Bill Johnson Sermons [September 08, 2021] | Keep Your Eyes On God

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 i want us to look today at uh psalms 91 so if you would open your bibles to that do that please by the way i want to suggest that everybody uh download the anti-virus software called the power of the holy spirit [Laughter] it's the anti-virus software his name is jesus and he is manifest through the power of the holy spirit it is not a philosophy he remains a philosophy you're vulnerable to the virus to all all all things cruddy so i i just i just declare the good news that jesus is our anti-virus software and uh hopefully every one of us can find uh something to really grab hold of out of this 91st psalm today so it's my personal conviction i i no guilt or shame for anybody who is suffering with this virus please uh we pray for that that as a result of our gathering today the multitudes of people would be absolutely healed of visitation of god in fact we're going to set something up in the in the coming weeks where people with the virus will be able to call in or do facetime or something kevin deadman had a suggestion this week so we're going to try to figure out how we can do that and have uh have our phones our our screens occupied by believing believers and pray for people around the world with this disease because we're we're we believe that in every hellish situation jesus has predetermined to get vindication he is predetermined to reverse the effects into the promotion of the gospel he didn't start this thing but uh he uh he is prepared to reverse its effects so um what if uh what if fear threw a party and nobody showed up that's that's kind of what i'm thinking about this whole thing that's this is just my opinion but i i believe the virus is real i v i believe it's very serious but i believe what's happening around the nations is five percent virus and 95 fear and right now it seems to me that viruses is riding the wings of fear and uh you can't you know you can't embrace fear and love the embracing of fear is the rejection of love and we're going to look in this particular study today that the love of god is one of the things that abiding in love actually repels uh affliction infirmity and helps us to live in great strength all right enough of the warm-ups let's just get into the word and uh let's begin with verse one in fact you know what i wanna read the whole psalm and then we're gonna back up and go back through verse by verse all right so let's just read the whole thing i'm reading out of new king james the title of the psalm is safety of abiding in the presence of god here's my prayer i believe that the manifest presence of god upon his people is the key to divine health and learning to host him learning to yield to her to him learning to cooperate with him is what he is going to train us in and teach us in uh in this particular season come on in guys come on we've got a worship team looking for places to sit so come on in we've got seats all over here so and those of you online just crawl through the screen no i'm just kidding all right all right uh verse 1 of psalms 91 he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty i will say of the lord he is my refuge and my fortress my god in him will i trust surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler from the perilous pestilence he shall cover you with his feathers under his wings you shall take refuge his truth shall be your shield and buckler you shall not be afraid of the terror by night nor of the arrow that flies by day nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand but it shall not come near you only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked because you have made the lord who is my refuge even the most high your dwelling place no evil shall befall you nor shall any plague come near your dwelling for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone you shall tread upon the lion in the cobra the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot because he has set his love upon me therefore i will deliver him i will set him on high because he has known my name he shall call upon me and i will answer answer him i will be with him in trouble i will deliver him and honor him with long life i will satisfy him and show him my salvation this is a is a a wonderfully well-known psalm because of its the element of safety the element of protection the elephant element of of vin vindication in a sense uh throughout this psalm so i want us to go through this because i believe there are some specifics that the lord would want us to take hold of today especially in light of this that is going on all over the world and um today is supposed to be the day where we start a revival series i am i am but we're going to restart but i am this is what i'm doing this is just this is this is revival flavored antivirus software is what it is all right he who dwells verse 1 this we're going to go through verse by verse all right so please follow with me in your bibles he who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty stop right there he who dwells you remember the scripture talks about abiding in christ if we abide in him his words abide in us when it talks about dwelling in the shelter of the almighty we're not talking about a point of theology we're talking about a lifestyle in other words it's not just a verse you've memorized it's supposed to be the developing of an ongoing lifestyle of a consciousness an awareness of the abiding presence of the holy spirit [Applause] many people stop short of a divine encounter because they're satisfied with good theology the word is the invitation to meet the person this is not supposed to be just a verse i quote that's valuable it's supposed to be the endeavor of my heart is the discovery of the manifest presence of god upon me as a surrendered son upon me as a yielded vessel he says he who dwells in the shelter of the almighty shall abide under the shadow of his wings the shadow of the almighty the shadow was a dark place i'll never forget i my grandmother my my mom's mom uh she was losing her eyesight and uh and so many of us would read i would take turns reading to her from the scripture she would memorize entire psalms and my uncle would memorize books of the bible they were just in into that memory thing which becomes contagious after a while you know and i would sit down i remember she wanted me to read her a particular book by corey ten boom and in this book it was as i recall it was some sort of a of a devotional uh book that she had written and in this book she talked about dwelling under the shadow of the almighty and she made this statement and i've never been able to shake it thankfully she made this statement that sometimes it's dark because he's so close sometimes it's his nearness that causes things to be out of focus it's that shadow of presence and sometimes we we mistake the moment that we're in by by natural interpretation instead of the realization of what scripture says scripture says you're in the shadow of the almighty so the people who turn their affection towards the ongoing manifestation of the abiding presence of the spirit of god those people dwell in a habitation that even when it's dark it's only a testimony of his nearness verse 2. all right i'm back i think i will say of the lord he is my refuge and my fortress and my god in him i will trust i will say of the lord is my refuge my fortress my god and him i will trust this is the only um proactive uh position in the psalm one is implied later but this one is the the action point of this psalm and it's i will save the lord he's my refuge my portion in him i trust i always take this and i turn it into a personal declaration god you are the one that i trust you are you are my refuge and and for years when i come to that i don't like the wording because i want to make it personal and then it hit me the wording is chosen for a reason we are so supposed to confess and declare that he is our trust but this is actually a confession we are to make to one another i will say of the lord it's important that we guard what we say to people to one another to the community you're in their grocery store yesterday i was on a plane flying back from new mexico from a healing conference of all things packed with people that were living the anti-virus thing you know and i sat next to a lady who she said i i wish i didn't have to fly i'd rather not be in here and she was wiping everything down with uh sanitizing which which i i think is smart let me come back to that