Bill Johnson Sermons [September 14, 2021] | Hearing God's Voice

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 hey i felt like uh something i was supposed to do today uh uh it's like we're pulling our car into the bay at the repair shop we're gonna get a little tune-up something that uh that we have pretty good training and real good exposure we've uh been working on for a lot of years as the concept of testimony and the prophetic nature of a testimony so to do this right i've i've got to take you on just a little bit of a personal journey oh goodness 30 i don't know 38 years something like that ago i was pastoring in uh in weberville and i was in my office and i was reading praying reading in the morning i was going through the book of revelation and i came to this verse in revelation 19 10 it says the testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy and when i was reading through revelation when i came to that verse it just it's just one of those moments you know that you have in god words it's kind of like it's on neon lights and like something happened here that i can't explain i love learning here first because you your your heart can fit where your head can't fit so it's it's he invites us into things that we have perception of here that we can't comprehend and it's it's a wonderful way to learn so anyway i sense life on that verse and i actually stopped i stopped my reading i looked at that verse i said god there's something here i know you want to teach me and i said please show me what this means show me what this means went on through the the morning and is that afternoon maybe you know an hour two two hours three hours later i was in uh i was in in my office and uh just doing work and one of the guys from the church came and stood in the doorway from the sanctuary my uh this our church facility at the time the sanctuary was here there was a door came into my office so he stood in the doorway and he walked in he said i said bill i said come on in sit down he said no he says i've got to get back to work i just wanted to tell you of the miracle that god has done in healing my marriage and he stands there in the doorway and he gives me you know a three or four minute synopsis of the miracle that god had done in his marriage and so i i thanked him for the report he turned to leave and he got about this far away and he turned around and he said you can tell this story to anyone you want you can tell my story to anyone you want i knew in that moment that something just happened that was connected to my prayer that morning i couldn't have taught on it i couldn't have explained it but i could tell they were related they had just shared a testimony with me and he was giving me permission to repeat that story so let's take the verse the testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy the testament of jesus say it with me the testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy let's do it again the testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy all right number one the testimony of jesus is is a spoken or written record of anything he's done all right so the testament of jesus is a spoken or written record of anything that he's done the spirit of prophecy is that prophetic anointing prophetic mantle so what is prophecy then prophecy is in two realms that i understand one is to foretell the future a prophet will describe something is about to happen on such and such a day but i think predominantly the prophetic is used not to foretell but to do something else and that is to change present situations the prophetic will be used to make a decree that actually changes the reality that an individual a family church city nation uh is facing it's the word of the lord is released and it changes the situation so think of it this way the testimony of jesus carries with the weight of heaven to alter the reality of a problem or situation that we're facing it carries that it's written into the dna of a testimony that it has that ability to actually change reality change realities so i uh i was in uh rochester minnesota i was with a dear friend there assembly got church and um i i had spoken at a night meeting i'd spent some time praying for a young lady she had uh she had been in a snowmobile accident her ankle was put back together with pins and and you know metal stuff to make it work and so she had pain she had restricted movement she had all that going on in her ankle and uh so now i'm just telling you the only way i know to learn in some of these things is to either have a mentor or to experiment and since i didn't know anyone who knew anything about the power the prophetic nature of the testimony of jesus we had to experiment so the safest way to experiment is with people that you know and trust that you live accountable to so that if you overextend yourself they reel you back in and you you clean up your mess but but you have you have to be you have to be willing to experiment if you're gonna if you're gonna try to touch new things so so um this gal comes to me uh the nick i pray for this night she comes to me the next morning and she says she said bill you prayed for me last night i said yeah how is your ankle she said when i got up this morning i was getting dressed and my husband looked at my leg and said hey that wasn't there before and she looks down she was actually missing a part of this calf muscle because of this accident and it grew back overnight it grew back so it is it's there it grew back overnight so i thought well that's so cool i said here tell her you know we've got probably i don't know 20 or 30 people in this meeting it was a morning meeting and and so i said tell them the story and um and so she tells the uh their testimony that the accident and the missing muscle and then it actually grew back overnight and so as soon as she starts going back to her seat there's a gal sitting right here on the front row from a toronto that was a friend of the house she was but she was visiting she walked right up to me after the scale leave she said she says to me if god did that for her certainly he would do that for me now she had she had a brilliant understanding of the kingdom the number one god is no respecter of persons what he's done for one he'll do for another it doesn't have us in categories where these people get special things and these people get the crumbs it's not how he works so she understood that number one number two she understood that god is the same yesterday today and forever so something he's done at another time he'll he'll do again so she says what uh if god did that for her certainly he would do that for me and so i called the gal that just got healed i called her back he said come back here and then the pastor's wife they came up they prayed for they watched she had had been in an accident and had to actually go through therapy to learn to walk again because she's missing a part of this muscle in in the leg she actually had to learn how to walk again so that's why she wants prayer so the pastor's wife and this young lady come up they lay hands on her and they watch and before their eyes the muscle forms and is is recreated it's a creative miracle in the moment in that instant that's that's amazing two other women came up it's like an epidemic of calf muscle problems you know it's like how do you get that many people in that small of a crowd that all have something similar with her with her leg muscle so two other gals come up one had been kicked by a horse and destroyed a portion of the muscle she had a growth in its place and the other one i don't remember the details but they prayed they watched the the growth the tumor disappeared the muscle fill the fourth one the same thing so uh we of course we we celebrated just the kindness of the lord and doing such unusual things in such a such a small group of people it's just amazing i flew from there to another city in tennessee and um i don't remember the name of the town though it wasn't nashville it wasn't a place that i normally go to and uh i was with there with a with a good friend and so i gave them the stories of these healings these of these four uh leg muscle things and a medical doctor was there who had broken his leg a year earlier uh the muscles had atrophied he had restricted movement a lot of pain and so he he won a prayer so he came up and i had a bunch of students with me they