Bill Johnson Sermons [September 05, 2021] | Dont Stop Progressing

welcome to the bethel church sermon of the week we hope you enjoy this message by pastor bill johnson for more information about this podcast and other resources visit bethel.com thanks thankful both of family blessings to you and uh much love and ongoing blessings to eric and candace i'm just so thankful this is uh more challenging than you you may be able to imagine but uh um we're gonna do well um i want you to notice the picture behind me and they're beautiful all those orange trees are evergreens so either they were photoshopped or they're dying actually either they're photoshopped or they're dead it's beautiful color contrast all the dark green trees in the middle those are actually the kind that turn orange but they are green i just thought it would help me to communicate that to you because it's so important uh all right help me out here open your bibles that's that's uh helps me just trust me work with me here open your bibles if you would to jeremiah chapter 29 jeremiah 29 we will as has probably been said well enough already i i think we are not going to be quick to be making plans we want to savor the moment in a sense because we want to make sure that we give honor where it's due and express our our absolute thanks and and uh gratefulness and celebration for uh who eric and candace are and all that they've done and so this will be a very tender season we will be uh very open and upfront with you about what's going on and when but we're going to we're going to be carefully communicating this next season for you this is uh i i don't for me there's not been a weirder season in my life the the most challenging in many ways and to be honest with you the pandemic has nothing to do with it it just is kind of a nuisance and forgive me i know it's more than a nuisance to so many that have suffered so deeply um but for my own personal experience it's not been the cause of most challenging season uh instead it is just there as a constant reminder that's a it's a it's a strange thing the political climate of the nation is going to settle here soon but uh we got that swirling and now we've got our own world and it's like the perfect storm in which jesus himself will show up and only he will get glory uh it's not going to be through gifting through wisdom nowhere that we have succeeded has it been because anybody was smart or unusually anointed it's just absolutely the grace of god the grace of god and so i'm i'm i'm very thankful for that i i've actually had this chapter on my mind for months and um so i'm i'm going to talk to you out of jeremiah chapter 29 and um try to reaffirm uh a phrase that's been used a lot uh benny i i think she started it for us several years ago god's got this others have picked it up and there's t-shirts and there's mugs and all kinds of paraphernalia to remind us that god's got this and but here's what i i want to do we're going to read the verse that probably most of you know by heart and many of you would know by heart would be able to quote and that's verse 11. i want to read that but then we're going to go back and look at the context i do want to give you a brief but um uh important uh teaching or decree about this season that we're in verse 11 is uh the verse that uh most people know for i know the thoughts that i think toward you says the lord thoughts of peace and not evil to give you a future into hope i want you to look at it again i know the thoughts that i think towards you says the lord thoughts of peace not evil to give you a future and a hope and that verse is such a broad-reaching promise of the lord it's quoted often by you know preachers that i hear through the years and rightfully so it's just one of those it's one of those gems that's just tucked away in a very uh difficult setting and uh and i'm so thankful for this decree that the lord makes i know the thoughts that i think about you they're not thoughts for your calamity they're for your blessing they're free of welfare interestingly this word peace in this passage is uh also translated prosperity it's translated health it's just overall well-being and it is the it is what is on the mind of god about us in the middle of this situation that we're in and we can describe it through the political climate of the country we can do it through the pandemic we can do it just in the bethel world with uh with a very for me extremely sad uh departure and transition change uh we can look at a lot of different things some of you in your own personal lives have things complete completely unrelated to anything that i have mentioned going on in your own life in your own home it may be a business that is uh it's just it's just dying it may be other things so the point is we're going to read a context here that i think long term can give us a wonderful wonderful hope and for me if you know anything about how i function in my life whenever something comes up i run i don't walk i run to the promises of the lord i run to what has god spoken to me what has he said to me last what is it that he has deposited in my heart about this season most people could you would do well if you just returned to the last thing god told you but sometimes because of anxiety and fear and all the junk that goes on in our lives we we tend to drop the things that god has given us and uh we can't afford to do that right now we've got too many things swirling and i i'm going to ask you as i mentioned in this video we've got to return to the strongest absolutes in our life and that is this right here i know the thoughts i have towards you thoughts of a father a perfect father a perfect father who is wonderfully good and it was that one theme that one thought that brought jesus to earth to take on flesh to take on the cross and to raise again everything that he did was to reveal the father and so this is not a side issue this is the core issue it's all about the fatherhood of god in your life and in mine and right now i'm in a place where i'm going to emphasize being a son a child not the leader that never stops but hopefully you understand what i'm saying right now is where i take that hat off i'll put it down and i'm i'm i'm wearing the hat of a of a child that really needs the father so here's what i'm going to ask you to do we're going to read about 10 verses so hang in there i'm going to make three kind of concluding thoughts and then we'll wrap this this day up together we're going to start with verse 4 thus says the lord of hosts the god of israel to all who were carried away captive whom i have caused to be carried away captive from jerusalem to babylon stop right there please notice this wonderful promise where god says i know the thoughts i have toward you was towards a group of people that were in captivity they were held prisoner in another nation build houses verse 5 build houses and dwell in them plant gardens and eat their fruit take wives and beget sons and daughters take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters that you may increase there and not diminish so that the the word of the lord was you're in captivity but if you'll do this my way you'll thrive there you'll thrive there what what you think is destroying your life is actually going to be the platform for your greatest promotion and so we've got to repent and shift change the way we think and perceive situations that you may