Bill Johnson Sermons [September 12, 2021] | Protect Me Jesus

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 well welcome welcome welcome to uh god of revival uh is the album that uh bethel music released just not too long ago and actually we had uh planned to unveil this series and then this uh pandemic hit so we delayed a little bit because we we felt that we obviously needed to speak into to that issue um i'm really happy to be able to talk to you about revival my my problem is i've got about a thousand things running through my brain that i want to say and that could actually torture you and i don't want to do that so we'll try to keep it simple and focused um the heart of god is for uh use any term you want renewal revival awakening all those things are similar um they're similar but they are unique revival historically has been a time where there's an outpouring of the holy spirit his presence and his works become very pronounced in a in a dominant way they they eventually dominate church life and eventually culture itself i personally believe that god is has intended revivals to never end um i know that the studies of revival that i've seen they all uh they basically declare that revivals are seasonal and that they are to give kind of a a boost to the church for in that particular season so they can go for a period of time without and uh and the reason that conclusion has been made is because every revival has worked that way in other words we've we've come to the conclusion on god's heart for revival by studying revival and not studying god's heart god's heart is he moves from glory to glory everything is progressive so the scripture old testament teaches god lights the fire on the altar but it's the priests that keep it burning god lights the fire he's the one revival is in his heart the fire of god to burn in the heart of his people to impact uh the church eventually impacting society and that's the heart of god in every every great move of god but oftentimes uh revivals get cut short for so many reasons uh extraordinary things happen and uh miracles and supernatural encounters and whatever and the people of god start thinking uh it's a it's a badge of honor for them they start taking it to themselves if you will that they have brought this great move of god instead of giving him all the glory and any time we take the glory to ourself we cut short everything that he intended to do sometimes it gets cut short because of the competition that takes place between churches and ministries there's a lot of reasons i don't want to go into those uh so much right now i just want to say that i believe that god's heart is that a move of god would come into an individual that would affect a church that would affect a city that would impact the nation god's intention in every revival is to truly bring about a reformation where culture itself has changed and i'd like to say that the ingredients for transformation are in every move of god the ingredients for example i when we first benny and i and the kids first came here to reading one of the things that i did is i i went to argentina because i wanted to i'd heard for so many years about the great move of god that was in that wonderful nation and i wanted to go see for myself so i joined with randy clark and we went down i thank goodness i think it was like 19 day long trip it was a long one and we spent time in brazil then went over into argentina and i wanted to see what was happening there i wanted to i wanted to take a measurement if you will and see if it was similar to what was happening here and i when i a lot of experiences but we'll boil it down to this i realized that there was like if i could make this illustration it was like a ripe red apple and what was happening in redding was a apple that just started to grow it's not something you would want to eat it was very tart very bitter and taste but it was growing the point is both are 100 apple both are 100 apple and sometimes we abort moves of god because they aren't what we read in a book somewhere we measure this to that and we disqualify the lord warns us about despising the day of small beginnings oftentimes we pray great prayers and appropriate prayers we pray let me use a metaphor we pray for the oak tree god gives us an acorn there's an oak tree in the acorn and there's millions of acorns in that oak tree the point is stewarding the moment god gives us is what takes us into the breakthroughs that we've all read about that we all long for it starts very simple it starts with that tug on your heart that happens in your home it's not in a great meeting somewhere there's not uh miracles happening right left there's that there's that response to the person of the holy spirit where we become drawn into this place where we want to give everything for him to be glorified those moments are revival moments those are moments that usher us in to more extravagant breakthrough and the heart of god is to change the nations of the world the heart of god is twofold it's the the salvation of souls but also to change the culture in which generations are being raised that they would be raised in a culture that has a bent towards righteousness that has a bent towards depending on god seeking god calling about out for his intervention and that's what the lord is working in you and in me is this increased awareness of his heart revival is basically the heart of god made manifest it's where we see more clearly oh this is what's important to him and we find ourselves it was it was funny back in in the in 1996 97 it was almost like you could tell what family was really in revival because their hair was messed up their clothes hadn't been washed in a while their their lawn had been grown because it was like every every moment we could we wanted to be in the house to see what god was doing i i love that i i love that but what what is important to remember is that we have to know how to take that which god does in the corporate setting and learn how to translate it practically into society so that we live as revivalists in society let me illustrate we've seen through the years we've seen so many unusual but powerful encounters that people have had with the lord and there are times where the presence of god becomes so manifest and an individual that uh sometimes they weren't even seeking the lord they just happened to be in the room where god shows up and i saw this happen with cal pierce or one of our elders many years ago and the lord literally chose him apprehended him and changed his life in about a 45-minute encounter where he knew nothing else but god he was aware of nothing else but god in his heart for him extraordinary but these moments the heart of an individual is so arrested if you will for divine purpose that he he came out of that wanting nothing but to please god nothing but to honor god nothing but to celebrate god and what we've watched through the years is these encounters change us on the inside so let me just illustrate so we have let's say a woman who's just really struggling with life the power of god comes upon her she falls to the ground which sometimes happens and god has a habit of doing things that are offensive to our minds and she falls to the ground and she trembles under the power of god for two hours the problem is as we tend to think that manifestation is what's needed for revival now i'm not opposed to it i celebrate it because i've i've watched i've seen enough of that through the years to know that god is doing an internal work through an external manifestation the challenge is let's say she works down at costco the goal for many people would get people to fall in costco and shake for two hours on the ground that's not translating revival translating revival says i was so encountered by god that i have lost the fear of man i have an element of courage in me that i've never had before so now she where she works as a manager she no longer cowers to inferior decisions but she's able to stand strong and make bold decisions that's how you translate revival you translate what happens in the house in a way that is beneficial to culture beneficial to society it's vital that we protect