prayed for him and he came to me sometime later in the evening and wanted to give me a report i said i said what's going on with your leg he said he said the pain is all gone he says i've got all the movement back but i was curious about the muscle thing you know because we we gotta we got a roll going here of muscles just going back i said how how's the muscle the atrophied muscles in your leg he said i can feel the skin stretching so i i flew home and i shared those five stories here on a sunday morning probably and there was a gal here that i think it was two weeks later we were in a small meeting we used to uh we were taking some time to pray over some folks and in a separate private meeting there was maybe uh 15 or 20 of them we were praying and she says but uh she says i need to tell your story she said two weeks ago do you remember when you gave the testimonies of the of god healing the legs the muscles i said yeah i do she said i broke my leg a year earlier the muscles had atrophied i had restricted movement and pain and while you were giving the testimonies my leg turned hot and we have since learned hot is good her leg turned hot and she was completely healed without anybody praying so so what happened is uh i started stewarding these stories and i would experiment um i would give a story and then we would find out what god was doing now how many of you have heard testimonies before in church you know deliverance from drugs healing of bodies whatever it might be the stories i grew up on hearing them and they were always so encouraging and so exciting but i don't remember one time in all my years of growing up where a testimony was given and a miracle followed as well as a result of the story and yet it is in god's plan it's in his dna so adjusting how we think actually puts us in line for how he moves adjusting how we think adjusting what we expect i was on the coast with uh once again with a bunch of our students and we were we had a a meeting there that ended up it's i think it's the only meeting in my life i lost complete control of and i'm not a control freak i just out control freak but i like to direct the traffic you know i like to make sure this person is healed and this person gives testimony and stuff but i i lost control of everything i finally i did i finally quit i finally just got into the fray because it was i realized i can't get this meeting back so forget it they're having all the fun and i'm trying to direct traffic so so i uh [Applause] i got down into the into the fray with people and i mean we this is where we've got uh empty wheelchair we've got a wheelchair being passed up over people's heads up to the front and a gal with a permanent nerve damage down the right side of her or one side of the body i forget which side was completely healed blind eye was open deafness was open all kinds of stuff so the students come to me and they said we just prayed for this little boy with club feet and god healed him i said well bring him to me i want to see him so they went got this little guy's three years old and his feet are like this and he's got scabs on the tops of his feet because they were on the bottom of the feet where he would he would drag them and he's three so a little guy named chris so he's bending over he's playing with the scabs he's touching the scabs because they were out of view before you know now now he sees so he's touching the scabs and one of his little friends comes out a little girl comes up to him says run chris run so he takes off in this like this 20-foot circle he runs he comes running back to this little girl and he says i can run i can run his eyes are like this you know his his face is lit up with joy oh man it's just enough to wreck you you know for the rest of your life you never forget the look on that face so he comes back he says i can run i can run so we we bring the story home of course and i i share the story here we had somebody visiting us from out of state and they had i think three children if i remember right and one of them was a little girl almost two years old her feet were turned in so severe that she would trip over her own feet when she would try to run she was in her child care and so i taught on the concept of the testimony and then i gave the testimony of the club feet she hears the concept that god intends to duplicate miracles did i mention this the hebrew word the old testament word for testimony comes from a word that means do again that the very nature when he says keep a testimony keep a record of what i want to duplicate of what i want to do again it was never meant to be a historical factor that pointed to an old event it was supposed to be a present tense reality that releases the activity of god into present situations and so i i taught on that just briefly i shared the testimony she she says in her heart she says i'll take that from my little girl when the meeting is over she goes over to get her little girl and her little girl's feet are already straight nobody prayed for it nobody [Applause] wow [Applause] that hurts a friend of mine would say if that doesn't light your fire your wood is wet so yeah that's that's amazing so i take that story those two stories and i i was with mahesh and bonnie shoved how many know the shavdas in north carolina wonderful people dear friends of ours were we we ministered there every year with them and they've been here many many times so i i was there and i was talking about a series of it happens to be one of the times i was teaching on the concept of the testimony and giving them stories and in giving the stories i talked about the club feet i talked about the little girl and some other leg issue stories so uh after the meeting we spent a little bit of time with mahesh and bonnie and and then our we have a driver someone who takes us from the hotel to the meeting from the meeting back to the hotel so he's from brazil so he he uh meets us at the end of the meeting and we get into the car and he says i just got a phone call from and i don't remember enough it's his sister-in-law or her sister but he says i just got a phone call and my sister let's say it was my sister was watching tonight's meeting on on the internet on live tv and she has a little girl about 10 or 11 years old that has deformed feet she's a beautiful young lady but not only the inconvenience of a problem with the feet but people just stare at their feet so it's it's not only a natural issue it's an issue emotionally and so the mother is watching online she hears the story the series of stories and at the end of it she calls her daughter who's down at the other end of the house she calls her name the little girl comes into the hallway and says yes mommy and the the mother looks at her daughter and says take her shoes off she removes her shoes and she says come here as she walks towards her mother god heals her feet completely they completely completely straighten up you know it's it's it's not a tool that we use to manipulate it's the it's the privilege to broadcast the nature of god because every testimony reveals the nature of god and reveals his covenant with man the nature of god in his covenant with us i was in the modesto and um i was uh a wonderful assembly of that church there which is which is my history so i have a special fondness for the assemblies and i was i was in this uh and it ended up it was another healing meeting and great stuff's happening but this gal comes up to me towards the end she just walks up to me she said her first words out of her mouth the voices stopped i went all right um help me understand give me give me some story here she says the voice has stopped i said okay tell me what was happening at that point her father walks up who's a retired surgeon and he begins to explain to me she has bipolar she's had bipolar she's on medication she her particular issue she was constantly hearing voices and now nobody prayed for this was during worship the voices stopped and the voice has stopped she's trying to figure out what do i do because she has this lifestyle of many many years i think i memorized 13 years of medication treatments whatever so now both the dad and the daughter are talking to me want to know what do we do and so i try to give them advice how to navigate this uh this that the that god is doing and so that was a i believe it was a thursday night not the next sunday but a week later should