common sense needs to be embraced just don't let common sense be the hiding place of fear [Applause] there are some people that are that are saying right now um taking any precaution is an act of fear now don't be stupid don't play with a rattlesnake and call it faith all right i feel better so the lady next to me was wiping everything down she said would you like one of these i said no i've got the liquid stuff i've already done it i'm i'm good you know she said i wish i didn't have to have to fly i'm you know she's just very afraid and that's where you step in and just just you don't want ever want to make somebody feel ashamed for their fear you don't ever want to do that you just want to throw them a lifeline that's all don't don't make people feel guilty because they're struggling with fear because you know some people have lost loved ones other people have they have a history of sickness they've got a reason for it you know don't don't make people feel guilty for for their struggle just throw them a lifeline just be hope centered both hopelessness and hope are contagious choose how how infectious you want to be all right so here it is he says he will uh i will say of the lord he is my refuge my fortress my god and him i will trust so when i was thinking about this here's this passage in um colossians it says let the word of christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms hymns spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the lord what is that it's actually a confession of truth scripture and even in song it's interesting they would apply psalms him spiritual songs psalms are biblical songs hymns are things that were written in uh things songs that have been written spiritual songs are the spontaneous and they actually there are times for them to be sung to each other which is not a practice that we that we do but we should maybe learn how to do it except some of you just sing softly that was that was a bad joke it was a bad bad joke it was yeah it was like when chris went to visit my dad when he was in his final days chris said i feel like i'm supposed to sing over you and and and my dad asked him to sing on the hill far away and he said you mean the song on a hill far away says no on a hill far away so [Laughter] but he was always good with a good sense of humor psalm excuse me so here it says i will say of the lord there's another place in isaiah 35 where it says and i'll just read it to you quickly here it says that we say to the one with weak knees with feeble heart be strong take courage and the very next verse says then the eyes of the blind will be open then the ears the tongue of the dumb will be loosed it's it's guarding what we say to each other being being intentional in our decrees to one another is a huge part of this thing we call faith this life of faith this thing that we call the faith that we are in this faith in christ this walk with christ it's the it's the caution but it's the proactive um position of declaring what god has said what god is saying in this environment and not feeding and fueling uh this this fear element that is gripping so many people's hearts so here's the one intentional action in this psalm is i will say of the lord he is my refuge my fortress my god and him will i trust verse 3 surely he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence to me this implies snare of the fowler they would set a trap for a bird to catch to catch a bird fowler snare he will deliver you from the snare to me it implies that maybe you got caught in the snare and he's going to release you so if if if you if you didn't get the protection you're supposed to get to keep you from the snare once you're in it he's going to release you the whole point is so all of you that are watching some of you are in absolute divine health others of you are struggling he will deliver you from the snare if you got caught in this snare it's not shame it's not condemnation we live in a world of sin we get exposed to stuff and it's not your fault the good news is he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence verse 4 he will cover you with his feathers under his wings you shall take refuge his truth shall be your shield and buckler a buckler is a small shield so it's more of a hand-to-hand combat type picture all right i always quote this verse when people complain about feathers appearing in our meetings [Laughter] he shall cover you with his feathers well that's not literal bill and i'd say i know that's what i thought all right verse 5 verse 5 you shall not be afraid of the terror by night nor of the arrow that flies by day this is important the distinction in in the new testament the arrows are the the enemy's thoughts you remember the the example of the armor of god the shield of faith it's to absorb the shield of faith is to absorb the thoughts the ideas the suggestions the temptations all the junk that the enemy throws our way so that's what the arrow comes during the day when you're alive and thinking at night is the terror and so he's he's distinguishing if if you go to bed with fear you you are you're embracing this thing that says i could something could happen in the night it's that it's that thing that foreboding spirit the chris deals with a lot the the expectation or anticipation of something wrong happening oh man i hope our family member i hope i hope something bad doesn't happen to this person that person that foreboding spirit is that terror in the night and so the lord is actually equipping us to take a position shield and buckler the the fi the the shield of faith to absorb the stuff that comes at us during the day but to do it so well during the day that when it's time to go to bed we can go to sleep in rest knowing that he will defend us now i'm going to throw in a word it's not a biblical word it's a word it's the one of two times in my life i've had the lord wake me up in the middle of the night with his voice it happened about um oh goodness 23 probably 23 years ago here soon after we came to writing we've been here i think it's 24 maybe it's 25 years i lose track 24 years 24 years this last month so it was about maybe 23 years ago i was awakened in the night with this phrase he watches over the watch of those who watch the lord he watches over the watch of those who watch the lord course we know in pondering after i heard that he awakened me with that voice i don't ever want to equate that with scripture i'm just saying he spoke something to me that was important for me to hear in that season but also right now he watches over the watch we know what our watchmen is a watchman is positioned on a wall to see what might be coming towards the city good good news here we have people coming in to trade open the gates bad news here we have uh we have people trying to sneak into the city to kill steal and destroy and so the watchman keeps awake and this verse said he will watch over my watch if i'll watch him so this terror by night thing is that is that we go to sleep literally with our eyes on him knowing that he will watch our watch on our behalf amen bill that was an excellent point all right let's uh verse 6 is basically the same thing nor the pestilence that walks in darkness the destruction that lays waste at noon day verse 7 a thousand may fall at your side ten thousand at your right hand but it shall not come near you only with your eyes shall you look and see the reward of the wicked i want to be careful here first of all the judgment verses in the old testament i don't want to ignore i don't want to wash them away and pretend they don't exist that's not healthy nor is it accurate whenever i see a a person who lives in corruption in evil it doesn't matter how deep they are lost i always am praying for mercy i don't care how lost they are how you know how demonized they are how they may be a self-proclaimed devil worshiper makes no difference to me i'm going to pray for the mercy of god but i will let you in on a secret if i in my prayer lord if they absolutely refuse to repent and they will not turn then please use your dealings with them to release the fear of god to the people of god awaken us to this to this reality now another thing i need to say is just because you have difficulty or are struggling or you're sick or whatever that's not the judgment of god all right so anybody who's watching online here we're going to pray for this at the end it's not the judgment of the lord that's not what he's doing this is a quite a different deal here all right verse 9 let's move on from that because you have made the lord who is my