what god is doing in the house we don't want to make the unusual experiences that's not the message the message is jesus but i will say this most every revival introduces a new a new reason to be offended just read just read you know it's it's easy to look back and say oh john wesley what a great man george whitefield what a great man um to look through all these heroes of the faith you know and to champion smith warglesworth but all of them were very opposed in fact they had they had people that were as famous as they were in the day that they lived so you know in fact i've got a name here uh we know of charles finney how many of you know of charles finney do you know the name john nevin probably not but he was he was the opponent to charles finney we don't know john nevin today you could find out about him but his name isn't promoted because history does not treat the critics of revival well tragically in the moment of a great move of god the critic is as popular as is the revivalist i found a quote actually it i found a quote here recently by um a gentleman named blez pascal and he's a french mathematician inventor and catholic theologian and this guy made this statement that has really become meaningful for me because i've seen this played out in life he said there's enough light for those who only desire to see and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition let me read it again there's enough light for those who only desire to see and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition i've watched through the years that the lord will manifest in a unique way and for those who are hungry those who want nothing but him they're not destroyed by the offense the element of offense in the early 1900s it was praying in tongues and uh the catholic uh renewal it was the fact that god was moving powerfully and kept with catholics and episcopals and more traditional churches in the jesus culture jesus people movement it was the long hairs the the bare feet the that whole element brought a great offense to many people in the toronto outpouring it was the laughter god forbid we actually find ourselves to be happy but that just brought great offense to so many people and every move of god has some element to cause the mind to be offended i believe it's paul cain that said god will offend your mind to reveal your heart he will offend your mind to reveal your heart and it's not as though the intellect is important it's just the mind will never lead you into revival you will never get there intellectually see we all love the concept of the peace that passes understanding i was looking at that word this morning because i became fascinated not for the message even but i became fascinated with this this it says the peace that surpasses understanding that word surpasses actually says it's elevated it's almost like in a governmental role it is so far superior peace is governmentally exalted and superior to all understanding it's superior it is it is intellectualism from god's perspective because it is a person and if you want the peace that passes understanding you have to give up your right to understand and it's not a message now against the mind against understanding against wisdom i believe in all those are some of my most favorite things is to understand stuff but i know by experience and i know as i read through history the heart takes you where you need to go it's the surrender of the heart it's the yieldedness to the work of the holy spirit saying god i don't know what this is but i am so hungry i remember when i flew back to toronto i we had had a wonderful visitation of the lord in 1987 in weaverville and it followed uh a trip that i made with a number of our leaders uh made to anaheim to the vineyard there and john wimber and his team blaine cook and brent roo and a bunch of others they had this conference there on signs and wonders and i was so deeply impacted because they were equipping everybody to do it and and i knew i couldn't be the the stadium person to to do that didn't didn't fit my my gift mix or my personality and so i was so hungry and i saw how practical it was for that group of people and the teaching was the same but their their their willingness to take risk was different and i came home and miracles started right away but i have to be honest with you that visitation of god that was so extraordinary in 1987 it would come and it would lift it would land and it would lift it would come and it would go over the next seven or eight years and i remember flying back to toronto and i was praying because i heard there was a great move of god there and i remember praying on the way i said god if you'll touch me again i'll never change the subject i'll never take what you're doing and add it to what we're doing i will make what you're doing the only thing we do that was my commitment then that was my covenant with the lord then i went to toronto i was there for i don't remember now five six days and i didn't have any unique experiences uh many great stories uh people that i know people all around that their lives were so dramatically changed mine was too but it wasn't through uh some power encounter with god it was the fact that i i was immersed in in a presence in a glory realm of god that i knew this helped define the rest of my life and i prayed and i said god i give you the rest of my life for this one thing the move of god is something that is unnatural to not hunger for once you see it once you see it everything of christ in you rises awakens to say that's why i'm alive i was born for this this is what i was born for i remember that started in my heart i i i've been tender to the lord my whole life i remember receiving christ as a child and and i was always tender to the lord but i didn't have this passion for him i didn't i didn't have this this heart to seek him and to abandon everything but there was a tenderness there and i remember back in the days i was probably 19 years old 18 19 years old and chip worthington who used to be a youth pastor here and winky pratty his he didn't come here but we heard his teachings and i would hear them talk about revival and i didn't know what revival was but something awakened in me in my late teen years that i could tell this this is why i'm alive and when i would hear the preaching of mario marillo and the exhortation that he brought to a generation to give everything for jesus i did i threw my hat in the ring said i just i give you everything from that moment on i knew i am alive for revival i am alive for the outpouring of the holy spirit i don't want to settle for what so many people have settled for i don't want to settle i don't want to think and say well let's just learn to manage what we have one of the scariest stories in the bible is the story of the talents that were given out and talents of course are sums of money and there was one somebody was given five talents another two and another one the scary part of the story is the guy that was given the one talent didn't use that money to make more money in other words what he did was he took what he was given by god in this metaphor what god gave him and he took it and he protected it i don't want to be found living in a place of trying to protect in a stationary position in life instead of moving on seeing where this that god has given me could take me i want to use what he's given me so that i step fully into what god says is possible in my lifetime i had a uh yesterday benny and i were watching um a documentary which i don't want i probably should watch more documentaries but but i don't i i tend to watch you know spy movies and stuff like that but anyway we were watching this documentary and i had my ipad which i usually do two things at once i'm not a good multi-tasker but i fake it you know i uh we were watching this documentary on the migration of animals and insects and there there came this moment where where i i put the ipad down because something so captured my heart and i i don't understand yet but i feel it's deeply prophetic i can feel it in my soul as i was watching they begin to show these monarch butterflies that are in this forest i guess in mexico they are