be increased there and not diminished verse 7 and seek the peace of the sea this is one of my favorite verses in the whole bible because it i'll never forget when it hit me oh goodness 30 35 years ago in weaverville when we we began to focus on the prayer for the benefit of our city and not thinking it's us and them and this word peace this is one of the places i think it's in the new american standard where it says seek for the prosperity of the city so let me read it with that word prosperity verse 7 seek the prosperity of the city where i have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to the lord for it for in its peace or in its prosperity you will have prosperity there's something profound about this in fact if you're writing notes down write down first timothy chapter two verses one through four because in that passage is a directive in prayer that was to bring the people of god into the abundance of peace and impact on culture itself it's the most unusual parallel between this chapter and that one all right so for uh for in its peace you will have peace verse 8 for thus says the lord of hosts the god of israel do not let your prophets or your diviners who are in your midst deceive you here's an interesting phrase nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed it's a profound lesson by itself i believe very much that the lord speaks to us through dreams i have i've had so many critical times in my life where the lord has has has inspired a dream that's given me insight of what to do things i didn't know what to do and i woke up understanding because of a dream i've had the lord affirm me in dreams very unusual unusually but when we hold to our agenda and there's an unwillingness to yield to the purposes of god that bent or that desire in us will actually create its own dream in the night it will actually cause there to be a dream that appears to be a prophetic dream when in fact it's not from the lord at all it's the offspring of your own unyielded desires i believe strongly in the dream life and the lord speaks all through scripture and in my own experience but just understand walking with a yielded heart to the purposes of the lord song of solomon though i sleep yet my heart is awake that posture positions us to have divine dreams all right look at it again the last part of verse 8 nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed for they prophesy falsely to you in my name i've not sent them says the lord thus says the lord after seventy years i completed at babylon i will visit you and perform my good word toward you cause you to return to this place for i know the thoughts that i think toward you says the lord thoughts of peace not evil to give you a future and a hope then you will call upon me and go and pray to me and i will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart and i will be found by you says the lord look at verse 13 again what we'll wrap up the reading up with this you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart i will be found by you it's interesting jesus used a very similar language in the gospel of john where he said he said i will be found by you and he uses a word that says i will make myself conspicuous in other words you're going to be going down the road looking and i'm going to jump in the middle of your path and do something like this that you can't miss me and we have that kind of a father who wants to be known and discovered by his own and every person watching this whether you're part of the bethel family tribe and this uh news is uh this morning as devastating to you as it is to me uh it rattles us deeply or you're a guest and you're watching and and uh and you don't have quite the history to feel some of what we're feeling regardless of what position you're in the lord makes a covenantal promise to you and he says if you search for me with all your heart you'll find me i will make sure that i'm in the middle of whatever road you're walking down and you will discover me there will be that encounter that changes everything our life as disciples of jesus our our life as followers of the lord is hinged upon us encountering him it's not peripheral it's not an addition to it is life his voice brings us life we live because he talks this word is the living word of god he speaks in it and through it and he enhances and adds strength and life to us to carry out his purposes but this story this great grand promise that god gives i know the thoughts that i think towards you the thoughts i have for you their thoughts of your welfare not your calamity they uh to give you a future to give you a hope that pristine promise came at the most unexpected and awkward time and it's the mercy of the lord that regardless of whatever hell hole you think you're in right now whatever the situation might be if you'll calm your heart just a bit turn to the word of god god will speak to you and bring a promise that is so opposite to your surroundings that it will shock you it will stun you imagine being carried away captive not willingly unwillingly bound taken to another nation you are now subservient to this ruling class of people you are prisoners there and the lord comes to you and all you can see is the restrictions the restraints the problems all you remember is what you left behind what you lost how it could have been the promises you had over your life and they didn't come to pass you got all this stuff swirling around you and the lord steps into the middle of that absolute chaos and he says i want you to know what i'm thinking about i'm thinking really good thoughts about you and it's about your it's about your welfare it's actually about your prosperity i've got a lot of plans i i daydream about you and i think about these moments that are so difficult for you but if you'll take just a moment you'll rediscover the promise of the lord and i remind you of that psalm that is so important to all of us the 23rd psalm he says i prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies think through that i prepare tape what's the table the table is a place of exchange the table is a place of fellowship the table is a place to eat it's a place of nourishment and strengthening so the lord says i prepare this place of personal strength and personal encounter in the midst of your enemies and oftentimes we're overly mindful of what's not right and we've lost sight of the very fact that the lord put a table right in the middle of the most unexpected place and we find it again in jeremiah 29 i know the thoughts that i have towards you their thoughts of your of your blessing of your your prosperity i'm gonna bring you into wholeness i'm gonna i'm gonna bring you into why you're on the planet in the first place you'll not miss a thing i'm bringing you back and then he says be careful don't listen to those who's who uh who announced to you that uh that god is not in this he has arranged us and i don't care he's not the god of calamity he's not the god who creates viruses and all this junk that's going on but i tell you what he is still god in the midst of it and what's important for us is to not fight it's going to sound awkward don't fight the restraints the restrictions masks pandemic we're going to have a mass burning party someday but until then there are some of you that believe it's the absolute key to remaining healthy as as a as a community fine promote it in the spirit of