refuge even the most high your dwelling place referring back to verse 1 no evil will befall you nor shall any plague near come near your dwelling for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways let's go back over verse 10 and 11 again i'm sorry verse 9 because so here's a reason because you have made the lord who is my refuge even the most high your dwelling place no evil shall befall you nor any plague come near your dwelling stop right there i just want to re-emphasize learning to live in the manifestation of the of the presence of god the abiding presence of the holy spirit i i cannot i cannot overemphasize the importance of us learning to live with continuous affection for the person of the holy spirit there's something about that abiding presence it's not just that he protects us it's it's the the closer i stay to his heartbeat the more i know what to do in a difficult moment the disciples come to jesus and say why couldn't we cast the demon out of the child jesus says it only comes out with prayer and fasting and he didn't pray or fast why because the tenderness the closeness was already there the devil was on his shoulder and remained so there was a continuous ongoing relationship and awareness of the spirit of god so he didn't need to turn aside what is fasting for is to refine our focus to the kingdom is to say no to other appetites so that we can truly hunger for the reality of the unseen promises of god that are to become manifest that's what it is fasting is refining focus jesus didn't fast in the moment why he lived with a refined focus he lived with the connection to the abiding presence of the spirit of god so this promise here is not just this casual the holy spirit is with us always think it's the invitation to develop an awareness of the spirit of god upon our life in such a way it's not just to protect me from plagues it is to keep me in the center of what he is doing on planet earth it makes me the the offensive weapon if you will the one who can bring hope in hopeless situation the one who refused to to cower in the face of threat and disease and all the junk that goes on unwilling to cower i will not i will not give honor to a disease i will not give honor to a disease cancer is with a small c jesus is a capital j always keep it big let me seem silly to you but that's that's what's going on in my head all right because you've made the lord who is my refuge even the most high your dwelling place so here's two people every conversation because you've made the lord who's my refuge even the most high your dwelling place no evil will befall you how about seeing people that live in that abiding presence and making that confession over them realities are released through decree not what we choose to say i mean life and death is still in the power of the tongue but you know i'd rather just make sure i'm saying what he's saying but how about being in that moment where you can look at somebody say you know what i've got a good word for you no evil will come near your tent no evil will befall you it's got to be declared christian remember that time you prophesied about the people who couldn't have kids they were trying for 13 years or whatever the lord spoke to spoke to chris and said tell them they'll have a child by this time next year and he was struggling as every one of us would be to make that kind of a declaration of somebody who couldn't have children and the lord spoke to him and said if you don't declare it if you don't say it it won't happen and so he did and they did some things actually have to be declared to happen we have to understand we are part of that economy that's that's who we are that's how we live that's how we function verse 10 no evil will befall you nor any plague come near your dwelling why for he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways in their hands they will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone i as as most of you know one of my dearest friends is um is randy clark i was just with him in new mexico and he tells the story of his time of ministry uh in argentina and brazil both but in argentina one of the leaders that he was learning from and partnering with as he ministers in that country made made a statement to him and i'm not going to get it exact but i'll get the just of it told him that basically you in the american church know a lot about uh operating in the gifts of the spirit but you don't know how to partner with the angelic now personally i do not believe in me telling angels what to do i i i won't go i won't go there i will not go there but what i will do is i have found that in scripture our decrees let the angelic realm know what their assignment is our decrees when we say what he is saying i i would like to suggest that a decree that comes from the throne room carries the fragrance of the father carries the fragrance of its origin there's something about that that the angelic realm have a sense this came from the throne room and this is their assignment in psalms 103 it says that angels carry out his word in my thinking that's when god declares the matter there are sometimes he just declares the matter that's their assignment you can vote yes you can vote no doesn't matter it's going to happen anyway but but the second part of the verse says that the angels give attention to the voice voice of his word in my experience i believe the voice of his word that's you and me it's when god speaks in the quiet of our heart and unless we declare it it goes unsaid so if you can picture this saying something that had its origin in the throne room and we make that decree his angels will give charge over you that's a part of this confession that is made from one to another his angels will give charge over you what happens as that comes from the heart of god himself the angelic realm knows that's their assignment i'm just supposing that's how it works i know that in in the natural world we know flies are attracted to decay satan is called the lord of the flies the demonic realm is attracted to decay in thought in morals values that's why what we say is going to attract one of two worlds that's why there's life and death in the power of the tongue guarding ourselves to deposit in one another not just hopeful words but actually putting on them a bull's-eye that the angelic realm will reinforce that's our assignment a people of courage that must deposit the bull's-eye if you will of the target of god in this situation and it's a it's a lifestyle that we have the privilege of living he will give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against the stone let's go to verse 13. you will tread upon the lion in the cobra the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot this is a passage that jesus quotes at least in part in the gospel of luke you will tread upon the lion in the cobra the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot here's an important thought in this passage this whole psalm is about protection until this verse then it basically says the protected are going to get vindication the protected are going to get vindication they're protected are going to trample on the very efforts of darkness to kill steal and destroy they're protected the ones who have been kept in safety the ones that death a thousand fall at your side ten thousand at your at the other side those folks are now released to tread upon the powers of darkness that cost the cause the disaster in the first place we are we are summoned not to sit idly by and just pray oh god please protect me protect me please keep me from harm to think that way is is almost is almost yielding to the virus in this case the coronavirus but just in general in the life of a believer to just try to be the protected safe person is the opposite of our calling the opposite of our design the safest place in the kingdom is the front lines of battle you will tread upon the lion in the cobra the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot jesus made that statement to his disciples he brought it into new testament context verse 14 because he has set his love upon me therefore i will deliver him i will set him on high because he has known my name he shall call upon me i will answer him i will be with him in trouble go back to verse 14. let's cover just that one for a moment because he has set his love upon me therefore i will deliver him who does the deliverance come from come to the people who set their love on him i i don't want to twist the meaning of this so again everything do everything to resist any kind of guilt shame or