be ten days later i was standing right back there and this gentleman walks up to me says do you remember me he said i was in modesto you you talked to me about my daughter and his his words to me were i have my daughter back i have my daughter back absolutely no effects no medication nothing she's completely restored in every possible way and it was during worship it's during worship so i i stood up here and shared the testimony that we have this uh case of bipolar being healed there were two men in the room at that time that both had had both had bipolar for over 20 years each and the moment it came out of my mouth instantly they were both healed instantly sometimes this process but in this situation it was instantly they were healed we quit counting about 10 uh 10 maybe 12 years ago the bipolar healings but for a season or where we just kept counting them and there was something like 60 or 65 of them but i think only three or four were actually prayed for all the rest were healed either in worship or in a testimony just hearing the report of the lord now the testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy old testament testimony comes from a word that means to do again new testament it is the prophetic nature of the work of god i want to read a quote to you how many of you know who charles spurgeon was one of the great great heroes of the faith an amazing pastor from england and he made this comment july 17 1859 and no i was not there but uh but it was it was it was recorded all right there we go i have to lean you know that's my crutch all right here's what he said he preached a message called the story of god's mighty acts and here's the statement he made he says when people hear about what god used to do one of the things they say is oh that was a very long while ago i thought it was god that did it has god changed is he not an immutable god the same yesterday today and forever does not that furnish an argument to prove that what god has done at one time he can do at another nay i think i shall push it a little further and say what he has done once is a prophecy of what he intends to do again whatever god has done is to be looked upon as a precedent let us with earnestness seek what god would restore to us in the uh the faith of these old men that we may richly enjoy the grace as in the days of old so here in 1859 the body of christ has an opportunity to step into a reality that i don't think was very common i've never read one other person write or talk about this reality and yet it's as plain as can be in scripture the nature of testimony and the and the spirit of prophecy and revelation and yet spurgeon makes this announcement with incredible influence and i don't know what happened but it appears to me it just got reduced to a good sermon instead of an invitation to explore what might be possible if we actually treasured the record of what god has done so now fast forward the book of deuteronomy is the is the book that from what i understand young men jewish young men would would uh need to learn and memorize and it's kind of the cultural book of the of the the books of law and and i i love i used to read it and read it re-read it re-read it because in it was the instruction to train your children raise them up in specific ways and which is a huge part of my life so um i i i was reading through and he says in deuteronomy 6 he says keep the commandment keep the statutes and keep the testimony keep the commandment keep the statutes keep the testimony okay we know what it means to keep a commandment he says you worship on this day you worship on this day so he would give them specific commandments you offer this kind of an offering this kind of a sacrifice you just do what he says so keeping a commandment a commandment is to obey god what is keeping a statute keeping the statutes of god is where he is teaching us his value system so in a commandment he is telling you what to think but in a statute he's telling you how to think that was better than your response in a commandment he's telling you what to think in the statutes he's telling you how to think he's actually showing you his perception on reality and how he how he how he navigates it wants us to navigate life so he says keep the commandment keep the statutes and then he says keep the testimony how do you keep a testimony i mean it's not like doing something you know it's not like sacrificing an ox or something it's it's it's you're supposed to hold on to something and my conclusion uh through studying especially in the gospel of mark uh in the the lifestyle of jesus that keeping the testimony basically means this to me is that i hold the record of god's interventions among people so close to me that they become the lenses through which i see present problems or challenges in other words i interpret them through a history with god a prescribed history with god has now given me lenses through which to see possibility in a problem instead of just a problem the nature of god in a situation how is god going to become triumphant now in this situation oh that's amazing it's amazing but because we actually have the ability to steward the record of god's supernatural intervention so well that they become how we see they become the place from which we think the place from which we see the place from which we act the place from which we pray testimony it's not just an exciting encouraging moment just a moment in a service or in our life we we just kind of get a boost of encouragement strength it's much more than that it is imagine elijah standing in front of you prophesying that's what a testimony is it is prophesying this is the heart of god this is the nature of god this is the covenant of god and it is available to you that's what a testimony is i want you to look with me at psalm 68 if you would i had a guy come up to me once [Music] at a conference he said i i said um he said i'm 34 years old 25 years ago when i was nine i broke my leg when it healed it grew past the other one inch and a half and i've got problems with my back now i'm a contractor i've got issues with my back because my broken leg when it healed it just got happy and went past the other one happy was my turn not his and he said have you ever seen a lake shrink before because he's wanting to know if there's a testimony for so i figure if we haven't there's always got to be a first time right so i paused for a moment i thought i thought you see yes i have i've seen it happen i was in an italian restaurant with a pastor friend of mine in sacramento he had been in a snowmobile accident when they put him back together apparently they had too many parts because he had a leg that was too long so he's telling me in the restaurant i said i'll just turn your chair aside so in the italian restaurant you know the nice linen table claws and everything we just i just give me your leg so we'll lift his legs up and i command the long leg just to shrink so it just shrinks just like that he goes back to the therapist told me later he said therapist said it's perfect everything's just right so i so i told the guy yes i've seen it happen i said get a chair and of course if we've never seen it get a chair anyway because there's got to be a first time so he sits down and i'm holding his leg and sure enough he's got a leg that's an inch and a half longer than the other one sorry i'm laughing i'm holding i'm holding his legs up and uh and sure enough one is is an inch and a half longer than the other and i just had this moment where i thought should i shrink the long one or should we see if god would cool the normal one now it took me 10 seconds to ponder but i i just kind of surprised myself by saying you know to the normal leg to grow it's kind of like the guy who says i don't want to think before i speak i want to be as surprised as everyone else and that was that was kind of how i how i was in that moment i found myself saying to the normal leg i said in jesus name uh grow and we just watched oh it's this one's too long i've got to watch my time here this one's kind of a weird story it grows it grows and then it shoots past the other one i'm not kidding i i would give anything to have a video of this moment because the guy's in pain how many of you had growing pains when you were a kid yeah so did he 34 years old he got like two years of growth in in a moment his leg is sticking out there and