christ do your best to hold up that standard and i will support you there are others of you that believe that it is from the pit of hell and you will have nothing to do with it fine just do so in the spirit of christ the point is is we've got to hold to what we're doing realizing we are a diverse family we never require you to think this way what i want you to do is i want you to learn how to think how to respond not give you our prescription on how to you know make it through this pandemic that's not important to me i i know the lord has convictions about stuff but sometimes there are some issues that we face in our life i don't the devil doesn't care what your opinion is as long as you leave the spirit of christ to promote it if you sacrifice this so that you you promote i don't care what noble cause you have i watch i watch right now it's at a heightened level in our nation where people leave and forsake the spirit of christ to promote their agenda and i'll tell you what it is that drive in here to promote an agenda apart from the pro the spirit of christ that actually creates in us the capacity to dream things that are not from god so look at these verses number one we're in a situation we can't get out of you you pick pick whatever one you want i feel like i'm holding up a deck of cards just pick a card any card we've got enough things going on right now just pick one i don't care what your favorite or your least favorite is just pick one we're not in a position to change it what are we in a position to do we are in a position in the middle of whatever crisis you may be facing to find the word of the lord you're responsible for it i've told you before in these what i don't know how many hundreds of years it's been since we've met together but i've mentioned before if if you have more input from social media from mainstream media than you do the word of god then your discouragement is self-inflicted you're responsible you cannot have a garden and have a key to the gate and invite the enemy to come in and plant weeds and then moan to god about it you've got to repent for the fact you've entertained things that are in conflict with the will and purposes of god we've got to take ownership of this the the gate if you will to our own hearts the gate if you will to to our own assignment here in life as we guard well what god has said so number one stop fighting the restriction learn how to flourish in it amen bill i think you're on to something number one stop trying to fight where god put you number two be restored to the promise of the lord rediscover for yourself not just something you can quote flippantly but i mean the heart-to-heart connection with the father who honestly looks for your welfare he fights for your welfare he contends for your blessing not your calamity be restored to that face to face that mouth-to-mouth connection with the father who says this is how my heart burns for you my imagination runs wild of the things that i want to do for you get get back to that one the father and then the last one is set your heart to seek the face of the lord these are all things that are normal parts of the christian life but i feel like in this moment it would be critical for us to review and to renew it's kind of like when the lord spoke in revelation to the church at ephesus he corrected them he rebuked them because they had uh lost their first love but what was his prescription that he wrote out for them he says do the deeds you did at first be restored to what you used to do and i i'm coming to you right now not with the first love message but with just the overall message right now right now stop trying to fight a setting or a situation that you're in where god has placed you and you have to discern that one but where god has placed you stop trying to fight it number two instead of focusing on what isn't going right that enemy that surrounds you because he will he we all know from experience he torments us torments us by attacking us in our thought realm instead of being that where we anchor our souls in our thought life this is where we deliberately return to the promise of the lord the table of the lord and have the face-to-face fellowship with the king of kings our father and we get restored to that place of confidence god i don't know why this is happening i don't know what's going on i don't know the answer there's so many things i wish i would have done differently and i tell you i'm speaking out of experience so many things i wish i would have done differently but i'm here and i'm still in your mind i'm still in your heart and your intentions for me have never changed they are nothing but the best even when i feel so unqualified so undeserving for your best and yet you've set it aside for me so father i sit and i i return to that table where i refused to be distracted by the circumstances of my life and i choose to be occupied with the face of the one who brought me to the table stop fighting the restriction rediscover the table and set your heart to seek the face of the lord because he's given us a promise i will be found by you i will be found by you it is impossible to hunger after the lord and not discover him it is the covenantal promise of the one who is more perfect than the rising of the sun to more tomorrow morning it is more dependable than the rising of the sun in the morning he is that kind of a father now i realize that there are some watching this this service who don't have a personal relationship with jesus you know what put everything else everything that we've said put it aside this is what's important is that jesus suffered and died with you in mind he actually wanted to make it possible for you to know what eternal life is and we've got people on the youtube channel and the bethel tv and podcasts and other other forms of broadcasting that are available to talk and pray with you i want you just to put it on there and just say i i want to know jesus i want to know what it is to be forgiven i want to know what it is to be born again i want to i commit my life to follow this jesus let me pray for you and then we're going to wrap this up and i'll turn it over to our team that will close the service so father we just we just put on the child's hat and take off all the other significant hats and important hats and responsibility and position and title and all the other stuff and we just we just say father here we are we're we're kids we don't know what we're doing but we sure do love you and we sure do trust you and so we just turn our hearts to you we say father we trust you father we love you and we ask be glorified right now in our lives together this global family the local bethlehem family father be glorified in the individual members with eric and candace with us who remain here in this place most of all father be glorified i ask this in the honor of the name jesus amen thanks for listening to the sermon of the week this weekly podcast can be heard in multiple languages on our bethel tv website if you'd like to partner with us in discipling nations and fueling personal revival you have the opportunity to give at bethel dot tv slash podcast slash donate [Music] [Applause] welcome to the bethel church sermon of the week we hope you enjoy this message by pastor bill johnson for more information about this podcast and other resources visit bethel.com all right i want you to open your bibles to uh matthew