by the millions they migrate from mexico to canada but it takes four generations to get to canada a multi-generational migration oh goodness how about lost at a multi-generational migration what that means the butterfly that hangs on that tree in mexico that begins the migration to canada starts flying and then they lay eggs and they have their you know their what do you call the little worm and the cocoon and the butterfly loss for words here and there's another generation that takes on the journey and they go as far as they can go and they pass it on to the next one they die the next generation takes it until they get all the way to canada four generations to make that several thousand mile journey and then they're there in canada i guess it must be during the summer and then they make the migration back back to mexico for generations multi-generation migration where we are going not one generation can reach man this is so strong in my heart right now not one generation can reach i must go as far as i can go i must enter into everything that is possible for me to enter into and then pass it off so that the next generation could go as far as they can possibly go knowing that they've got another generation that they'll have to pass it on to multi-generational what god is doing in the earth right now is going to take a multi-generation of migration into the things of god into the things of the kingdom unlike any time we've ever seen it's where every child grows up knowing they were born with divine purpose and there is more there is more and it's not an insult to my forefathers to discover more i'm only able because i stand on the platform of their breakthrough i stand on the platform of their success this may sound a little strange to you but my my two favorite verses they're at the top of the list anyway favorite verses on revival are actually out of the book of proverbs i want to read them to you real quick the first one is proverbs 14 4 and it says where there's no oxen the manger is clean but much increase comes by the strength of the ox that's revival where there's no revival the manger's clean but when you have a great move of god get a shovel because it's always messy there is no such thing as a squeaky clean revival you only have that when you read it in history and they cleaned up the text and they removed all the offenses and all the problems people have done that through the years the shantung revival a tremendous baptist outpouring of the holy spirit in china when they reprinted the story of that they cleaned up all the messes so it was squeaky clean to the point it's boring if you want the real thing go to randy clark's website and get the story on the shantung revival because it's extraordinary god didn't remove the offensive parts of people's lives from the book the difficult parts the failures but not just the failures the things that actually cause problems for the people of god the second verse that i find so intriguing is out of proverbs 27 and uh another book that i that i could i consider a revival passage it's a chapter 27 and it's verse 7. a satisfied soul lows the honeycomb but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet to a person who is full they become the restaurant critic and they despise even the sweetness of the honeycomb but a person who is hungry who's really hungry every bitter thing becomes sweet it's extraordinary because i've watched this through the years where people come into a move of god and they begin to critique it as though they were a restaurant cook critic instead of coming because they were hungry i'm not here to analyze the move of god i'm here to be wrecked by the move of god i'm here to be rearranged by the move of god what happened in wales in the early 1900s 1904 oh my goodness what a story it's one of my favorite parts of all of human history is what happened in that era evan roberts a bunch of young people the outpouring of the spirit became so strong some of the major great godly men and women from england came into wales to to not analyze that i don't want to critique criticize them they came in to see what god was doing and this is their own testimony it was such a holy movement they felt they needed to leave to let the young people run with it in other words they would contaminate it with their expertise wow what wisdom what wisdom to realize sometimes we need to just back off sometimes we need to back off jesus gave a warning about this he said don't try to pick the tares out from among the wheat lest you destroy the wheat think about that when god does a move we often times especially us as leaders we want to protect the people from errors which we should that's part of our job we want to protect them from this this ex this extreme this exaggeration and while we always have our defenses up to make sure that we protect the people jesus also gives a warning and he says here's the thing about wheat and tears they look the same the only time you can tell a difference is when it's time to harvest because the weight of the grains of wheat on the stem cause it to bow and then the terrors stand up straight so jesus warns he says don't over concern yourself with the tares trying to pick out the wrong things because you'll pick up the wheat you'll pick out the right things this is a warning concerning i believe moves of god be careful that you don't become so controlling of your environment that you don't give room for god to step outside of what you approve of many people reject the move of god because they see god touch somebody else in a way they've never touched he's never touched them so in other words i become the standard my experience becomes the standard for how god can touch you and it's one of the great mistakes one of the great mistakes is that i i judge what's happening in a room by my own experience which is an arrogant posture to take because it comes with the notion saying i've experienced everything first and then he'll touch you according to how he's touched me it's just not the way it works it comes to people that are poor in spirit that are hungry like children that just want more of god they're not asking for everything to be explained they come simply asking for a father to come to show up and to do what only he can do of course there are souls saved of course there are miracles and people's bodies deliverances i've seen it in this room where the power of god comes upon a person i remember when the outpouring first started just an unbeliever would come into the room and the power of god would literally capture them capture them they didn't know what was happening to them but they would lay there and weep and weep and weep and just turn their heart toward the lord not knowing what was going on but knowing that god had chosen them i think sometimes we get accustomed to a gospel that we understand fully which means a gospel that we can control it's about control people say well this wouldn't happen uh when the holy spirit in a move of god because he teaches self-control self-control is a manifestation of the holy spirit's control first you have to have the holy spirit's control before you learn self-control it's giving yourself to the great great work of god i uh i want to read to you out of the book of joel i'm i'm i'm i'm torn because there's so many places to go here but let me let me at least let's let's do this i want to reach out of joel i'm going to read you out of uh chapter 2 and then we're going to jump to acts all right so if you've got your bible before you which i hope you do um get those two places ready i was going to go to acts 19 because it's outrageous and wonderful but i just don't think i have time for it so let's just uh let's just do this today we'll go to joel 2 and then we're going to go to acts 2 and i want to show you something let's start in joel 2 verse 23 be glad then you children of zion rejoice in the lord your god for he has given you the former rain faithfully i think new american standard says the former rain in vindication which is interesting that the lord would vindicate us with his outpouring vindicate us in our own personal wrong decisions in life that the areas where the enemy has