i'm on the outside i'm acting like oh yeah this happens on the inside i'm saying oh jesus i'm searching my heart how do i pray now that's honest my question how do i pray now and i remembered the word shalom in the bible shalom the word shalom is of course we notice the word peace but it is one of the fullest most pregnant words in the bible it's sound mind it's prosperity financially it's divine health it's all these things anything you'd ever ask for in life it's wrapped up in that word so what i'm thinking is that word's got to cover this so i prayed with all the confidence in the world jesus help me i just prayed now lord i just pray that you release the peace the shalom of heaven over this man and and it just evened out perfectly the testimony prophesied uh sometimes you just do dumb things and sometimes the lord just honors it anyway i was i was in another city there was a gal there completely deaf ear that opened up she had had bone cancer and they replaced this bone with metal and uh and they made it she had the surgery when she's 15 they made an inch and a half too long because they knew she'd grow into it or she didn't grow anymore and so she's got the same kind of issue and so she has to put her deaf ear open and then pray for a leg having had a recent experience with growing the wrong leg that whole situation it was fresh in my mind i thought i'm not messing with this so i she was laid out on the floor so i got out on the floor and spoke to the leg and it it actually the metal part actually shrunk came back into the line she came to me the next day she said i'm so glad that you you had the metal leg shrink and i said why is that she said because if you didn't the doctors would have said see we told you you'd grow into it if i go the other way so sometimes you look good when you don't deserve it that's what's my conclusion is i did not know what i was doing psalm 78 are you there we've got a few minutes late left i went 78 is what i meant did i say 60 well you know what just have a good time in 68 because it's a great chapter it's let god arise his enemies be scattered it's a great chapter but i'm going to be reading out of psalm 78 so if you want to join me join me psalm 78 we'll start what right with uh verse three is referring to dark sayings and parables he says which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us we will not hide them from their children telling to the generation to come the praises of the lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done what just happened there now think while you're reading this they are being exhorted to train their children on not only the report of the law of god the commandments but to train him with the report of his wonderful works which is what that's a testimony yes yes all right verse 5 he established a testimony in jacob he appointed a law in israel which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children that the generation to come might know them the children who would be born that they may arise and declare them to their children so if you can see this was a pattern of a value system for the spoken or written record of all that god's done to be given to this generation they would give it to the next generation they'd give to the next generation now it tells us why and this is important verse 7 that they may set their hope in god there's something about the testimony that conditions or positions a child or an adult to position himself to place hope in god when a trial comes their instinctive response is i'm going to trust god he's the god who works wonders i don't understand what he's going to do i don't know how he's going to do it but i'm going to trust him where did that come from it came because the cloud of their heart so so to speak was seated with this thought that god is faithful in impossible situations so here it says it says that they may set their hope in god and not forget his works the works of god keep his commandments are you guys still alive you sure you're still alive all right what i want you to notice is is not forgetting the works of god and keeping the commandments the testimony and the courage to obey they're connected this is really a big deal because what what we do for ourselves what we do for our children our grandchildren we set the stage for them to have courage because it takes courage to obey god it takes courage we want courageous obedience radical obedience out of my life that's what i want so here he says we keep the testimony going multiple generations why so that they'll put hope in god and that their they're they won't forget the works of god and will have the courage to obey god now he illustrates it in the next three verses all right verse nine that the children of ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle they did not keep the covenant of god they refused to walk in his law they forgot his works and his wonders that he had shown them okay walk through this these three verses with me verse nine the children of ephraim are armed in other words they're prepared for battle they're skilled they're trained for battle they've got all the equipment necessary he said the children of ephraim being armed and carrying those turned back in the day of battle so why did they turn back in in why did they become cowardly when there was a conflict verse 10 tells you because they didn't keep the covenant of god they refused to walk in his law how do you know if you're not walking into obedience spiritual warfare is not where you want to be because you you become very vulnerable so they turn back in a day of battle why because they didn't they had not been walking in obedience why weren't they walking in obedience verse 11. they forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them there is something about the testimony that instinctively breathes into our soul a courage for radical obedience it's a part of the process it's how you keep strong in your confidence and faith in god what happens if if the the testimony of the lord if we decline in sharing testimony then we see miracles less if we see miracles less we expect them less if we expect them less we talk about them less we talk about them less we see them less we expect there's this downward spiral into the point where miracles have become a mere part of our history some time ago god used to do such and such which is where so much of the church is right now it was in their history it was in israel's history it was in the the book of acts it was it was the memory of something that happened back there but it's not a current reality it's not a present tense experience and the testimony is supposed to become that which invites us into this relational journey where we learn how to take we learn how to take these things that god has said and we simply trust god we put our lives on the line to take risks to see what he might do and it's simply because i've been built up by the record of the supernatural interventions of god [Music] i love it when god will give us a glimpse of what he's doing because it's fun to gain an understanding but oftentimes he moves and i'm just clueless um i'm a clueless observer that's just frantically trying to learn i'm not a facilitator in a sen you know in the sense that i made anything happen i'm just i'm i've told him i said god i just want to be in the room it doesn't have to come from me i just want to be a part and there are there are things that he does the moment in dallas where pray for this individual who with the lightning of god literally goes through him from head to toe and he's completely delivered and healed of schizophrenia completely he comes to me a year later in his right mind completely because god brought a miracle to him he ended up going to africa and ministered i think he personally was able to bring liberty and freedom through his own testimony to about 40 people that were considered insane mentally gone it's a testimony it's it's like god has give you imagine being given um you know you know a priceless uh gem uh how do you know if you've been if somebody comes to you and says i'll give you a million dollars if you can wear this ring it's worth 10 million dollars you can't lose it but you have to wear it you can't put it hide it away how many of you think you've got that ring on your hand you're going to be looking at it all day long you're going to be wrapping tape you're