a lot of manifestations and you said you talked about having a personal revival you said revival isn't something that that it's not an event that you wait for it's not you know and just let's talk just about that a little bit because there's a lot of people are going to hear what we're talking about today and they're like you know I'm in a dead church I'm gonna you know like my church is my problem you know we I don't go to church at buffle you know you've got you got some strong thoughts about that that you've mentioned over the years concerning having a personal revival yeah nobody can keep me from revival yes it's not it's not dependent on anybody else fire always falls on sacrifice yes so the only question will I be the offering yeah make this statement often in I've quoted you lots of times it's it's a it's an obviously a Bible verse but you always have as much God much of the Holy Spirit as you want because the Holy Spirit came without measures given without measuring all measurements are set up up on our end of the equation absolutely how do you think that people set measurements let's say like in their own lives like what what kind of things limit maybe you've already said this in a way but what what kind of things expand our capacity for the Holy Spirit in in our lives dying what you went through that I died innocent it's yeah it's it's the whole lifestyle of risk it's the whole lifestyle of being an offering not because I sing a song in worship this I'm an offering but because we'd have a lifestyle that attracts the fire of heaven if the fires not there I question whether there's an offering it doesn't resist he's not he's not slow to act he's not like well I don't want to do it today yeah it's like there's a real offering he'll show up and then it's my job to discern how he's showing up because sometimes it's bold and you know frightening other times it's very subtle and I got to learn to move with him you know sometimes it's a gentle breeze and you only discern hoist the sail you know it catches the wind you go okay this is what he's doing but if you're not willing to to set up those feelers to discern what is God doing I just I'll do anything he wants and I know it's hard for people so I'm gonna already be leaning into hearing God for healing or deliverance or conversion or whatever you know IV I know his heart his word is core so I know his will yeah as well I don't have to wonder about his will yeah his desires for people so I just need to be aiming focusing in that direction and just looking for what I was going sometimes it's like as we were talking to earlier yesterday in school it was it was almost frightening the way the Lord showed up its to not be talking about that did it yeah not because it was the not because of the reaction of the people it's just the presence came so powerfully it just it was like I got hit but but not you know I was just I'm stunned I didn't know what to do the presence was there in such a god-fearing way you know yeah and you just you just sit there you know that he's up to something and it's not up to you and and you just you want to be the offering you know you just want to be that that he rests upon and you know he puts us unlike a gloves that we got a phrase we use then the where he uses us in our so I'm standing there for maybe 10 minutes trying to figure out what in the world do I do because this presence is so dominating and demanding yes in all the right ways and it took me quite a while to finally just certain to figure out how we can move with what he was doing but he that's the point is that we become the offering that he falls on sometimes it's dramatic sometimes it's not but it's always there I'm just about to say that that that experience that you experienced yesterday isn't necessarily common and that that you feel that all the time or but you're always willing to scrap your agenda you know I watched you over the years Leia you know will be you know you know I've watched you say you know you're getting up to preach and you're like it's not uncommon for you just to not preach like most share testimonies let's pray for people or yeah like just you know always looking to find the center of what God's doing yeah I I'm not impressed with any of my ideas I'm not there none of them move me yeah and if I found it find out that he's wanting to do something it doesn't matter what it is yeah if he's wanted to do something then that's life that's life you know that's that's it and and there's no you know any agenda I would play our plan you know we have a plan at yesterday but it's all built on the principles from our walk with them yeah you know we would create time for this we take extended time in worship I you know I tell him I repeat my covenant to him over and over again you know and worship if there is something that shows up die powerfully and worship you know well you know this we stand in the front row I I tell whoever's leading in prayer time don't go up yet yes there's something about to happen I can feel it you know and I I don't want to mess that up I'd rather mess up what I do then to mess up those moments you know so those are those are the things you charge you build a life around that stuff that's part of what it means to create a revival cultures you you create room or in a practical sense the presence of God becomes the most valuable thing everything rotates around that it's not a list of meetings it's not manifestations or certain experiences yeah it's all the manifested presence of our supreme value everything rotates Ronnie you know Bill I this is something I'm just you know these come conscious of again you know the the book hallways good morning Holy Spirit have you read that but you know Benny Hinn's book yeah and it's been a while since I read that book but he talks about like sitting at a restaurant is one of the stories I remember in that book and suddenly he hears the Holy Spirit say something like come away with me or come aside or get alone yeah and he just says so that people sit in the table I I'm sorry I have to excuse myself then he goes to his room and just spends time with God you know and I read that story in him like that man knows God and I remember you know well I'll never forget the time that