chapter 16. last week i i had the chance to talk uh to you and talked about uh prayer and some things that are pretty critical for us and um and i postponed something that i'm going to begin to try to crack open today for those of you that did our our study our small group study on my book way of life you will have touched upon this subject in that book i think one of the most important books of this era is a book by a dear friend ed sovoso called ecclesia e-k-k-l-e-s-i-a ecclesia and it's it's a profound insight in scripture and a profound strategy for bringing transformation to this world i i in some ways i feel like it's the most important book of this era of this particular period of time and uh and he's stirred up some stuff we we have uh i think most of us have grown up in an environment where we knew that the church was not a building we knew that church was much bigger and different than that we knew i grew up my dad saying all the time the church isn't building it's not a denomination it's none of that it is actually the people of god that have gathered together in his name but there are some very specific things that if we have them in mind as we do life uh it changes everything for example the great commission go into all the world preach the gospel did you know that the active verb in that verse is not go it's actually to disciple the word actually the act the word actually means as you go in other words you're going to be going here and there throughout life as you go do this it's already determined you're going to travel on vacation to this city it's already been determined as you do business you'll be dealing here and dealing there it's already determined that your life is one of going so as you go do this and when you see the weight of authority and responsibility that god puts upon the people of god i don't know what happens to you when i realize oh this is my responsibility suddenly i become very sober minded about what i the opportunity that is before me i i live with uh i think a fairly heightened sense of responsibility and um and i i pray that over every one of us that uh not the burdensome kind but the challenging kind the invi the invitational kind that says here god says this belongs to you now go occupied go take care of this and and that's kind of the mandate we've been trying to live for goodness 20 some years now and uh and we we keep trying again and learning another lesson and coming coming from different staff members another layer of this truth upon another and so anyway this is uh this is what's on my heart today i believe that the lord is uh i'm going to use the word force it may not be the kindest word but work with me he's forcing us to learn the strength of the church he's forcing us to learn where the strength is i love the large gatherings i do i've i've been you know i've ministered in groups up to goodness i think 60 or 70 000. that's fun i love when we get together just getting a thousand crammed into this room and overflow and i mean i love it i just love that i love i love all those kinds of things but what's happening right now is the lord is forcing us to discover the strength of the church is actually the two or three gathered in his name the strength of the church the large gathering i believe is critical i believe it's very important it creates identity which is huge we belong to something that is bigger and more significant than our little world of influence that's important there's also a prophetic sense of direction that is given in the corporate setting that i never hear in the smaller setting i'm not saying it can't happen it's just there's something about people coming together in large groups with that prevailing word over a group of people that there is that there's that prophetic sense if you will of this is the mandate of the lord upon us i know for me since i was since i first started in ministry i i remember going to to weaverville in 1979 i remember we had a little business card i was on staff here with my dad here for five years and i remember when i went up there i wrote a little note on the back of my business card from bethel i just put this note and i kept it on my desk for i i think just about all of the 17 years that i was there i kept it on my desk and it said whatever feeds me feeds them so the responsibility was for me to be well fed into things of god and then give away whatever he gives me but make sure that process is through through my lifestyle first through my own experience through my own devotion to christ let it filter through that and then offer that to the people that you love and care for and serve matthew chapter 16 we're going to actually read a little bit out of here and we'll jump over to chapter 18 and we'll i think we'll end up in john 15 just to keep you busy matthew 16 verse 13. when jesus came into the region of caesarea philippi he asked his disciples saying who do men say that i the son of man m so they said some say john the baptist some say elijah others jeremiah or one of the prophets and he said to them but who do you say that i am simon peter answered and said you are the christ excuse me you are the christ the son of the living god jesus answered and said to him blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and i also say to you that you are peter and on this rock i will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it and i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven let me take verse 19 again the new american standard says this so much better and it's a footnote in my bible it says whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven a much more consistent translation with the way jesus taught and lived is whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven it's it's it's it's mirroring that reality here and that is the overall theme of jesus when you pray your will be done on earth as it is in heaven your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven so the backbone of the commission for every believer is learning how to partner with god to bring the reality of his reign his dominion into the specific areas of our human experience and so um let's go back uh through through this uh particular portion of scripture so i'm gonna read that verse again but i'm gonna read it the way uh i think it should be written how's that um let's go right to verse 15 who do you say that i am peter answered and said you are the christ the son of the living god jesus answered and said in blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven this wasn't a slap or a put down jesus was acknowledging that he just heard well from the father he was pointing out i used to do this with with my kids my my kids would be playing on the floor and one of them would treat the other one with unusual kindness kindness and i would stop and say hey guys stop stop say eric do you know what that was and he would look at me like he was in trouble you know and i said son that was a fruit of the spirit that was kindness and that's what jesus is doing here he's he's stopping the procession and he's saying peter you just heard from the father that's what it sounds like when you're hearing from the father blessed are you simon bird john for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and i say to you that you are peter peter is actually a word that means rock but it's a small rock and upon this rock that word is the