going to do all kinds of stuff to make sure we don't lose this thing all right i'm aware of the value of what's on my hand are you aware of the value of what's in your mouth it's the record it's the it's the revelatory testimony of the heart the nature the covenant of god that actually invites people into a personal relationship with jesus paul when he was in trouble he would revert to his personal story into his own testimony it's not just the miracles of healing it's the deliverance salvation is the greatest miracle of all and everybody in this room has that kind of a story i believe that god wants to give us an upgrade and this will sound a little strange but but actually the whole thing's been rather strange so it's that's if if you want to if you want to change the atmosphere of a room go to you know say a restaurant go into a restaurant three or four people sit down and take the first 20 minutes only to share miracle stories i don't mean miracle stories so that you impress people around you i mean so that the atmosphere changes because the angelic realm is fascinated by your perspective of jesus the son of god and they love hearing the stories of what you've had happen what you've seen what you know about him they are enthralled with him but every story we share they catch another glimpse of what he's like through the eyes of someone who is redeemed simply sharing stories i feel like the lord would just give us an upgrade in this area we're we're going to be touching you know i'm thankful beyond words on what i've seen happen to what we've seen happen we've seen happen in this room what we've seen happen in our city i just it floors me sometimes i i get in here early sunday morning i just walk around and i just i just remember oh colon cancer was healed here a woman after 50 some years in a wheelchair gets out right there after a stroke she walks right over here um ms multiple sclerosis was healed west nile or no m.e this same person had several conditions they were healed just walk around this room the guy who was run over by a 14-ton truck completely crushed his ankle and he receives prayer over here there's a pop his nut his ankle turns cold there's a pop and it's completely totally you completely here just go through the store one after the other the woman who who uh could hardly open her mouth and just very little movement because he broke her jaw ten years earlier and there was very little movement extreme pain to open her mouth wide the dentist they didn't have time to give her any kind of uh novocaine or anything because of the pain she suffered with and yet one sunday morning just simply praying for those with broken bones she's instantly completely totally healed right back over here a man with prostate cancer that's healed a woman right down here a tumor in her breast just simply devol dissolves and the stories go on and on and on and on there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them but none of them are badges of honor they're all records of a of a god who is willing to work in and through very imperfect people he just he just looks for people that have a value for his nature and will give him an opportunity to do what he does best he works in the impossible i'm there in the journey and i believe in this fall season we've got some stuff coming up in another couple weeks three weeks maybe we're going to be targeting this even more not the testimony side but the miracle round because i believe it's a season for an upgrade to season five and it's honestly for everybody in this room you know jesus asked the questions of his disciples once they were they were bewildered by the challenge that he had just given him they they just it's one of these moments they're they're literally just beside themselves bewildered and so he then asked them this series of questions and these series of questions have helped me a lot he asked his disciples because they were they were concerned about not having enough food after he just multiplied food you know like the day before which is it just comforts me to see other people that think as dumb as i do i just and when it's in the bible i just feel so much better and so they're puzzled by this and then jesus asked them a series of questions he says can you see and you can tell they're not answering so he says can you hear and they're still just staring and he says can you remember those questions have helped me incredibly because there are times i'm i'm tr i i'm always trying to see i'm always trying to see what is god doing i'm always trying to hear what is he saying so let's just say in a moment like this i'm just trying to discern what is it the lord is doing around the room and so he comes to me and he says can you see and my heartfelt response is no i i don't see anything so then he says what can you hear well my hearing's better than my scene but at the moment i don't hear anything and then he says can you remember yes i can i can remember i can remember i can remember flying back from new zealand after having spent some time with great hero of the faith for me winky pratny it had a stroke his brain part of his brain literally just blew up and he was completely healed restored in his right mind i was on the plane thinking about this miracle of healing with the brain and i recall to my mind roland baker a wonderful friend of our house had had x-rays of his brain actually dying and the lord completely healed him raised him up so i'm thinking on the plane flying back from new zealand these are the two smartest men i have ever met and god restored their brains i'll bet god is healing brains i'll bet that's what he's doing can you see i don't see it and i don't hear it but i i can remember and the the more i remember the better i hear and the more i hear the better i see so we came in here on a sunday and i called out i said god is healing brains we had right back here you remember this kevin you were right back here praying for this young lady she's in fact we have the testimony in video she was dying she was dying terminal systemic lupus of the brain chris had a word of knowledge but somebody had a blow to the head she's right back there and she would uh when she'd get up in the morning sometimes she'd pass out and she'd be unconscious for 30 days 30 days she's dying of this of this disease and chris has this word of knowledge and pray here's this moment god is healing brains and what happens she's completely healed her mother looks at her the next morning says you look like you did before the accident before the accident she then comes to the school of ministry i think she's in oxford right now she's in some smart school because she's a smartie [Applause] smart so the lord heals a young kid over here he had a head that was misshapen because of abuse he was two years old i think he was two and it misshapen he was very disconnected he didn't associate with people he'd wake up in the morning he's very disconnected and some of our students prayed for him after this announcement god is healing brains and they pray for this child the next morning the child comes into his mother which is a miracle comes into the mother and said i had a dream last night excuse me he was four so this happened until the time he was two he said i had a dream last night i'm okay now and they examined him and his head was back to normal shape god is healing brains why don't you stand there can you see yeah i'm not seeing much can hear i try sometimes i hear can you remember can you remember folks listen to me you have a responsibility this is not a pastoral issue this is not a ministry team issue this is a people of god issue what have you seen god do here's the great news you may say i've hardly ever seen anything happen i mean my own is a great miracle but i've never seen healing or or deliverance or any of those things and that's you know that's totally fine i had a long season in my life where i'd never seen anything but there's a verse in psalms 119 verse 111 and it makes this statement the testimony of the lord is your inheritance forever think about it the testimony of the lord is your inheritance forever what is the testimony of the lord it's the full record of anything he has ever done on planet earth he did it with moses he did it with the elijah with david with paul with whoever it's your story it's your testimony no you didn't get it the full record of god's activity