whatever to me this is an invitation by god to learn what it is to fix the affection of our hearts to be anchored in him continuously he makes a point for a reason because he set his love on me i deliver i know when i'm home i i tell my wife that i love her uh many times a day many times a day uh many times sometimes during a meal uh it's going to be repeated frequently i'm going to reset i've already set my leveler but i reset see in acts chapter 2 it says and they continually devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to the breaking of bread to prayer to fellowship etc they continually continually devoted they continually re-upped the contract re-signed the contract there's something about this passage that provokes me because he has set his love upon me therefore i will deliver there's something about the ongoing i hate to reduce it to a discipline but if that's what it takes do it the ongoing resetting of our affection for him throughout a day if you need it set it on your alarm to remind you the resetting of a heart of affection for him there's something about that um he's such a lover that he's drawn you know i've talked about this for the year through the years but i uh in going to sleep at night i turn my affection towards him when i go into a difficult situation i'll stop turn my affection towards him until i can sense his presence resting upon me it's not that he wasn't before but something happens either he comes or i become aware i don't care what it is i like it turn my affection towards him and something happens in that moment where there there is a manifest presence of god upon me for whatever environment i walk into and i've i've told you before um i i remember a store i used to shop in that uh it was a grocery store but had cultic stuff there too and and i loved to shop there and i remember the owner taking me aside one day before i'd walk in i just stand at the door as i'd go back to stand at the door and just turn my affection towards the lord make sure that i could sense the spirit of god resting upon me then i would walk in and just shop i wouldn't do anything different than anyone else but the owner took me aside one day and said bill said something is different when you walk in the room i know it's because the manifest presence of god resting upon me so this is what he's saying he said because you set your love on me therefore i will deliver so i i just pray right now that every one of us upgrade that resetting of the affection of our heart for him not just reduced to a discipline but the increasing passion of the lord would become our passion i remember a prophetic word i heard oh goodness it was probably in 1972 before i was married which is 73. i remember sitting in a service in bethel church the other old location and this this woman prophesied and she said um if you long for me as i've longed for you you will be satisfied ah if you long for me what does it mean to set your love on god it means you've received his love do you know that do you know the scripture says we love him because he first loved us do you know when i love him i'm only loving him back with what he gave me he when i opened up my heart to receive his love he gave me the capacity to love him back strangely in scripture you see instruction on the husband to love the wife but the wife to respect the husband why because if the husband does a good job loving the wife she doesn't need to be commanded to love in return and all the women said yes amen but you get the point you get the point the point is is is it it's actually carried on in the illustration of christ in his church the husband and the wife because he has set his love upon me therefore i will deliver him i will set him on high because he has known my name i'm not sure what it means my mind goes quickly to being seated in heavenly places and it's that particular passage uh we are seated in heavily places with christ is a wonderful wonderful truth the problem that i have not with the verse but with the issue is it gets reduced to a point of theology and never becomes an experience heavenly places is supposed to be a place from which we think and from which we see it's not a mind over matter thing it's not a you know discipline our minds to imagine this and imagine that it's not that it's that is that our love runs so true with him the resetting of our hearts of affection towards him becomes so ongoing that we not only have the point of theology that is accurate we are seated in heavenly places but we actually think and see from that place because our burning heart of affection for him and his burning heart for us brings us into such a place that our perception changes everything changes because in that abiding place of presence we think and we see different see it's that person that can say to the disease it's that person as john g lake discovered to hold the disease in his hand put it under the microscope and watch it die not everyone could have done that why because not everyone has life flung from them continuously if you take a garden hose and you put it in foul putrid water whatever's in that puddle is going to leak into the hose the only way to keep the inside of the hose unaffected is that before you put it into the stuff make sure the water's turned on and if there's a continual flow through the hose you can put it in any environment and it doesn't get infected we've got people setting up barriers of protection around themselves because they don't have enough flowing out [Laughter] you get the stuff flowing through you that yieldedness yieldedness not yielding this just for the sake of power but yielding this because of this romance because of this love because i've set my heart of affection on suddenly there's stuff flowing from us that starts changing the atmosphere starts changing the environment that we walk into we've been called into this for this season this is the season of advancements all right we're getting close to the end that's right [Applause] verse 14 again look at it in your bible verse 14 again because he has set his love upon me therefore i will deliver him i will set him on high it's actually a place of of safety uh in a sense unreachable by the way the scripture teaches pretty clearly that we are out of reach of the enemy but not out of sight that's why he prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies you're out of reach but you you're not out of sight why i think the lord loves to torment the devil that's just my fault i think he rather enjoys and you know what you're sitting at at a table and you've got the enemy all around you what is your attention on any situation where you feel like you're under heavy assault if you'll if you'll refine your focus you'll find the table of fellowship [Applause] he prepared a table before me in the presence of my enemies if all you see is the enemy then you need to readjust get back to what god has said about your life find the table of communion but in that table of fellowship with god is your is all of our place of great strength great confidence great life great help all right getting down to the end verse 15 he shall call upon me i will answer him i will be with him in trouble i will deliver him and honor him with long life i will satisfy him and show him my salvation verse 15 again he shall call upon me i will answer him i'm not going to go long on this one but i am so tempted and let me just tell you why continuous answers to prayer are what we were designed for to not have them is abnormal and that needs to matter it needs to matter what i see happen for us is that we'll pray about this pray about that have no breakthrough and just assume it's the will of god the disciples tried to cast a demon out of a child if we could bring that analogy into today when the child wasn't delivered we would just assume that in the sovereignty of god it must be his will he works in mysterious ways which is the cop-out answer it's the cop-out answer to explain away our powerlessness i'm trying so what did the disciples do jesus comes along he brings the deliverance i made reference to it earlier it brings deliverance to the child he asks the disciples how long am i going to be with you which seemed to be a question he asked often how long shall i be with you and then the disciples they're stunned by first of all they're stunned by the fact they couldn't bring deliverance why because they have a history of success jesus sent them out two by two they've they've been with him in those moments they've been in there with him they are the most trained people in deliverance