we were we went to ym together this is before I came this is bad this is the year before I came right yeah they put a semi put us up in this little out here there we are just about you know yeah Colorado and we're sleeping like 20 feet from each other and these twin beds you know that and and I get up to go to the restroom and and I think I asked you if even if you're even awake and remember this but you were just laying there like this and and and apparently asleep and you are Ellis like an oyster that's one more of you boys per day just one more of you and and that whole trip that whole ministry trip that we did together of course we've always been really close friends and and lived in your house and everything but I came home from that from that trip and I said to Kathy I said I don't know what Bill's found I don't you know I don't I don't I don't I don't understand I mean I know you've found the Lord in a new dimension or whatever you know I'm trying to put words to experience with you boy a little bit difficult I said to Kathy I said I spent five days with Bill in a room and I said whatever it is that he has and this is after what we've been together for 15 years by then or something you know 17 17 I said whatever it is that he's that he's come into I need that in my life and we began to talk about and he coming and you know the driving force in my life was like okay I just need to lay it all down and and follow and and give it up and you know there's a lot of people that like maybe like me like they have got like they know God they've had experiences with God right and yet they hunger for another dimension yeah and I feel like I feel like you've come into another dimension in God you know I mean you've always mean I've known you for you know half your life and you've always loved God you always has but but this revival that we're in right now it has really taken you into I don't the words are hard but like into a deeper a deeper place hasn't so I hope so yes absolutely I mean your whole sensitivity for the Holy Spirit your whole friendship with God and and and also the whole theme of the goodness of God we're having it in staff I mean yesterday or yeah today we've been in so many meetings can't remember what no but you were just talking about how you know there is there's this new whole there's this whole revelation brewing about the goodness of God and and a lot of what your experience is is actually coming out of that revelation isn't it yeah the goodness of God is the cornerstone of theology without that everything gets messed up talk a little bit more about that because everybody says god is good well it's in the Bible now this is good so every person has their greater good but people's definition of good is different they'll say ways he's good but that's because he has good intention for everything that he does so he will give you cancer because he has good intent yeah is the outcome he'll be more like Jesus well that was true Jesus would add cancer you didn't even it's ridiculous because it's it's like it puts on God it takes goodness out of out of our understanding and it makes it this theory that well everything works for good so therefore God is good yeah and and it credits him with stuff that you and I would get arrested for if we did to our kids and it'd be a child abuse and so we've got people out there that are that are declaring you know God you know it sends cancer to people to teach them to pray to draw their family together you know I tell folks he can win with a pair of twos he's he's capable of turning any situation on for a score but it doesn't mean he sent it or did he approve it in a sense he puts his stamp of approval off the sort for good ya know we're in a world with us conflict we're in a world where there's a real devil there's real powers of darkness here we live in this conflict over a planet and you know people so there is a struggle at times ition yeah goodness gracious weren't a struggle or a struggle for life the victory has been won so we're not white fighting for victory we're fighting from one that's already been obtained yeah and just learning to apply that you know and so when when people get that messed up then you know it's like it got destroying a city with hurricanes and that sort of thing well show me in Jesus's life how many storms did he bless how many times was he in a life-threatening storm we just said we'll just go over to that city and destroy them and if you wipe them out it'll teach them to pray and they'll become more like me so it doesn't happen that way if it was that way hospitals would be the only sent Saints would leave hospitals only Saints with lis mental institutions because the torment they suffered would make them more like Jesus it's ridiculous totally it just it doesn't work that way it works the opposite it's the Devourer doing that stuff and true sometimes it comes because of sin because of rebellion because of issues in cities but God said to the church that we've been called as as a community of believers of priests our job is to intercede he's looking for someone to stand in the gap and to plead the case because judgment comes because sin invites judgment yeah God you know if you're reading Scripture God doesn't have to lift a finger all he has to do is let people live under the power of their sin it will devour them and we are the ones that are supposed to stand in the gap and plead their case that God would extend mercy toll it's it's like it's like it's so you know people said what God does this and I said well really so who did he leave in charge who did he give his name to totally who did he give his authority to oh my god did this he left a group of people on the earth to bear his name and he said nothing's impossible in anything you asked for I'll do and he throws in a statements like can a nation be saved in a day or asked for the nation's I'll give them to use your narratives sprinkles the scriptures with I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh the Bible is filled with littered with this stuff and and we out of arrogance take these promises put them off into the millennium and say you know it's easy to put them into a period of time where I have no responsibility because then I can just