with people is your inheritance why is that important why is that important because the scripture says they overcame him by the blood of the lamb there's the legal basis and the word of your testimony so now the word of my testimony is not just what i have experienced in my life but it includes what you've experienced so i hear your story that's a part of my weaponry that's a part of the tools that i use to ensure i walk in victory in this present situation so father i pray for a fresh fresh grace that you'd inspire us from the inside out to treasure their record the reports of the miracles the interventions of god that we've seen and that we're about to see that we would never treat them carelessly or casually but we could together again stand in all and celebrate you for your kindness your mercy that would do such extraordinary things with such simple simple people as we are i ask this that the name of jesus would be exalted thanks for listening to the sermon of the week this weekly podcast is being translated into multiple languages please visit podcasts.ibethel.org [Music] 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 you know it's been an unusual season as the greatest understatement of our lifetime perhaps but um it's been pretty it's been pretty amazing too and what we've there's several things that i feel like the lord has been wanting to teach us um i certainly don't have a handle on it all but there's a couple of things that stand out to me strong number one the government of god rests on the two or three gathered in his name and we've been forced to learn that at a level that um that we've not seen before and i pray that that truth expands explodes in every person's heart the second thing is out of the passage in psalms 107 20 says and he sent his word and healed him and what we have been seeing so incredibly so is the power of a declared word over zoom over youtube over bethel tv over facetime phone calls etc i actually know of two resurrections from the dead that have taken place one one took place um i'm not going to give the details just because i need to protect that but one actually was after a death certificate was signed by a doctor in a hospital of a woman of of another faith and the nurse was so grieved she just said god this one didn't have a chance to know you and uh and prayed i think it was three hours two to three hours after uh pray for she raised from the dead shared the gospel of course she received christ so that's and her good friend jean-luc in switzerland has had that that one in fact two of them another one was a suicide and the lord in his mercy raised that one from the dead so uh we've also had our healing rooms have been functioning uh online but they've been functioning and have been great numbers of people i mean some out of comas we've had of course the covid stuff people healed all the symptoms stuff just gone so jesus is still at work even though it's not been here in person as much as as any of us would like um i did feel uh this morning especially during the worship time and then kind of the sealing touch was uh about the the house of healing and i i did want to make a a decree i i sense that the lord is as healing somebody who's got muscle damage down the right leg there's some sort of an affliction or something there on the right leg and muscle damage that the lord is healing and restoring there's also uh it's probably more than one that's why i don't have exact year but it's between 10 and 15 years there was trauma an accident of some sort and migraines from the back of the head that go forward debilitating migraines that jesus is healing right now and the second thing of the third thing is uh there's a a some sort of a deterioration or something of the bones of the inner ear and the lord is uh breaking that cycle and restoring it's a creative miracle and so if you're online or in the room uh and that belongs to you grab hold of it and uh because it's a it's a wonderful wonderful work of grace here's the amazing thing he said he sent his word and healed him he he told the centurion he said uh your servant as well he just made the announcement to him and when he got home he was able to see exactly what jesus said and it happened the hour he spoke it and i believe that this season as much as i don't like it as much as i would so much rather all of us be together and get this place packed out again with our family many times a day it's a privilege to see how effective and how powerful a declared word is it's not make-believe it's not a truth that belongs to one stream in the body of christ it is something that has been assigned to each of us and the very fact that god spoke the worlds into being should bring conviction to our hearts about our responsibility over our speech and that we have the opportunity to speak life we have the opportunity to speak death it all comes from our mouth and i i know that people use the use the tool for person to gain i get that but it doesn't negate the power of the tool the tool is effective life and death is in the power of time i'm actually going to talk to you about it today so open your bibles to isaiah 56 of isaiah 56 and what a joy to have charlotte in the room today charlotte is charlotte is the happy worshiper in the back and we are so thrilled that she finally gets to come back into the house so all right isaiah 56 it's gonna take me a little while to kind of build a case i guess but let's let's go ahead and just start with the verse 3 isaiah 56 verse 3 do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the lord speak saying the lord has utterly separated me from his people nor let the eunuch say here i am a dry tree for thus says the lord to the eunuch who keeps my sabbaths chooses what pleases me holds fast my covenant even to them i will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters and i will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the lord to serve him and who love the name of the lord to be his servants to everyone who keeps from defiling the sabbath who holds fast my covenant even them i will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offering sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations verse 8 the lord god who gathers the outcasts of israel says yet i will gather tim others besides who are not gathered to him very fasting portion of scripture to me um probably a month or two a month some some time recently as i was going through uh isaiah in my in my daily reading um these verses just really left out at me for several reasons one i want you just to take note then in verse three it says twice don't let somebody say this and then it says and don't let don't let the foreigner say i'm outside of god's plan and don't let the eunuch who cannot reproduce don't let him say of himself i am fruitless i cannot bear fruit. this is interesting that we actually have been given a responsibility to protect the speech of another person it's fascinating it all leads up to one profound conclusion and that is that the house of god is a house of prayer it's a house on a mountain so we have the picture in the old testament of mount zion and david's tabernacle it's a place of continuous worship ihop mike bickel and his amazing ministry has captured this theme probably better than anyone the harpoon bowl the harp of ministry to god the bull the overflow of intercession prayer for the nations of the world and that profound picture is the nature of the house of god but this passage here which says my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations i i think the only thing i ever heard this described as was it was a pray a place where we pray for the nations and that's not what's being said that's that's not the decree at all i mean we do that but that's not the decree the amazing revelation of this verse is every nation has reserved seating in the house of god every nation has reserved sitting every nation has a place of priority seating to be in this place to make a difference and this word prayer is fascinating because it's not just what we normally think of as a petitioning it's a word that actually means to intervene to intervene you hear of an intervention somebody's doing an intervention perhaps there's somebody that you know that uh is horribly addicted to drugs and they just cannot break that cycle maybe they're in a marriage where there's horrible abuse whatever it