stolen from us the outpouring comes to fully vindicate us to display his faithfulness he will cause the rain to come down for you the former rain and the latter rain rain in in the scripture represents the outpouring of the holy spirit which we see a little later in this chapter so when you see rivers of water you see pools of water talked about you see rivers in the desert you have rain those are all symbols of of the work of the holy spirit and how manifestation of his presence jesus validates this in john chapter 7 where he refers to the holy spirit as a river but look at this again he will cause the rain to come down for you the former rain in the latter rain so the outpouring of the holy spirit in the book of acts and the outpouring of the holy spirit in the days that we live in the latter days the last day started in acts chapter 2. so if those were the last days these are really the last days then he goes into verse 28 it will come to pass afterward i will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons and daughters will prophesy so it's both men male and female your old men will dream dreams young men will see visions so the age barrier is broken and also on my men's servants and servants i will pour out my spirit so the class barrier is broken so the outpouring of the holy spirit creates a level playing field for men women young old rich poor all of those boundaries are destroyed in the outpouring of the holy spirit in acts chapter 2 after after joel 2 was fulfilled you see an interesting response from people and if you've got your bibles look at acts 2 it says in verse 6 this would be fun to study more at a later date but right now just look at verse 6 when this sound occurred this sound is not i want to tell you now just in advance this sound is not just a crowd of people praying in tongues it is a heavenly roar that has broken into the city of jerusalem where the entire city is hearing the open heaven over that's over that city it's a roar of god and everybody in the city hears it they all drop their tools their toys their whatever they're doing and thousands begin to flock to this group of believers that are praying in tongues praying in languages they don't understand it says verse six when this sound occurred the multitude came together said they were confused because everyone heard them speak in their own language then they were amazed and they marveled it says in verse 11 we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the wonderful works of god so what was confusing was still had divine purpose verse 12 they were all amazed they were perplexed and verse 13 others were mocking so here you got it this is a good revival right here they were amazed they marveled they were confused they were perplexed and there was mocking that's how you have a move of god you're not going to have a move of god without those elements present there's always opposition to the move and if you're one who is bound by the fear of man get the heart of god over the issue don't do guilt and shame but let him touch you deep cry out for the more in the secret place in the private place we cry out for god in public we take risks we look for problems we look for places to serve in in cry in quiet along with god we cry out for the more but in public we look for opportunities for him to be displayed when i went to toronto i've already explained i i didn't have a dramatic experience at least my first time as so many around me did so many friends so many people that i now know their lives were changed it wasn't that it was the fact that the lord gave me a seed he gave me a seed he gave me the acorn instead of the oak tree i prayed for and it would have been easy to put that aside and say this is not revival but i knew that in that seed there was enough of god to radically change the rest of my life i knew it i knew it i knew i was given a treasure having the pearl of great price i knew it had been given to me and it was small and it was nothing it was nothing extravagant enough that i could walk around and show people it wasn't that it was i knew that he had given me what i had asked for it was in seed form but i had to cultivate it and that began the season of day and night crying out for more that god would cause this seed to grow that he'd caused this that he entrusted to me that maybe others would reject this that he entrusted to me god that you would cause this to grow that you would impact our city you'd impact our church impact my life impact our nation i i prayed i prayed day and night i would wake up i'd wake up in the middle of the night praying in other words i was praying in my sleep and i would actually wake up myself up because my spirit man was so alive so contending for all that god had promised that i just i found myself unable to sleep i just wake up find myself praying i don't have time for the full story here but that lasted for eight to nine months and then the lord met me i ran faithfully with the seed but then he met me at three in the morning and everything changed everything changed everything changed if i i think if you were to ask my friends from weberville i think they would all tell you that i i didn't struggle with the fear of man because i i made courageous decisions i i was willing to go against the grain it wasn't a problem but the lord knew that there was still a seed of the fear of man in my heart and and he showed up in a way with such extreme power three o'clock in the morning that lasted all night and i i had no i had no control it was it was the raw power of god and and i knew that i knew that he wanted to know if i was if i meant it when i said god i want more of you at any cost any cost i'll pay any price and he began to parade seeds see scenes in front of my eyes of me trying to communicate to the church realizing there's nobody going to believe that this that i'm experiencing is actually god the next scene i was standing in front of my favorite restaurant in town realizing not only am i going to be a laughing point of laughter for the church it's i'm going to be a person that is mocked in our community and it was like the lord was asking me this question did you mean it when you said more at any cause and i laid there with the tears going down into my pillowcases after about 20 minutes of seeing these scenes and what it would cost me i said yes you can do anything you want with me if i get you in the exchange the increase the manifestation of your presence if i get that in the exchange you can do anything you want with me i just i just believe god is god is going to use this very strange season this pandemic now we have such prime opportunities to be alone with god we don't have the excuse of busy schedules we don't have the excuse of too many responsibilities we have we have who we are face to face with who he is and he wants to take you and he wants to take me and he's positioning us for an extreme mighty outpouring of the spirit something that will actually affect the course of history for nations it's been happening for a while but i tell you what it's on it's on the edge right now and it's about to break loose in a way we've never seen before having said all of that i i know that there are many of you as believers just you just need to make the confession of the lord god i'm all in do whatever you want with me and there's some i know that are watching you've never given your life to jesus and this is probably the most awkward opportunity for me to ever say come to jesus give your life to him be forgiven brought into the family know what it is to walk as a child of god and truly give yourself that he would be glorified but i'm going to ask you do it right now just pray a simple prayer with me father i come to you as a sinner prayed out loud right where you are i come to you as a sinner i i need forgiveness please forgive me for all my sin i turned to jesus i declared jesus christ is the son of god my lord my master i give myself completely for his glory amen every believer just say god i give you everything i am to discover everything you are amen 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 discipline 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 