massive rock i will build my church i personally i do not believe that peter was the rock that the church was founded on it was an illustration the rock it was founded on is verse 16 you are the christ the son of the living god it's the revelation of jesus as the messiah the son of the living god that is what the church is actually built on it's built think about this the church is built upon revelation the essence of your faith is that you heard god speak and you responded there is no salvation apart from hearing god speak people say i just don't hear from god well well you must have heard something because that's how you got born again it's the only way you can get in is there's an acknowledgement that god has spoken i am convicted of sin i i am he's given me a gift to turn from this way of life to follow after him and it's that invitation if you will or compelling uh exhortation by god that enabled us to turn in faith to him every every part of our life is hinged upon that willingness and ability to hear from god and every time we say i just don't hear well we're shooting ourselves in the foot instead of acknowledging what we do well we point to what we don't do well i don't hear as good as this person this person has open visions this person is the slightest impression and i just don't heal hear that well well you must have heard something because you're alive man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god there is life continuously flowing in us and through us because we hear from god it would be much wiser for us to say i hear from god but i'm but not as good as i want to i'm improving i'm on a journey to increase my capacity my ability to perceive when god is speaking it's a whole other subject but his first language is not english or spanish or whatever else other language you speak there's this whole world of impression and and pictures and and things that are that are otherworldly which is his language and it's how he actually teaches us how his world works another subject but you get the point so here this revelation of jesus as the messiah is the foundation for the church but look at verse 18 again he says upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it i never heard anybody say that the gates here were the gates of the church that kept us protected from the devil but somehow when i grew up that's how i saw the verse i saw that god is going to keep our gates strong and keep us protected from that big bad devil that's outside trying to break inside the church and steal and kill and plunder and do all the stuff that he does and that's not it at all it's the gates of hades that will not prevail in other words the demonic kingdom and gates in scripture refers to positions of authority so we're not just talking about gates like to a city or something that get torn down so we take the enemy's possession that's uh that's figurative but it's it's in the picture but it's the gates of a city is where the authorities of the city would be seated they would be sitting there to make uh decisions so when we talk about the gates of hades we're talking about the hierarchy the ephesians 6 principalities and powers we're talking about the hierarchy of this of the world of darkness will not be able to stand against what against this prevailing group of people i'm just going to throw in here something that is probably worthy of studying at another time please notice it doesn't say gates of hell we actually talk about hell as a place where the devil reigns from or rules from or or has influence from hell is his place of eternal punishment it's his place of eternal punishment it's it's technically it's not it's not you know the gates of hell will not prevail it's it's this realm of darkness that cannot withstand against a church that responds to the assignment and the call that god has given and where we function as he has assigned us to function and in these verses he gives us the beginning strategy if you will on bringing transformation to the world around us so here we have um will not prevail against it verse 19 i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven this is a very significant assignment that jesus now gives to every single one of us as individuals now jump over to chapter 18 and the subject matter in chapter 18 is actually correction for people who will not repent and it's actually given in that light but there are principles in these verses that i would like for you to grab hold of because they are they are uh they're they go far beyond the immediate application he says in verse 18 again i say to you whatever you bind on or shall have been bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven again i say to you and here's our verse if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask it will be done for them by my father in heaven verse 2 20 for where two or three are gathered in my name i am there in the midst all right so here's the deal when the lord said i will build my church he did not use a term that would have been very commonplace for the jewish culture that this was taking place in it was not a synagogue nor was it a temple the word is ecclesia it's very important boring for a moment but stick with me ecclesia is a group of two or three people that are citizens of a particular country or government and whenever they gather together they actually represent the government of that country they are from so if you have roman citizens that are in greece and uh they get together and they are they work together say at a bakery and they get together at lunch and they talk together they are actually representing the government of rome that's actually the term that is used here jesus used a secular term he was he was known for using secular concepts i don't think he was borrowing from the secular world i think he was taking back what he inspired them to think and to do in the first place and he he did this by using the term apostle which was a greek and eventually a roman term he did the same with ecclesia these are secular terms these are secular terms that refer to a gathering of two or three people that have the authority to make governmental type decisions and so when jesus uses this term ecclesia he's actually using a secular term that everyone in that known world would be aware of because it was a part of their culture so he says when two or three of you gather i am there in the midst so here's the deal the presence of god is the mark of divine authority the presence of god the manifested presence of god upon a couple a married couple the presence of god that rests upon that couple in unity before christ they carry a governmental responsibility to represent him and to bind here what is not free to rule there and to lose here what is already loose there it is a god-given mandate and responsibility it is it is the backbone of our dis of our assignment to disciple nations it is a very specific responsibility it is not this is not peripheral this is not uh you know extra you know like you you buy a car and you you want something extra on it i want the one with the sunroof this is not this is not extra this is the heart and soul of how you and i were designed we were designed and assigned by god to be on this planet as citizens of another world and as citizens of that world i'm to look for the one or the two others with whom i can meet and come into a place of agreement so that the