of anyone to ever live except for jesus up to that time and so they're shocked when it doesn't happen that's a good shock when something doesn't happen the day is coming when we're going to be shocked when somebody isn't healed so jesus brings deliverance and it says the disciples took jesus aside privately and they said how come we couldn't do it how come how come it didn't work when we tried and of course jesus said this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting what's the point when they didn't get an answer they took jesus aside what we tend to do is stop praying it's supposed to bother us enough that we look at the lack of a breakthrough as an abnormality something didn't work right i'm not going to blame it on the sovereignty of god i'm not just going to say well somehow this must be god's will i'm not going to do the cop-out thing and push it under the sovereignty of god i'm going to take responsibility and come before the lord until i find out why take jesus aside take jesus aside i'm asking all of the bethel family online community and the reading of the local community take at least a day this week if it's physically possible to fast and to cry out to the lord we've we've got to hone our focus in this season we have to refine the focus to what god is saying and doing this is our greatest opportunity for advancement this is our greatest opportunity it needs to come in miracle power it needs to come in economic release both for businesses churches ministries all over the world are being unbelievably hit by this thing what has happened we are being set up for massive massive revival how do we know this let me give you just one historic uh lesson you know we talk a lot about the azusa street revival i did not know until yesterday the azusa street revivals 2006 excuse me 1906. maybe i just prophesied all right 1906 is the asus revival what i did not know until yesterday is that there were sparks of revival all over the united states in in 1905 and there were about a million which the country size at that time was very significant a million new conversions in 1905 which set the stage for an explosion in 1906. what's happening right now corporate gatherings around the world of tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands we have lewis palau we have franklin graham we have so many others in the calvary chapel movement their evangelists are holding these massive crusades we've got the send we've got the call we've got all these things daniel kalenda we've got this stuff all over the world of the gathering bethel music and their gathering of tens of thousands of people all over the world this stuff's going on and what's happening right now all of it is shut down why the enemy fears the impact of that of that and the assault is on the business community because that's what funds the the uh the movement this is the moment for vindication but i believe it takes aggressive prayer on your part in mind where we stand in the gap and we say not on my shift not on my shift what's been happening in the last couple years is 1905 all over again it's it's that god has set the stage for an explosion to take place that is to take place right now we're being positioned for it if we'll posture ourselves with faith guard guard our hearts from those random fearful thoughts where we deny love and embrace fear and position ourself to find out what god is saying and make the decree get into the get into the battle get into the fight take that time take a day to fast cry out to god lift up your voice content for those who are suffering we have friends right now people that i know that have been hit by this thing they're suffering horribly we stand in that place we stand in that place we make that decree i took the communion with me this week and just and just walked in my hotel room just declaring the names of these individuals jesus bore their affliction on his body he bore yours mine on his body there's no sense two of us paying the same price no sense makes no sense so here he says i will be with him in trouble he says i will answer him i will be with him i i just i feel like do you know where every one of us started our life in christ all of us you could take all of our gifts all of our history our heritage or all the stuff about our life and just take everything away until you come down to the one common denominator the one common denominator is we called upon the lord he heard us and he saved us our life started with an answer to prayer our life started as an answer to prayer we lifted up our voice we cried out to god he met us and he performed the greatest miracle we will ever see in our life and that's the salvation of our own souls we started in the miraculous it was never supposed to decline it was never supposed to decline so he says he'll call upon me i will answer him i will be with him in trouble i will deliver him and honor him i will be with him in trouble that tells me sometimes i'm in trouble but he's with me the table of fellowship is there in the presence all right i will deliver him and honor him that's a strange conclusion i'm not just go i like this i'm not just going to set him free and protect him i'm not just going to get him out of the snare i'm going to honor him as one of mine i'm going to mark him and let him know let her know that this one follows me i'm reminded of gideon's prayer well he told all of his the 300 soldiers around him as you break these pictures remember they had these torches with pictures over them and as you break those pictures yell out for the lord and for gideon there are times where he will actually have somebody honor you publicly for your courage maybe in front of another friend i remember as a parent i would uh i took on the intentionality of bragging on my children while to another adult while my children are present i remember when eric drew on a bedroom wall in our house and he drew the city landscape you know these high high-rise buildings you know with windows and everything and i got home benny said you need to come and see what eric did so in and i'm looking at this wall eric's standing there like this you know i remember how old you were four or five something like that so i'm looking at all you know he did it with crayons you know and uh marked all over the bedroom this spare bedroom wall i'm looking at these things i said son that's really good you did a good job look at this look at the honey look at the details here look at these windows he drew windows here he's got big buildings small buildings it's amazing he did a good job so i went on and praised him for a while and then i said you know next time you want to draw they'll just let us know we'll get your paper and then a week or so later we had guests over for for dinner we had friends over for a meal and after the meal i said hey you guys got to come with me come see this come back at the bed so i took our guests back in their bedroom and eric's standing there all happy and i said i just want you to look at my what my son the artist drew you know but with eric look at this look at the details here look at the windows look at all the stuff you know that's what he does and be the child that realizes the privilege that he promised and i would honor him don't deflect it don't deflect it if we don't know how to receive honor we'll have no crown to throw at his feet last verse with long life i will satisfy him and show him my salvation it's the promise of the lord to us two wonderful things about today because there's not another service following i don't have to tell you to go home [Laughter] i love that part and the other part is i don't have to watch the clock [Applause] there'll be no parking problem today [Applause] there'll be no parking problem hebrews is open no i encourage you to get coffee afterwards but look at this look at this this promise with long life i will satisfy him there's two things there there's the promise of long life but the long life is given to satisfy uh i don't know if i can say this very well the quest for life means i must live longer some have lost the quest for life some have lost it they've retired from this they've quit from that all they have is just the routine of making it through every day it's no longer the adventure of faith for them is no longer the conquest is no longer bringing in fruit harvest for his glory it's just been reduced to just abiding in christian discipline and fellowship but there's no quest for life he says with long life i will satisfy [Applause] 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 several