well welcome welcome welcome to uh god of revival uh is the album that uh bethel music released just not too long ago and actually we had uh planned to unveil this series and then this uh pandemic hit so we delayed a little bit because we we felt that we obviously needed to speak into to that issue um i'm really happy to be able to talk to you about revival my my problem is i've got about a thousand things running through my brain that i want to say and that could actually torture you and i don't want to do that so we'll try to keep it simple and focused the heart of god is for uh use any term you want renewal revival awakening all those things are similar um they're similar but they are unique revival historically has been a time where there's an outpouring of the holy spirit his presence and his works become very pronounced in a in a dominant way they they eventually dominate church life and eventually culture itself i personally believe that god is has intended revivals to never end um i know that the studies of revival that i've seen they all they basically declare that revivals are seasonal and that um they are to give kind of a a boost to the church for in that particular season so they can go for a period of time without and uh and the reason the that conclusion has been made is because every revival has worked that way in other words we've we've come to the conclusion on god's heart for revival by studying revival and not studying god's heart god's heart is he moves from glory to glory everything is progressive so the scripture old testament teaches god lights the fire on the altar but it's the priests that keep it burning god lights the fire he's the one revival is in his heart the fire of god to burn in the heart of his people to impact uh the church eventually impacting society and that's the heart of god in every every great move of god but oftentimes uh revivals get cut short for so many reasons sometimes uh extraordinary things happen and uh miracles and supernatural encounters and whatever and the people of god start thinking uh it's a it's a badge of honor for them they start taking it to themselves if you will that they have brought this great move of god instead of giving him all the glory and any time we take the glory to ourself we cut short everything that he intended to do sometimes it gets cut short because of the competition that takes place between churches and ministries there's a lot of reasons i don't want to go into those uh so much right now i just want to say that i believe that god's heart is that a move of god would come into an individual that would affect a church that would affect a city that would impact the nation god's intention in every revival is to truly bring about a reformation where culture itself has changed and i'd like to say that the ingredients for transformation are in every move of god the ingredients for example i when first benny and i and the kids first came here to reading one of the things that i did is i i went to argentina because i wanted to i'd heard for so many years about the great move of god that was in that wonderful nation and i wanted to go see for myself so i joined with randy clark and we went down i thank goodness i think it was like 19 day long trip it was a long one and we spent time in brazil then went over into argentina and i wanted to see what was happening there i wanted to i wanted to take a measurement if you will and see if it was similar to what was happening here and i when i a lot of experiences but we'll boil it down to this i realized that there was like if i could make this illustration it was like a ripe red apple and what was happening in redding was a apple that just started to grow it's not something you would want to eat it was very tart very bitter in taste but it was growing the point is both are 100 apple both are 100 apple and sometimes we abort moves of god because they aren't what we read in a book somewhere we measure this to that and we disqualify the lord warns us about despising the day of small beginnings often times we pray great prayers and appropriate prayers we pray let me use a metaphor we pray for the oak tree god gives us an acorn there's an oak tree in the acorn and there's millions of acorns in that oak tree the point is stewarding the moment god gives us is what takes us into the breakthroughs that we've all read about that we all long for it starts very simple it starts with that tug on your heart that happens in your home it's not in a great meeting somewhere there's not uh miracles happening right left there's that there's that response to the person of the holy spirit where we become drawn into this place where we want to give everything for him to be glorified those moments are revival moments those are moments that usher us in to more extravagant breakthrough and the heart of god is to change the nations of the world the heart of god is twofold it's the the salvation of souls but also to change the culture in which generations are being raised that they would be raised in a culture that has a bent towards righteousness that has a bent towards depending on god seeking god calling about out for his intervention and that's what the lord is working in you and in me is this increased awareness of his heart revival is basically the heart of god made manifest it's where we see more clearly oh this is what's important to him and we find ourselves it was it was funny back in in the in 1996 97 it was almost like you could tell what family was really in revival because their hair was messed up their clothes hadn't been washed in a while their their lawn had been grown because it was like every every moment we could we wanted to be in the house to see what god was doing i i love that i i love that but what what is important to remember is that we have to know how to take that which god does in the corporate setting and learn how to translate it practically into society so that we live as revivalists in society let me illustrate we've seen through the years we've seen so many unusual but powerful encounters that people have had with the lord and there are times where the presence of god becomes so manifest and an individual that sometimes they weren't even seeking the lord they just happened to be in the room where god shows up and i saw this happen with cal pierce or one of our elders many years ago and the lord literally chose him apprehended him and changed his life in about a 45-minute encounter where he knew nothing else but god he was aware of nothing else but god in his heart for him extraordinary but these moments there the heart of an individual is so arrested if you will for divine purpose that he he came out of that wanting nothing but to please god nothing but to honor god nothing but to celebrate god and what we've watched through the years is these encounters change us on the inside so let me just illustrate so we have let's say uh a woman who's just really struggling with life the power of god comes upon her she falls to the ground which sometimes happens and uh god has a habit of doing things that are offensive to our minds and she falls to the ground and she trembles under the power of god for two hours the problem is as we tend to think that manifestation is what's needed for revival now i'm not opposed to it i celebrate it because i've i've watched i've seen enough of that through the years to know that god is doing an internal work through an external manifestation the challenge is let's say she works down at costco the goal for many people would get people to fall in costco and shake for two hours on the ground that's not translating revival translating revival says i was so encountered by god that i have lost the fear of man i have an element of courage in me that i've never had before so now she where she works as a manager she no longer cowers to inferior decisions but she's able to stand strong and make bold decisions that's how you translate revival you translate what happens in the house in a way that is beneficial to culture beneficial to society it's vital that we protect what god is doing in the house we don't want to make the unusual experiences that's not the message