manifested presence of god would settle upon our gathering together and then in that position we make decisions that actually shape the course of history now in john 15 this i i've been messing with these verses for so long i i don't know if you're tired of hearing me talk about them but john 15 is uh uh provokes me because i do you ever do this do you ever read a portion of scripture that blesses you so much but you know you don't get it yet yeah that's that's kind of how i approach the subject of abiding in christ i i know i get it and i know i don't know what i'm talking about i i know that i have experience there and i'm so thrilled with what i've experienced but i also know i'm in preschool and i have barely started this journey and that's how that's kind of how i feel with this whole subject so just take one verse the entire 15th chapter is worth the read but we're just going to take the one verse if you verse 7 if you abide in me my words abide in you you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you goes on to say by this my father's glorified you bear much fruit the fruit in this context i believe is answers to prayer so i owe god answers to prayer the lack of answers to prayer is not on his end of the equation the lack of answers to prayer are on my end of the equation and it is connected to my ability and willingness to abide the felt presence of god is the absolute key to continuous answers to prayer and living apart from that doing our best to mimic god's will doing our best to pray for things that we think ought to happen it's not that the prayers are wrong it's not that what we have requested is is against his will it's just we're we're missing the strength of abiding when you have the manifested presence of god upon you on jesus and you come before the father with a request there is this clout if you will that we have been invited into abide in me let my words abide in you what is that it's the acknowledged felt presence of god and it's not just a recognition of the almighty god being here but is it is my engagement with him abiding is an engaged participation with a person there is this there is this encounter there is this exchange there is this fellowship there is this intimacy there is a connection that is otherworldly and in that connection i am positioned to think different to feel different to see different and i'm sitting here with a another brother a sister family member whoever whoever and he says in that context the weight of the government of my world is upon your shoulders and for that reason you can bind anything here that's already bound there in that position where much more prone to see discern the reality of that world we do okay with binding here what's already bound there we do because we know for example that somebody demonized we know that that doesn't exist in heaven we know that uh somebody addicted to alcohol or or drugs or whatever we know that doesn't exist there so so we we know the devils work well we know what it is to bind we know that if there's death lost destruction we know that's the devil's fingerprints and so we know all right this addiction has to end so you pray for your cousin or whatever that that is addicted to drugs you pray we bind here what is already bound their addiction does not exist in heaven and we pray i remember one sunday night we had this uh uh it was a fairly quick altar call about 20 people as i recall came forward and they stood right here and we just prayed they responded to an invitation to get rid of addictions and we prayed this corporate prayer over them i don't recall i don't think there was any laying out of hands we just prayed over the group six months later one of the indian individuals came to me and said do you do you remember when you had that invitation for uh for for prayer concerning addiction i said yeah i do he said well me and another person both have been addicted to heroin for over 20 years and we were both instantly set free that night in a corporate prayer we sometimes we have degrees of difficulty in our mind that he he doesn't have in his you know this this one's easy this one's hard it wasn't any harder for god to set two people free of heroin addiction in a moment probably a five-minute moment of prayer wasn't any more challenging for him than it would be to bring encouragement to somebody who was discouraged it's all in his wheelhouse so to speak so what we do is we bind here so you're praying for that relative of yours or or a close friend or whatever that has that addiction we're binding here what has already been there we're familiar with that responsibility in measure our problem is on the other side of the responsibility we're supposed to lose here what is already loose there and without heavenly encounters and heavenly experiences and heavenly perception we have no idea what we're supposed to release in the place of what we just bound the whole concept is i'm removing something and i'm replacing it jesus taught this in the gospel of luke when he said when a house is clean and swept it's got to be filled with something or the enemy comes back seven times worse so sometimes we we have this we have a perpetual problem because we bind but we don't replace how do we know what to replace it's you know it's not uh forgive me for the hunting analogy but a flock of ducks go by a lot of hunters just shoot at the flock you don't get anything that way you have to pick one out it's not it's not guesswork is very specific very strategic addressing an issue replacing there has to be ongoing increased understanding of how his world works and what our responsibility is we are not leisurely coasting downstream we are aggressively going upstream against the tide because we represent another world and we continuously run into things that he has nothing to do with they don't exist in heaven and sometimes you'll see a dear friend of yours a part of the very thing that doesn't belong here sometimes i'll see a well-meaning believer a part of something and they have no clue most of the time i feel that my responsibility is just to go behind the scenes and pray and try to break that thing because if they saw the spirit that was behind what they said yes to they would never participate but generally a debate doesn't convince anybody it's better that if you see there's a demonic power behind something love the person but get behind the scenes before god and bind and lose if you can see with me i i don't think it's uh uh i i don't think it's a careless joining of unique scriptures matthew 16 matthew 18. both carry the theme whatever you bind here has to already have been bound there but then the loosing the increased heavenly perception where does that come from well i think there are unique experiences that people have before the lord i'm actually reading a book right now in heaven that it's just mind-boggling that i i love so much when i'm when i'm finished i'll tell you what it was maybe if i remember i i love seeing glimpses of how he works how he thinks how his world works because every glimpse of his world of his ways and then his world equips me to release his influence in the earth see there's a lot of people that think his influence in the earth is going to be when he returns and it'll be this military invasion who knows what that's going to look like all i do know is that i have the assignment now he didn't give us authority to keep us busy