might be there's an intervention groups of people will get together and they'll stand right in the middle of the problem and they will say we're not going to let you destroy your life with this drug any longer we're not going to let you abuse your wife any longer we're not going to let and we step in and actually intervene and this house of prayer that's being described here that's actually known in the previous statement as a house of joy in prayer so benny you got it right the joyful intercessor yes yes indeed you got you nailed it you did good this whole house of prayer is people who care enough to intervene to step right in the middle of where the conflict is going and in prayer take that posture that says not on my watch not on my watch there's an intervention going on we'll bring two or three in agreement together once again the government of god rests and is displayed upon two or three that are in agreement the presence of god the government of god is released with unity with the heart of god so we have this very fascinating portion of scripture so i want to back up to verse 3 and let's just read through it again do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the lord speak saying the lord has utterly separated me from his people stop right there under old testament law the jews had access to god the gentiles didn't i mean there was a way they could come in but the point was is the the people of god was the nation of israel and yet the lord through the prophet isaiah is interjecting there's a season change coming and with this season change don't speak the language of the old season and i'll tell you what probably most every one of us in this room need to change our language about 2020. [Applause] don't let the foreigner who uses logic and reason an even biblical principle that was right for that season but not right for this one don't let them say it the foreigner is the one who just wasn't born in the right family line some of you have no christian history in at all in your family line you're the first fact how many of you you're first generation believer no the first generation believer does not have the right anymore not in grace to say i just don't have the momentum of believers in my history it's illegal it's illegal why because you're in a season of inheritance and in inheritance you actually obtain by grace the momentum of prior generations verse 3 nor let the eunuch say here i am a dry tree for thus says the lord to the eunuch who keeps my sabbaths etc i will give them a name a name in my house better than the names of sons and daughters what's the point the eunuch was either born that way there was a physical problem in birth or generally they were made that way by the ruling king that wanted perhaps eunuchs to guard their queen's household or something i mean it was done that way so most of the time almost always it was either an unfortunate thing that happened at birth or something was done to them and the one who feels disqualified because of something done to them don't let them say it don't let them sit because god is able to do something in this moment that makes them more fruitful than the sons and daughters who have logical and correct inheritance of having children who have children who have children it reminds me a lot of a passage just a couple chapters earlier where the prophet exhorts a woman really israel but a woman shout for joy barren one you who have borne no child because the sons of the desolate woman will become more numerous than the sons of the married woman shout for joy here's a woman she cannot have children shout for joy why because you're going to you're going to move from a natural ability to reproduce into a supernatural ability and in the supernatural capacity you will surpass those who had a head start you will surpass those who had everything going for them that you weren't born with don't let them talk themselves to where they're locked into an old season verse 6 says the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the lord to serve him to love his name to be his servants everyone who keeps from defiling the sabbath holds fast my covenant even them i will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer make them joyful in my house of prayer how about we make it an ambition to be known for joy now it's available so it's not like we have to fake it it's it's a stream that's flowing all the time you just gotta have to step into what's already there make them joyful in my house of intervention their burnt offerings their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar from my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations every nation has reserved seating in this house now look at verse 8. the lord god who gathers the outcasts of israel says yes i will gather to him others besides those who are gathered to him this word outcast means banished a citizen of israel was banished rejected from society because of sin so we have the eunuch something was done to him but the banished ones they were punished for what they did it reminds me a lot of what the lord said the spirit of the lord got us upon me when he talked about releasing prisoners and releasing captives prisoners are in prison because of what they did captives are in prison because of what others done had done to them we have the same concept here in prayer so now the lord is announcing i'm not only going to gather the foreigner i'm not only going to gather the uh the eunuchs i'm also going to gather the banished ones the ones who have been rejected have put outside the camp because of their own sins i'm going to restore them too because everyone has reserved seating in this house of prayer everybody has a place of favor to intervene and to affect the course of world history now that's a lofty statement that i say a lot we say a lot but it couldn't be more true than it is in this moment where the people of god actually take a stand in christ and pray and if you're not getting answers to prayer change your prayers find out what he's find out what he's doing honestly every believer deserves the momentum created by answers to prayer and if you're not getting them find out how to pray and pray accordingly because there is such a sense of identity purpose and faith that grows in the momentum of answers to prayer coming in with no agenda coming in you know we all have our lists and those lists aren't wrong at all it's just you're supposed to seek first the kingdom and these other things will be added sometimes i want what's added first and then i'll seek the kingdom and he's saying seek first the kingdom and then let's talk about these things there's one more passage i want you to look at and it's out of isaiah 35. isaiah 56 talks about what you don't want to let others say but isaiah 35 has a very interesting twist on this i love prophetic language i don't know you know when it talks anytime it talks about water in the bible like springs rain rivers you know pools all that language almost always i did a study once i i looked up every single reference in the old testament to water and just about every time i could find was a reference to the holy spirit in some way so whether it's rain or it's a river it's a spring you know something's going on god is at work and i love that little book uh the cure of all ills basically says listen the outpouring of the holy spirit is really the answer for everything and i'm kind of in that school right now just more of him is really all we need i don't understand what's going on but i know i need more of him and i know we need more of him and so that's been the cry so here we have this kind of a prophetic language in verse 1 it says in the wilderness and a wasteland shall be glad for them the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose you shall blossom abundantly and rejoice evil joy in singing the glory of lebanon shall be given to her the excellence of carmel and sharon they shall see the glory of the lord the excellency of our god my goodness what an incredible phrase they shall see the glory of god mark my words this next season is about the glory it is about the glory it is about the manifested presence of jesus being discovered and realized we will behold and experience things we have no language for and it's about time we become speechless it's about time the all we lose our sense of knowing what's going on and i i really