years ago i was doing a study i had noticed that they were awkward awkward it's probably the wrong word uh unusual responses to trial famines difficulties in the word and so i began to do a study this is quite a few years ago now and since this whole virus issue came up these things have come to mind because what i want for me and what i want for us is to learn how to respond biblically to a crisis that comes up what are the different ways that the people of god in history have dealt with famines plagues pestilence all those things the number one response that we are to have we find in the second chronicles 7 14 if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray turn from their wicked ways seek my face turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven forgive their sin heal their land always when there's difficulty that comes up it gives us a reminder to refine our focus and to make sure that we're standing on solid ground that our attitudes our behavior our relationships all these things are are really in in divine order but the unusual approach to in this case we're going to look at three famines in the bible and i want you to see the unusual response of different people of god throughout history so the first one is in genesis 26 and if you've got your bibles with you which i hope you do you're at home or somewhere where you have a bible i i want you to open to genesis 26 i want you to see the most unusual response to a famine by one of our heroes of the faith of history one of our forefathers and that's isaac and i want to begin with verse one it says there was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of abraham and isaac went to abimelech king of the philistines in gerar the first phrase there was a famine in the land then we jump to verse 12 and it says then isaac sowed in the land and reaped in the same year a hundred fold and the lord blessed him the man began to prosper he continued prospering until he became very prosperous i love that verse it's like god really wanted us to understand what took place here since he began to prosper he continued prospering until he became very prosperous but the point was verse 1 says there was a famine in the land verse 12 says isaac sowed in the land during that famine it's an odd time to plant crops generally when we talk about sowing and reaping in the in the church we're talking about giving this actually technically is not a giving passage it's a good principle but that's not what's uh at stake here isaac was sowing into his future this is a business decision he is he has crops he has uh livestock and this is his future this is his business and so he is investing in his own future what's unusual is at a time when uh crops aren't being harvested when uh there's not uh financial progress being made by the typical uh uh people or farms or ranches or whatever he sows into the land and he reaps a hundred fold a hundred times what a normal harvest would be that's extraordinary it's a supernatural harvest what is this what is this all about it's the fact that isaac took was intentional in sowing into his own future sowing into his own business if you will he made decisions that would otherwise seem foolish it would be normal to want to eat the seed but instead he planted the seed i remember a missionary friend of many years ago sent a newsletter out and i of course was a a recipient of that newsletter and he made this comment he said for the first time in my life i understand what it means in the bible when it says to sow in tears and to reap enjoy sow in tears reap in joy and then he began to describe in africa his missionary in africa began to describe the the mothers who would have children strapped to their backs and and they would take the seed that they were hungry to eat but they chose instead to plant it in the ground and so they planted it and they were crying while they were planting the seed they knew that they could that would be one meal for them now but if they planted it it could be a whole season of meals and so there was that challenging decision in this particular case i want to encourage every business owner i want to encourage every employee every person uh listening to this broadcast that to take the isaac approach to this virus to the shutdown of businesses all the stuff that's crazy that's going on this is an opportunity for us to really sow into our own future to come with hope we have a reason to hope his name is jesus he has conquered every enemy and he causes everything to work for good to those who love god and are called according to his purpose that's you and that's me and so for some of you it may be taking an online course it might be uh buying a a book and reading a book during the shutdown time where you learn better how to maybe advertise or whatever it might be the point is is that you that all of us are making aggressive decisions about our own future that we're anticipating breakthrough we're positioning ourselves for breakthrough we're even sacrificing because we believe that god is breathing on that offering so i want to encourage you i believe this is a time for us to show great courage and great faith it's not a time to be foolish it's not a time to be careless but it is a time to be intentional so that we give god something to breathe on if you will to cause it to abound and to prosper so this is not a generosity verse this is a verse that deals with us investing in our own future the second story is uh is is very unusual in some ways more unusual than this one and it's found in nehemiah chapter five if you would turn to that one i'd love for you to see this one there's a little bit more involved in the detail here what's happening is there's a famine and the the people have got israel here uh they're running out of money they have no crops to harvest they uh uh they're in big trouble and so they're selling their their lands to other people and in this case uh one jew would sell to another jew but the point is is is these lands were the permanent inheritance of individual family lines this that when they inherited that land that was marked for them that was to be theirs and their family from that point on so when they sold them they were actually selling something that god had given to them and so it's a very very uh difficult situation so i want you to look at this uh it's in nehemiah 5 and we're going to start with verse 2. we have several verses to read so follow along for there were those who said we our sons our daughters are many therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live there are also some who said we've mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses that we might buy grain because of the famine there were also those who said we've borrowed money for the king's tax on our land in vineyards yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren our children as their children and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves some of our daughters have been brought into slavery it is not in our power to redeem them for other men have our lands and vineyards and i be this is nehemiah talking he says i became very angry when i heard the outcry and these words after serious thought i rebuked the nobles and said to them each of you is exacting usury which is interest from his brother so i called a great assembly against him let me explain this situation when nehemiah examines he hears the cry of the people they're saying we're starving to death we're not able to eat we've had to sell our own children into slavery which is just the unthinkable and nehemiah sees he goes into the root of it and it's that brothers were buying brothers lands and they were putting heavy heavy interest on any payments that were to be made and they were losing they were losing their ability to buy food and so he he rebukes them and he restores them to a place of family and national covenant here's the point is that this is a time where many of us were being forced to stay in our own homes for example we uh we are confined quarantined to our own homes what's the point is this is the time to renew and restore relationships family first the body of christ the people of god it's not a time to take advantage of somebody in their difficulty this is where we adjust the opportunity for personal gain to accommodate the people that are in pain the people that are suffering the people that are suffering uh experiencing loss or diminishing of wages whatever it might be that we do whatever we can to stand as a family to give biblical support loving support financial support