till he returned he gave us authority to make a difference in the world we live in and most of the stuff is not dealt with face to face with an individual i'm not saying avoid conversation all of that i'm just saying so often the powers that be are demonic realities that are surrounding an issue and that's where we go to battle that's where we get on our knees that's where we make prophetic decrees we are not fighting against people every one of us have had a bad idea at some time and we actually partnered with the enemy and not with god every single one of us and probably most of us more than once or twice and somebody was merciful to me so let's let's let's show the same mercy the enemy is not people the enemy there are powers behind realms of thought there are powers behind they're behind even geographical areas i don't want to get weird and spooky on you but i'm just telling you there are certain places they are dark in that area because there is an individual that has partnered with the demonic realm at such a level that that thing has to be broken over that person's life you see it with the man of the gadarenes jesus brought deliverance to this one guy actually some of the gospels say there was two the point was they got free jesus brought deliverance to the one the people were so freaked out it says it says that this demoniac you know he had so many demons that his demons were possessed you know he was he was set free it says he was clothed and in his right mind and the city was afraid as long as a guy is writhing you know and breaking chains and running around naked everybody's fine but somehow when he gets freed people get concerned you know it must be that cult it must be that church down the road and it says the people they were afraid because there was a power that operated outside listen every people around you don't mind a god who looks like them they will try to reduce the nature of god to their nature instead of having a god you must give an account to and the responsibility in this moment as jesus brings a deliverance to this guy the city gets afraid and it says they chased jesus and his disciples out of the area sometime later it says that when jesus came back to that area every person from every village came to hear him speak what happened there was one credible witness one person upon whom the kingdom had come something was bound something was loosed he was a living illustration of what that world looks like he had sanity he had engagement with people he was a different person and when that leaven was put into the lump of dough that entire region that had rejected christ when that leaven was put into that lump of dough when jesus came back they all wanted to hear what he had to say because something was bound and something was loosed david made this statement he said he said daily i set the lord before me it's a strange statement daily i set the lord before me well just so you understand you can't grab hold of god and put it more you want he wasn't saying that i believe what he is saying is since you can't imagine a place where he isn't you might as well imagine him with you is he everywhere yes that means he's here what is abiding in christ it's acknowledging the presence of god who is with you to a point of engagement relationship awareness something happens in that heartfelt connection with the presence of god the spirit of god who is with me and will never leave me something happens in that heartfelt connection where i i live more aware of what he wants i live more conscious of his will the way i like to describe it is i live more aware of his mood and i don't mean he's he's moody in some temperamental way i mean i just mean i i live more conscious of his mood of how he feels about a given subject about a given person we've talked before about i remember years ago somewhere as not that long ago maybe three years ago now i was looking through a magazine it had all these different conferences in this magazine and i don't it was horrible when i got to the end of the magazine i realized that i had skimmed over every conference because i just i looked at the speakers that were in the conference with almost a disregard and i thought that kind of um complacency of heart towards another brother in the lord is not healthy so i actually went back to the beginning of the magazine and i slowly turned the pages until i came to a conference i looked at each speaker it took me a while i took i looked at each speaker until i could feel the pleasure of the lord for that individual when i could feel the pleasure of the lord for that person then i turn the page and go to the next one feel the pleasure of the lord when i did something changed in my perception i found that i was can i say it this way i was careless i'm embarrassed to even say it i was careless in my attitude towards those who were not a part of our stream it wasn't it wasn't a conscious thing that was i didn't know it was there tell it until it surfaced as i was looking at these speakers and i felt so embarrassed and ashamed in a sense i knew enough to not think critically but the answer to not being critical was just to ignore and that's not kingdom see the opposite of love is not hate it's complacency finding that pleasure you you feel you can sense that that heart of god for any given issue it may be a politician it may be somebody who's completely opposed to anything you think and and and their decisions or whatever you take just that extra moment to realize here is someone made in the image of god i have the responsibility to treat them as one made in the image of god policy issues those are other issues they cannot color my approach or value prayer felt value for an individual it's a deception the religious spirit the political spirit are both vying to capture our emotional condition or both vying for influence to to influence my perception of people of groups of people to discolor so because if if a person if there's a person i find repulsive to me or i want nothing to do with then we've just cut off my ability to demonstrate the love of christ and and he didn't say bill you're assigned to a few and you can be mad at the rest you know you love this person love that person but you can hate everyone else it's just silly it's the fact that whoever he puts me before i have to be able to honor and to celebrate so here we have this responsibility jesus said the ecclesia the two or three people the work down here at such and such a grocery store they take their lunch break together when they come together in jesus name in that lunch room and they have this predetermined idea we will partner together for the invasion of god's blessing and presence upon this business that i don't own a business that i am here is a representative of another world the government of god is resting upon the two or three but not just the government the governor the one who runs the government is with us as we gather if we had just a heightened awareness of purpose and the reality of presence we would live think and pray differently our decrees would be much more intentional our decrees our pronouncements our prophetic uh words that we release would be much more anchored in a faith that sees a possible outcome paul in romans 12 talks about talks about people who would prophesy according to their faith faith is supposed to be the guiding the guiding power if you will behind the prophetic