the message is jesus but i will say this most every revival introduces a new a new reason to be offended just read just read you know it's it's easy to look back and say oh john wesley what a great man george whitefield what a great man um to look through all these heroes of the faith you know and to champion smith warglesworth but all of them were very opposed in fact they had they had people that were as famous as they were in the day that they lived so you know in fact i've got a name here uh we know of charles finney how many of you know of charles finney do you know the name john nevin probably not but he was he was the opponent to charles finney we don't know john nevin today you could find out about him but his name isn't promoted his history does not treat the critics of revival well tragically in the moment of a great move of god the critic is as popular as is the revivalist i found a quote actually it i found a quote here recently by a gentleman named blez pascal and he's a french mathematician inventor and catholic theologian and this guy made this statement that has really become meaningful for me because i've seen this played out in life he said there's enough light for those who only desire to see and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition let me read it again there's enough light for those who only desire to see and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition i've watched through the years that the lord will manifest in a unique way and for those who are hungry those who want nothing but him they're not destroyed by the offense the element of offense in the early 1900s it was praying in tongues and uh the catholic uh renewal it was the fact that god was moving powerfully and cut with catholics and episcopals and more traditional churches in the jesus culture jesus people movement it was the long hairs the the bare feet the that whole element brought a great offense to many people um in the toronto outpouring it was the laughter god forbid we actually find ourselves to be happy but that just brought great offense to so many people and every move of god has some element to cause the mind to be offended i believe it's paul cain that said god will offend your mind to reveal your heart he will offend your mind to reveal your heart and it's not as though the intellect is important it's just the mind will never lead you into revival you will never get there intellectually see we all love the concept of the peace that passes understanding i was looking at that word this morning because i became fascinated not for the message even but i became fascinated with this this it says the peace that surpasses understanding that word surpasses actually says it's elevated it's almost like in a governmental role it is so far superior peace is governmentally exalted and superior to all understanding it's superior it is it is intellectualism from god's perspective because it is a person and if you want the peace that passes understanding you have to give up your right to understand and it's not a message now against the mind against understanding against wisdom i believe in all those are some of my most favorite things is to understand stuff but i know by experience and i know as i read through history the heart takes you where you need to go it's the surrender of the heart it's the yieldedness to the work of the holy spirit saying god i don't know what this is but i am so hungry i remember when i flew back to toronto i we had a wonderful visitation of the lord in 1987 in weaverville and it followed uh a trip that i made with a number of our leaders uh made to anaheim to the vineyard there and john wimber and his team blaine cook and brent roo and a bunch of others they had this conference there on signs and wonders and i was so deeply impacted because they were equipping everybody to do it and uh and i knew i couldn't be the the stadium person to to do that didn't didn't fit my my gift mix or my personality and so i was so hungry and i saw how practical it was for that group of people and the teaching was the same but their their their willingness to take risk was different and i came home and miracles started right away but i have to be honest with you that visitation of god that was so extraordinary in 1987 it would come and it would lift it would land and it would lift it would come and it would go over the next seven or eight years and i remember flying back to toronto and i was praying because i heard there was a great move of god there and i remember praying on the way i said god if you'll touch me again i'll never change the subject i'll never take what you're doing and add it to what we're doing i will make what you're doing the only thing we do that was my commitment then that was my covenant with the lord then i went to toronto i was there for i don't remember now five six days and i didn't have any unique experiences many great stories uh people that i know people all around that their lives were so dramatically changed mine was too but it wasn't through uh some power encounter with god it was the fact that i i was immersed in in a presence in a glory realm of god that i knew this helped define the rest of my life and i prayed and i said god i give you the rest of my life for this one thing the move of god is something that is unnatural to not hunger for once you see it once you see it everything of christ in you rises awakens to say that's why i'm alive i was born for this this is what i was born for i remember that started in my heart i i i've been tender to the lord my whole life i remember receiving christ as a child and and i was always tender to the lord but i didn't have this passion for him i didn't i didn't have this uh this heart to seek him and to abandon everything but there was a tenderness there and i remember back in the days i was probably 19 years old 18 19 years old and chip worthington who used to be a youth pastor here and winky pratty his he he didn't come here but we heard his teachings and i would hear them talk about revival and i didn't know what revival was but something awakened in me in my late teen years that i could tell this this is why i'm alive and when i would hear the preaching of mario marillo and the exhortation that he brought to a generation to give everything for jesus i did i threw my hat in the ring said i just i give you everything from that moment on i knew i am alive for revival i am alive for the outpouring of the holy spirit i don't want to settle for what so many people have settled for i don't want to settle i don't want to think and say well let's just learn to manage what we have one of the scariest stories in the bible is the story of the talents that were given out talents of course are sums of money and there was one uh somebody was given five talents another two and another one the scary part of the story is the guy that was given the one talent didn't use that money to make more money in other words what he did was he took what he was given by god in this metaphor what god gave him and he took it and he protected it i don't want to be found living in a place of trying to protect in a stationary position in life instead of moving on seeing where this that god has given me could take me i want to use what he's given me so that i step fully into what god says is possible in my lifetime i had a uh yesterday benny and i were watching um a documentary which i don't want i probably should watch more documentaries but but i don't i i tend to watch you know spy movies and stuff like that but anyway i we were watching this documentary and i had my ipad which i usually do two things at once i'm not a good multi-tasker but i fake it you know i uh we were watching this documentary on the migration of animals and insects and there there came this moment where where i i put the ipad down because something so captured my heart and i i don't understand yet but i feel it's deeply prophetic i can feel it in my soul as i was watching they begin to show these monarch butterflies that are in this forest i guess in mexico they are there by the millions they migrate from mexico to canada but it takes four generations to get to canada