wherever possible i'm i'm reminded in acts chapter 2 through 5 is where the church experienced this great revival they began to sell their lands and do all kinds of stuff and what they did is they made sure that nobody among them was lacking nobody among them was poor it wasn't a mandate from the top it was something that erupted within them and that's important it's not a governmental decision of of everybody has the same it was an internal decision that says i care for my brother i care for my sister i want to make sure that they are supplied for that they have food to eat that they they have shelter to live in this is a time right now in a time of crisis not for us to withdraw and to become preoccupied with our own needs our own circumstances instead it's an opportunity for us to aggressively pursue those that we know that might be in trouble maybe they have maybe they have a financial crisis maybe they have a medical crisis whatever it is the point is is that we turn our attention towards the people of god and rally to their case rally to their cause you may have neighbors friends we've encouraged people you know call the senior citizens around you those who may not be able to go and get groceries and so we have a lot of our teams that are doing that right now they're they're doing that very thing calling their neighbors and friends but also our own church membership to call to find out where the needs might be the point is this is a moment where instead of reacting to the fear of the day which is running rampant instead refine our focus on our practical simple devotion to christ and to his people i want my love for god to be seen and measured by my love for people in this unusual story the famine happened but we never hear it spoken of again it says though their compassion for each other their devotion to one another silenced the voice of that storm silence the voice of that famine the last story i want to ask you to look at is in acts chapter 11. and this is um this is obviously new testament and it's a it's an interesting story for so many reasons because once again a famine was coming uh to really devour uh from people and uh so what we've got here is in acts 11 we'll start with verse 27 it says and in these days prophets came from jerusalem to antioch and one of them named agabus stood up and showed by the spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world which also happened in the days of claudius caesar then the disciples each according to his ability determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in judea i love this particular story for a whole bunch of reasons but i guess my favorite part is that when they heard that a famine was coming remember it says in the whole world so that means the people that are hearing this word can tell there is a famine coming in their direction and it's going to affect their life the first thing they did this is remarkable the first thing they did is they took an offering that's the last thing that so many people would ever think of during that's where you would retreat you you you do whatever can to survive instead in this particular passage they moved aggressively to receive an offering and to send it to the brethren of judea they did it each according to their ability so there was no manipulation there was no uh somehow coercion where they where they had to relinquish goods it wasn't that it was there was this overwhelming thankfulness for god's promises and they decided to plant a seed the first story we read is about isaac who sowed seeds but it was not it was not generosity it was he's sowing into his own future into his own business it's important the second one was covenantal relationship to sow into that and make sure that there was health there but this last one actually has to do with money itself they took an offering and they gave it to the brethren in judea this means a lot of things it could be an act of compassion i've heard people say that the brethren judea were in great crisis financially and so if that's the case this obviously was a very noble thing to do to receive an offering but i would like to suggest to you that there might be just a little bit more to the story than that judea this is where the ministers of the gospel came from to antioch to bring the gospel people in this audience if in this church if you will the people of this body of believers are converted because somebody came from judea and brought the good news to them i would like like to suggest that yeah this is probably a gift of compassion but even more so it was a gift of honor a gift of honor and that gift of honor while the famine happened we never hear it spoken of again it silenced the appetite it dulled the teeth it silenced the voice of this famine that was going to affect so many people's lives it's never spoken up again there's something profound about generosity in times of personal need i know around here when we've had different uh crises and challenges financially that's what i've gone into uh our uh financial people's office and i'll say i need you to write a check for such and such a church in town they they aren't able to pave their parking lot and and we'll we'll just we'll aggressively go after that right now we uh had a guest that was supposed to speak uh to us this uh this i think it was this week if not if not this week next week and uh and itinerant people all of their travel is shut down and so uh this last week we sent this friend of ours an itinerant minister we sent him the honorarium as though he had spoken here we wanted to honor him and thank him for his ministry his devotion to us through the years we've done this through the years where we've where we've had individuals who have uh not been able to make a conference that they were a guest at and uh and because they they had a medical report and the doctors told them uh you're not to travel during this season so we just write out a check we send the honorarium to them i got a text this morning from what our one of our staff guys who uh uh they are uh using the cash app to pay you know the the beautician that uh had to cancel the appointment to do his wife's hair but they're paying her as though uh the hair uh the hair appointment was kept and uh doing the same with uh the trainer at the gym and all these things the point is this is the moment to sow into people's lives aggressively to display honor because i refuse to bow at the threat of this famine so to speak in this case of irish i refuse to bow to this thing and instead i'm going to move aggressively in generosity to uh to take the teeth out of the bite of this thing and i believe that we're going to see a very quick quick end to this virus but i want to be found carrying on the heart of the lord as this thing comes to a close i want to be found in that place of of radical obedience to the lord where we care about people's souls we care about people's well-being we serve them the best we know how i have found personally that um you know just being shut in at the house except for moments like this being shut in at the house it's a tremendous opportunity just to walk around my home or to walk around our property and just to pray just to intercede to lift up praise obviously to the lord but to pray for these neighbors to reach out to people to to make the phone calls to do all that we can it's the generosity of soul it's a buying the gift cards uh just uh send a text to a restaurant owner uh yesterday to be able to buy gift cards um to help to sow into their ongoing business we want our city to do the impossible in this moment we want your city to do the impossible in this moment and that is to thrive in the face of loss instead of go backwards i want to see us advance and i believe together as the people of god this is the moment to advance this an advancement now is a miracle and that's what advancements are supposed to be so i i want to i just want to declare this to you teach teach you first of all from the word three different unusual responses to famine or the laws but also to challenge you to challenge us as a church family to stay with stand with resolve and have that devotion of commitment let me go over the three things invest in our own personal advancement in business in perhaps uh uh you your accounts or whatever the point is is that you sow into your own personal development because you believe you have a future and a hope secondly is to reaffirm covenantal relationships reaffirm the devotion to people the people of god the household of faith but also to to this city and then third is this