faith by faith i see what isn't naturally visible so i'm perceiving something that isn't yet but it's about to be because i'm about to speak it i'm about to declare it so you take the ecclesia you take the two or three and maybe a husband or wife in our homes i would encourage you of that has a facebook page it's actually it's not about his ministry it's just the ecclesia everywhere i think it's called ecclesia everywhere and then there's going to be a website and you just sign up and say you know my house is in ecclesia my place of business isn't ecclesia you just sign up let them know that there are thousands upon thousands and i hope eventually we get well over a million all scattered all over this nation and says you know what we're tired of letting the enemy have his way we are here representing another world god himself the governor of that world is here present with me and he says if i'll just connect my heart to him and i'll live aware of him and i'll let his the words that he breathes infect my soul until i think what he thinks i want what he wants i dream what he dreams and as that abiding presence becomes that kind of an influence in my conscious and unconscious mind i can ask anything anything anything god and you as a majority and in that gathering he says the gates of hades all the powers of health that are known for killing stealing and destroying they are no contest no contest we get so overwhelmed and impressed by the success of the powers of darkness not realizing that all it takes is two or three but look at the movements that are destroying this yeah yeah thousands and sometimes millions of people yeah but two or three god's there god's there and when god is there anything can happen to shift the focus the direction the flow of the life of an entire nation i i think we've probably known or thought or talked about some of these things for quite a few years so today what i'm wanting to do is have an altar call not where you come forward but where you just acknowledge my house is an altar my house is an altar my wife and i our kids we are in ecclesia we have made a covenant before god that we will learn to recognize his presence we will learn to flow from that presence my dream is to dream what he dreams my passion is to think what he thinks do you remember that passage in romans 8 it says all things work together for good yes shake your head yet if you don't read your bible all things work together for good those who love god called according to his purpose great passage right before that the holy spirit intercedes for us right after that jesus intercedes for us that's why all things work and learning what they are praying is the key to our ongoing continuous breakthrough in prayer it is supposed to be that the will of god invades earth because we prayed i'll just stand i i know there are people that uh participate with us online i love this fact there are so many that join with us uh who are not a part of the bethel family we're just we're just glad you're here we we've got people all over the world that consider themselves we consider you part of the bethel tribe the bethel family we're we're honored to join with you in any way we can but there are many who just for whatever reason maybe stumbled across us on a youtube channel or bethel tv whatever it might be and you are in this moment very much aware of your need for god and i believe that the lord jesus himself set the stage for you today to be able to step into life for the simple faith to measure faith that every person has been given according to scripture that that faith would be placed in jesus christ as lord as absolute savior and we've got pastors that are online ready to talk and to pray with anyone who would just simply express just write it in the chat box just say i want to know jesus i want to be forgiven of sin i want to be a disciple a follower of jesus because you were born for something much more significant than what you have known up to this point i remember many years ago uh one of our dear friends in weaverville chris and i were still in weaverville and one of our dear friends buck steele he's a what what a great man such uh such an unusual grace and gift on his life but i remember he prophesied once that there would be an individual from a particular city in our county trinity county that would be saved and that he would become a key to reaching many people in that city and he prophesied this word well he was at the office one day and we got a phone call from the sheriff's department and there was someone in the the cell the padded room who had just tried to kill himself and uh so buck was there i said buck you want to go down and pray for well buck never resisted a chance to go pray for somebody and to you know lead someone to christ or whatever so he went down there he did the most unusual thing he went down there and he found out this man is from the city i just prophesied about and that there was a key person about to be saved that would be key for touching that entire city and he came in with this word that this individual was chosen for such a time as this and all of a sudden a guy who wanted to kill himself suddenly realized i have purpose i have a reason for being alive i've got a reason for being alive i have a chance to have a relationship with god and that he would actually use me to impact an entire city that i live in how many know when you find purpose you don't want to end your life you want to start your life and that's exactly what anybody watching right now and everybody in this room this is it it's engaging with divine purpose there is nothing greater there is nothing greater so i encourage you online please just uh in the chat box do whatever but get help because there are people that would love you and care for you father i ask that there would be an impartation first for the realization of the presence of god second that in that discovery of your manifest presence upon us we would come to know more and more your thoughts your heart your mood what you feel about different things that this partnership with the almighty god and the two or three gathered in his name that we would see in this abiding presence the will of god being manifested on the earth in ways that have been thought to be impossible impossible until now incorporate us in this last days plan to demonstrate the presence and power and government of god into every aspect of society i pray this jesus wonderful and mighty name amen thanks for listening to the sermon of the week this weekly podcast can be heard in multiple languages on our bethel tv website if you'd like to partner with us in discipling nations and fueling personal revival you have the opportunity to give at bethel dot tv slash podcast slash donate [Music] [Applause]

Channel: The Teachings Of GOD

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Keywords: bill johnson messages, sermon, church, bethel church, bill johnson sermons, bill johnson, supernatural, miracles, christian, bethel, holy spirit, revival, holy ghost, spiritual warfare, bethel.tv, presence of god, signs and wonders, bill johnson 2020, bethel redding, bill johnson bethel, bill johnson healing, healing, faith, Jesus, Bill Johnson 2019, best sermons, online church services, bethel moments, presence, sermons, church online

Id: kDK4IeX798I

Length: 74min 0sec (4440 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 05 2021