a multi-generational migration oh goodness how about lost at a multi-generational migration what that means the butterfly that hangs on that tree in mexico that begins the migration to canada starts flying and then they lay eggs and they have their you know their what do you call the little worm and the cocoon and the butterfly loss for words here and there's another generation that takes on the journey and they go as far as they can go and they pass it on to the next one they die the next generation takes it until they get all the way to canada four generations to make that several thousand mile journey and then they're there in canada i guess it must be during the summer and then they make the migration back back to mexico for generations multi-generational migration where we are going not one generation can reach man this is so strong in my heart right now not one generation can reach i must go as far as i can go i must enter into everything that is possible for me to enter into and then pass it off so that the next generation could go as far as they can possibly go knowing that they've got another generation that they'll have to pass it on to multi-generational what god is doing in the earth right now is going to take a multi-generation of migration into the things of god into the things of the kingdom unlike any time we've ever seen it's where every child grows up knowing they were born with divine purpose and there is more there is more and it's not an insult to my forefathers to discover more i'm only able because i stand on the platform of their breakthrough i stand on the platform of their success this may sound a little strange to you but my my two favorite verses they're at the top of the list anyway favorite verses on revival are actually out of the book of proverbs i want to read them to you real quick the first one is proverbs 14 4 and it says where there's no oxen the manger is clean but much increase comes by the strength of the ox that's revival where there's no revival the manger's clean but when you have a great move of god get a shovel because it's always messy there is no such thing as a squeaky clean revival you only have that when you read it in history and they cleaned up the text and they removed all the offenses and all the problems people have done that through the years the shantung revival a tremendous baptist outpouring of the holy spirit in china when they reprinted the story of that they cleaned up all the messes so it's squeaky clean to the point it's boring if you want the real thing go to randy clark's website and get the story on the shantung revival because it's extraordinary god didn't remove the offensive parts of people's lives from the book the difficult parts the failures but not just the failures the things that actually cause problems for the people of god the second verse that i find so intriguing is out of proverbs 27 and another book that i that i could i consider a revival passage it's a chapter 27 and it's verse 7. a satisfied soul lows the honeycomb but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet to a person who is full they become the restaurant critic and they despise even the sweetness of the honeycomb but a person who is hungry who is really hungry every bitter thing becomes sweet it's extraordinary because i've watched this through the years where people come into a move of god and they begin to critique it as though they were a restaurant cook a critic instead of coming because they were hungry i'm not here to analyze the move of god i'm here to be wrecked by the move of god i'm here to be rearranged by the move of god what happened in wales in the early 1900s 1904 oh my goodness what a story it's one of my favorite parts of all of human history is what happened in that era evan roberts a bunch of young people the outpouring of the spirit became so strong some of the major great godly men and women from england came into wales to to not analyze that i don't want to critique criticize them they came in to see what god was doing and this is their own testimony it was such a holy movement they felt they needed to leave to let the young people run with it in other words they would contaminate it with their expertise wow what wisdom what wisdom to realize sometimes we need to just back off sometimes we need to back off jesus gave a warning about this he said don't try to pick the tares out from among the wheat lest you destroy the wheat think about that when god does a move we often times especially us as leaders we want to protect the people from errors which we should that's part of our job we want to protect them from this this ex this extreme this exaggeration and while we always have our defenses up to make sure that we protect the people jesus also gives a warning and he says here's the thing about wheat and tears they look the same the only time you can tell a difference is when it's time to harvest because the weight of the grains of wheat on the stem cause it to bow and then the tears stand up straight so jesus warns he says don't over concern yourself with the tares trying to pick out the wrong things because you'll pick up the wheat you'll pick out the right things this is a warning concerning i believe moves of god be careful that you don't become so controlling of your environment that you don't give room for god to step outside of what you approve of many people reject the move of god because they see god touch somebody else in a way they've never touched he's never touched them so in other words i become the standard my experience becomes the standard for how god can touch you and it's one of the great mistakes one of the great mistakes is that i i judge what's happening in a room by my own experience which is an arrogant posture to take because it comes with the notion saying i've experienced everything first and then he'll touch you according to how he's touched me it's just not the way it works it comes to people that are poor in spirit that are hungry like children that just want more of god they're not asking for everything to be explained they come simply asking for a father to come to show up and to do what only he can do of course there are souls saved of course there are miracles in people's bodies deliverances i've seen it in this room where the power of god comes upon a person i remember when the outpouring first started just an unbeliever would come into the room and the power of god would literally capture them capture them they didn't know what was happening to them but they would lay there and weep and weep and weep and just turn their heart toward the lord not knowing what was going on but knowing that god had chosen them i think sometimes we get accustomed to a gospel that we understand fully which means a gospel that we can control it's about control people say well this wouldn't happen uh when the holy spirit uh in a move of god because he teaches self-control self-control is a manifestation of the holy spirit's control first you have to have the holy spirit's control before you learn self-control it's giving yourself to the great great work of god i i want to read to you out of the book of joel i'm i'm i'm i'm torn because there's so many places to go here but let me let me at least let's let's do this i'm going to reach out of joel i'm going to read to you out of uh chapter 2 and then we're going to jump to acts all right so if you've got your bible before you which i hope you do um get those two places ready i was going to go to acts 19 because it's outrageous and wonderful but i just don't think i have time for it so let's just uh let's just do this today uh we'll go to joel 2 and then we're going to go to acts 2 and i want to show you something let's start in joel 2 verse 23 be glad then you children of zion rejoice in the lord your god for he has given you the former rain faithfully i think new american standard says the former rain in vindication which is interesting that the lord would vindicate us with his outpouring vindicate us in our own personal wrong decisions in life that the areas where the enemy has stolen from us the outpouring comes to fully vindicate us to display his faithfulness he