let things happen no we're the ones that God has given his name his authority he's given us a purpose a plan and if it's not done it's not because God's not good it's because we didn't embrace their challenge when the embrace yes I'm into the hour and so part of what happens is is that the people have authority to stop these storms sort of speak the people that have authority to just to heal diseases into and to see cities say as you see poverty broke and you know what we're calling real revival like this accent transform cultures when they when they embrace this fatalistic kind of view this fatalistic eschatology is fatalistic view of life and I'm not when I say they we if we embrace this that's right then what happens is the people that are sent to transform cities are actually standing by Allah in other words it's kind of like we say to God well God why did you let this happen he's like why did you let this happen these kind of turns back to like I didn't I put you in charge of this yeah sort of thing so yeah and that that's kind of all coming out of that same revelation though isn't it like the the core revelation is is that God is good he wants to have relationship was that man and in part of I'm just kind of watching your personal relationship with God the more that you see the goodness of God in your personal life more that you're drawing close to God the more it feels like power and authority are growing in your life yeah it was true you know yeah it's absolutely true absolutely true he's he's looking for it doesn't mean he's not judge he's he's the righteous judge doesn't mean you know somehow he's relinquished his authority or responsibilities as God I mean it's ridiculous but he's given us more than we can imagine he's sorry too promised he'd do beyond all we could imagine or ask for in prayer beyond the reach of all those things and and he's given us the authority to bear his name and he told us he said I'm giving you all things he said in Corinthians he's giving us the power over life and death over the world itself the entire planet he's given us the future before it comes he's giving us the moment now I mean it's bizarre when you read through scripture what he's already put in our charge not in the Millennium not in yeah yeah no and and so when we blame everything on him instead of just saying you know what god I don't know what I'm doing but please teach me how to be a responsible Kingdom person you know it's like I may not know how to stop that storm but I can stop something you know yeah I've been telling people lately I said listen with the Spirit of the resurrected Christ is placed inside of us he expects us to conquer something yeah I've got to find something to bring different one to destroy that's right destroy works of dark yes jesus said he came to destroy the works of the devil and then he said as the father sent me I send you so I obviously have the same assignment so I may not be able to stop a hurricane but I can stop something and as my as I learn how to walk in that ax money I've got to become responsible or together maybe together we can stop that other case maybe together we can stop that storm or whatever it might be but we've got to just learn there are things that God wants to release over a corporate body that he cannot entrust to individuals and if we can learn to have the same heart in mind yeah with a with a core value of God's goodness I feel like we can shape we can shape the history of nations right now the course of history so when we see when we see you know bad in the world we see sickness in people's bodies we see the stuff what you're saying well part of what you're saying is is that we we were kind of born in a battlefield in the it's like we've already won but there is a war yeah that our struggle thing and that we were sent to to destroy the works of the devil we were we were put on this battlefield destroy the works the devil so like when we pray for the sick we pray for someone who's demonized we pray for any of those kind of things we're not asking for the will of God in the sense that like okay father do you want to heal this person of cancer where I mean we already know what the will of God is right yeah that's on earth as it is in heaven yeah that's God's will and and his and his and his personhood he's good yeah so it's not that it's not that people don't go through trials but that trials aren't sickness disease torment those those aren't the truck those aren't the trials of God yeah the early church their trials was persecution you know death mark stoning beating yeah ours is not being able to pay a bill on time yeah ya know having a runny nose and yeah you know it's like the Lord's wanting to get us back to that offensive posture what we bring about transformation to society something to walk in authority somebody said the other day I mean they said why did Paul write I died daily I said what would you write if you written if you were you're alive in Nero's day yeah you know it's like he's in prison he's in shipwreck he's like you know I think he was actually saying I you know I have this daily this daily fight that I'm in with this with this time well bill your life has has been such a great example to so many people and just the way that your your affection for the Lord your affection for the Lord drew me here I mean I I mean I don't know I wish I could I wish I could get this across somehow you know verbally it's like your affection for God is what is what caused me and probably thousands of people to be attracted here in its life I think people are hungry people are hungry for the real thing they're hungry for the you know and I think again like you the example you gave it's like you know when you were getting electrocuted it's like you know all that people are like I don't know what's gonna cost me to have more of God but I'm willing to so it's been great just being able to like talk to this with you thanks and uh and thank you very much for being those that's my privilege thanks pool blessings good job guys a couple of my little - the day it was find out

Channel: Kris Vallotton

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Length: 37min 24sec (2244 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 20 2015