thing of generosity i believe that the seeds of generosity in times like this are so uh they so attract god into an environment to prosper and to bring increase so that's what we're doing here we've we have a number of staff obviously they can't come we have a huge staff they can't come to the office and work so we're directing their attention towards our city directing their attention towards neighbors members of our family and i believe that the lord is honoring that approach to generosity i want to encourage you to do the same thing i want to pray for you because i the prayer that i've prayed more than goodness i think i think probably i've prayed for this more than any other five things combined in the last five years i've been praying for the spirit of breakthrough god identifies himself in david's life as the god of the breakthrough baal perezm was the name he's the god of the breakthrough that when there is an obstacle he breaks through the obstacle when there is a season of difficulty he breaks through and brings increase uh he's the god of of answers and solutions regardless of the problem and so i want to pray because i believe it's not just to be a breakthrough season for the church i think it's individually i think that every person i know i've been i've been prayerfully meditating on a particular verse i would invite you to join uh join with me in kind of discovering the depth the richness of this verse it's the passage in john 15 verse 7 where he says if you abide in me my words abide in you you will ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you if you abide in me and my words abide in you you will ask what you want and it'll be done all of us like outcomes we like the answer to prayer we like the graduation we like the purchase of the home the where we move in we like we we like those kinds of things we like we like the conclusion but god likes the journey i like thee and everything will be added he likes the abide in me and let my words abide in you so what i've chosen to do for me in my own journey in this season is to turn my attention i'm i'm literally giving my time in this season to learn one verse better not to quote it i can quote i've been able to quote it for years not that to live it fully what does it mean to abide in christ what is what does it mean to be in continuous ongoing affectionate relationship with him what does it mean to stay connected to the presence of god before his face in an ongoing way what does that look like was what does it look like for me to have to carry that awe and that awareness that the spirit of god is in me the spirit of god is resting upon me what does it mean to be that deeply connected to the heart and mind of god abiding in him and then he says that my words would abide in you that's where as we read his word something stands out to us in this case this whole thing of an offering in uh in a time of famine stands out to me it's been on my mind for for years what does that look like to face an external a problem what does it look like to act in the opposite spirit and then for god to bring a breakthrough what does that look like and so we carry these words in our heart uh you may have a different word there may be something that the lord spoke to you about your family maybe it's a personal promise of something he's going to do and this looks like the most impossible season for that to happen well guess what it's the most likely season for the breakthrough to come because he's the god who majors he brokers in impossibilities and so i i'm going to ask you join with me on this abiding in god this affectionate love for him continuously where his word where i can at any at the drop of a hat in any moment be able to quote to you declare to you this is what god is saying to me in this season i want to monitor those two parts of my life and let him monitor my prayer life where things happen where things breakthrough takes place so father i'm praying right now that for the entire bethel family our bethel community around the world our guests and friends who have joined us let this be the season where we see a spirit of breakthrough a mantle an outpouring of anointing for breakthrough would come upon every individual upon every household god i pray it for our city i pray for the cities represented that a mantle of break the most impossible situations would turn and reverse for the glory of god that this would be the hour where you receive the glory for every turning that takes place in our cities in our nation god we play it pray for america we pray for switzerland and japan and korea and all these countries all around the world that are joining with us right now that there would be a turning and there would be a massive deliverance of this that the enemy has turned towards us that instead there would be a mighty deliverance a mighty healing that would take place in household after household god instead of retreating in fear i pray that you'd release the mantle for health and healing upon the people of god that we would aggressively stand on behalf of our neighbors and friends to see healing and deliverance take place in the name of jesus god i pray for every business person that's watching that you would defend them in that business you would promote them in that business that their online success would more than make up for what's not walking through the door because of closure that you would give wisdom for how to maneuver in this season that's different than every past season that you'd help us to know how to invest in our future in a biblical manner that you show us where we need to to store up our strength one another with one another in our families in our church family and you show us where janet what generosity looks like in this season i pray all of this that the name of jesus would be exalted held in the highest honor amen amen amen please um i've been carrying this thing in my heart for days and in fact chris was supposed to get up today but he kindly bowed out so i could share what was in my heart i feel like this is a prophetic template and it's going to be applied differently probably for every household but there's a prophetic template on how we face the threat of loss how we face a challenging situation so i encourage you re review these things pray over these things but the last thing i want to do is i know that with such a large online audience that there's always the opportunity for people who have never made a personal commitment to the lord jesus christ the greatest miracle of all is the salvation of a soul jesus tugged on my heart he showed me his love he called me to himself and i said yes i called upon the name of the lord and he saved me he forgave me of sin he delivered me from my past and he made it possible for me to walk with him that offering that gift of salvation is offered to every person watching this broadcast that may not have a personal relationship with jesus my goodness if there was ever a time where it should be obvious we need a savior we need a deliverer we need a father who works on our behalf who defends us it's right now i want to encourage you but it does cost it costs you this it's not your dollars it's your life it's the fact that we turn from our life of sin self-serving to become a disciple of the lord jesus christ and i'm going to ask you just to pray with me right now just just say these words with me father i come to you i come to you as a sinner i come to you in need of forgiveness i ask you to forgive me from all sin i turn from them i will not serve any other god but jesus i will not follow any other lifestyle but the lifestyle of jesus and i ask that you would fill me now with your holy spirit and make it possible for me to live as a representative of jesus and the earth i ask this for the honor of the name jesus amen amen well thank you thanks for uh for joining us in this unusual setting this unusual context but thank you thanks for taking time out of your day i bless you in jesus name i pray that the face of god would shine upon you i pray that every single household would have increase of divine encounters divine experiences and i pray for everybody watching that god would release over you over me a gift of faith for this season in jesus name amen thanks for listening to the sermon of the week this weekly podcast can be heard in multiple languages on our bethel betheltv 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] you

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: GmuG27AvZM0

Length: 88min 7sec (5287 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021