will cause the rain to come down for you the former rain and the latter rain rain in in the scripture represents the outpouring of the holy spirit which we see a little later in this chapter so when you see rivers of water you see pools of water talked about you see rivers in the desert you have rain those are all symbols of of the work of the holy spirit and how manifestation of his presence jesus validates this in john chapter 7 where he refers to the holy spirit as a river but look at this again he will cause the rain to come down for you the former rain in the latter rain so the outpouring of the holy spirit in the book of acts and the outpouring of the holy spirit in the days that we live in the latter days the last day started in acts chapter 2. so if those were the last days these are really the last days then he goes into verse 28 it will come to pass afterward i will pour out my spirit on all flesh your sons and daughters will prophesy so it's both men male and female your uh old men will dream dreams young men will see visions so the age barrier is broken and also on my men's servants and maidservants i will pour out my spirit so the class barrier is broken so the outpouring of the holy spirit creates a level playing field for men women young old rich poor all of those boundaries are destroyed in the outpouring of the holy spirit in acts chapter 2 after after joel 2 was fulfilled you see an interesting response from people and if you've got your bibles look at acts 2 it says in verse 6 this would be fun to study more at a later date but right now just look at verse 6 when this sound occurred this sound is not i want to tell you now just in advance this sound is not just a crowd of people praying in tongues it is a heavenly roar that has broken into the city of jerusalem where the entire city is hearing the open heaven over that's over that city it's a roar of god and everybody in the city hears it they all drop their tools their toys their whatever they're doing and thousands begin to flock to this group of believers that are praying in tongues praying in languages they don't understand it says verse six when this sound occurred the multitude came together said they were confused because everyone heard them speak in their own language then they were amazed and they marveled it says in verse 11 we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the wonderful works of god so what was confusing was still had divine purpose verse 12 they were all amazed they were perplexed and verse 13 others were mocking so here you got it this is a good revival right here they were amazed they marveled they were confused they were perplexed and there was mocking that's how you have a move of god you're not going to have a move of god without those elements present there's always opposition to the move and if you're one who is bound by the fear of man get the heart of god over the issue don't do guilt and shame but let him touch you deep cry out for the more in the secret place in the private place we cry out for god in public we take risks we look for problems we look for places to serve in in cry in quiet along with god we cry out for the more but in public we look for opportunities for him to be displayed when i went to toronto i've already explained i i didn't have a dramatic experience at least my first time as so many around me did so many friends so many people that i now know their lives were changed it wasn't that it was the fact that the lord gave me a seed he gave me a seed he gave me the the acorn instead of the oak tree i prayed for and it would have been easy to put that aside and say this is not revival but i knew that in that seed there was enough of god to radically change the rest of my life i knew it i knew it i knew i was given a treasure having the pearl of great price i knew it had been given to me and it was small and it was nothing it was nothing extravagant enough that i could walk around and show people it wasn't that it was i knew that he had given me what i had asked for it was in seed form but i had to cultivate it and that began the season of day and night crying out for more that god would cause this seed to grow that he'd caused this that he entrusted to me that maybe others would reject this that he entrusted to me god that you would cause this to grow that you would impact our city you'd impact our church impact my life impact our nation i i prayed i prayed day and night i would wake up i'd wake up in the middle of the night praying in other words i was praying in my sleep and i would actually wake up myself up because my spirit man was so alive so contending for all that god had promised that i just i find myself unable to sleep i just wake up find myself praying i don't have time for the full story here but that lasted for eight to nine months and then the lord met me i ran faithfully with the seed but then he met me at three in the morning and everything changed everything changed everything changed if i think if you were to ask my friends from weaverville i think they would all tell you that i i didn't struggle with the fear of man because i i made courageous decisions i i was willing to go against the grain it wasn't a problem but the lord knew that there was still a seed of the fear of man in my heart and and he showed up in a way with such extreme power three o'clock in the morning that lasted all night and i i had no i had no control it was it was the raw power of god and and i knew that i knew that he wanted to know if i was if i meant it when i said god i want more of you at any cost any cost i'll panic price and he began to parade seeds see scenes in front of my eyes of me trying to communicate to the church realizing there's nobody going to believe that this that i'm experiencing is actually god the next scene i was standing in front of my favorite restaurant in town realizing not only am i going to be a laughing the point of laughter for the church it's i'm going to be a person that is mocked in our community and it was like the lord was asking me this question did you mean it when you said more at any cause and i laid there with the tears going down into my pillowcases after about 20 minutes of seeing these scenes and what it would cost me i said yes you can do anything you want with me if i get you in the exchange the increase the manifestation of your presence if i get that in the exchange you can do anything you want with me i just i just believe god is god is going to use this very strange season this pandemic now we have such prime opportunities to be alone with god we don't have the excuse of busy schedules we don't have the excuse of too many responsibilities we have we have who we are face to face with who he is and he wants to take you and he wants to take me and he's positioning us for an extreme mighty outpouring of the spirit something that will actually affect the course of history for nations it's been happening for a while but i tell you what it's on it's on the edge right now and it's about to break loose in a way we've never seen before having said all that i i know that there are many of you as believers just you just need to make the confession of the lord god i'm all in do whatever you want with me and there's some i know that are watching you've never given your life to jesus and this is probably the most awkward opportunity for me to ever say come to jesus give your life to him be forgiven brought into the family know what it is to walk as a child of god and truly give yourself that he would be glorified but i'm going to ask you do it right now just pray a simple prayer with me father i come to you as a sinner prayed out loud right where you are i come to you as a sinner i i need forgiveness please forgive me for all my sin i turn to jesus i declare jesus christ is the son of god my lord my master i give myself completely for his glory amen every believer just say god i give you everything i am to discover everything you are amen 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 discipline 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: IpsUnUlx_k0

Length: 83min 3sec (4983 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021