have that sense that that um that that is is brewing right now as i speak they shall see the glory of the lord the excellency of our god i don't know what your translation says but my favorite is this one right now the glory the excellency of our god but here's the verse i wanted strengthen the weak hands make firm the feeble knees say to those who are fearful hearted be strong do not fear behold your god will come with vengeance with the recompense of god he will come and save you verse 4 say to those isaiah 56 is about what you don't want to let others say around you but isaiah 35 is about what we're supposed to speak to those who are in crisis or need notice it's not rebuke it's not scolding it's not shameful it is these are words that mark an individual for an invitation excuse me for an invasion of god you're marking you say to a person what god is saying and you've marked them with a bull's-eye that attracts the hand of god into that situation yes amen bill that was very powerful from verse three strengthen the weak hands make firm the feeble knees say to those who are fearful hearted be strong do not fear behold your god will come with vengeance with the recompense of god he will come and save you verse 5 then the eyes of the blind shall be opened the ears of the death shall be unstopped the lame shall leap like a deer the tom the tongue of the dumb will sing for waters will burst forth in the wilderness streams in the desert this the last 11 months have probably been the greatest longest season of speech with very little boundaries that i have ever heard in my life and i'm not talking about cbs and nbc i'm talking about usings uncontrolled decrees it's wrong to say uncontrolled we're at the end of a very interesting season and the lord is giving us an invitation an opportunity grab hold of your speech and whatever has happened get over it and look for those who are discounting and discrediting who they are in god don't let the eunuch say i can't be fruitful don't let the person who has had everything work against them throughout their life don't allow them to say that it's not a rebuke it's not a correction you're pulling them up to let them see their life the way you see their life nothing is impossible with god don't allow them to speak that way in fact go beyond that and say to those who are fearful hearted say to those who are weak in the knees say to those god is about to take vengeance for you he's about to do something on your behalf that is absolutely extraordinary why say that if god's just going to do it anyway because i'm not sure he's just going to do it anyway some things have to be spoken for them to take place if if our obedience isn't involved in the unfolding of god's plan and equation then what's the purpose of obedience people say well he's just going to do what he's going to do i'm not sure if that's true the will of god in the new testament is represented by two different greek words one is it's absolute god's going to do it you can vote yes or no it doesn't matter your opinion is not taken into consideration and the outcome of this situation but there's another word that talks about the desire the dream of god god is not willing that any should perish there's that concept involved in that word that's not the word there but there's that concept involved in that word that god has certain desires that actually require participation from his people sometimes it's a radical obedience sometimes it's giving sometimes it's preaching you know sometimes it's praying for the sick in this case it's declaring a right word say to the fearful hearted be strong be strong why should i say be strong because in your words is strength if your words originate in the heart of god the same creative force that created the world is now imparting something through your words to any person who is halfway open to receiving something from god it must be spoken for it to happen i don't want to put us in charge i'm not saying we're in charge of stuff i'm just saying when you discover the heart of god you cannot keep quiet when you discover the heart of god for another person you're not going to allow their self-image to control how you see them faith sees it's the nature of faith faith sees and they need somebody to believe in them at their worst hour at their worst moment they need someone that will just stand up and say you know what god's about to vindicate you yeah well it doesn't look that way to me you need to stand where i'm standing because if you can see what i see you would be the most encouraged person on the planet because god is about to vindicate you and the scripture says then the eyes of the blind will be opened you say what you're supposed to say and then god says and i'll do what i'm supposed to do amen i'm pretty much done that's all i wanted to say let me talk into the tv for a moment i know there are people watching we've had so many people come to christ on youtube and on bethel tv it's it's to me it's just one of the most extraordinary things that we've had people just literally stumble into a youtube video not looking for a bethel service not knowing anything about bethel to stumble into and to hear the gospel and they surrender their lives to jesus what we're noticing is the same presence the power of the spirit of god that falls on people in this kind of an environment we have time and time and time again where the power of god falls on an individual comes rests if you will upon an individual as they sit in their home or their office watching on their phone the same heavenly atmosphere that brings healing and deliverance in this room is not confined to this room it actually touches people right where they are there are some of you that are watching online and you just don't know what it is to be born again you don't know what it is to be adopted into the family of god to turn literally from a life of pleasing yourself all of our heartaches happen because we tried to fulfill our lives without god at the center and turning from that to becoming a true disciple of jesus christ that is the invitation for anybody watching and i would just i would encourage you just the bible says whoever calls upon the name of the lord his name is not any number of a thousand false gods his name is jesus his name is jesus i heard this week some famous person saying there are many ways to god if there are many ways to god then the crucifixion of jesus was a worthless foolish act worthless and foolish but it wasn't he died for you and he died for me now i want to encourage you turn your heart towards him even right now and just pray and ask him to forgive you of sin get in the chat room there because we've got a lot of people that serve in that capacity to pray with you and to talk with you and i want to encourage you in your coming to faith today this changes the rest of your life and you can say over your own over your own life i am no longer the foreigner outside of god's plan i'm at the center of what god is saying what god is doing i'm no longer the one who has had things happened to i am now the person that god has poured out his grace and his favor upon i encourage you to do that right now the rest of why don't you stand in this room here let me pray over you and then uh chris you're coming up okay come on come on up and i'll we'll just make a very smooth seamless transition here it's going to be a miracle man it's good to see you guys and all of you that uh are are watching online i uh your your turn is soon we are we are at work we cannot give more details right now but look on your uh your your emails and all that all right father i'm asking that this season it would just be hard to miss we'd be it would be hard for us to miss what you're saying in a given moment that it would be like remedial reading you just make it easy for us to hear what you're saying in a moment so that we can speak with courage that which changes the direction the way people do life i pray that for our own city that we'd speak life into this city into this nation for the nations represented we pray for that let the grace for prophetic decrees be upon us now in jesus name amen amen thanks for listening to the sermon of the week this weekly podcast can be heard in multiple languages on our 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 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: nQzEFcyitMo

Length: 80min 25sec (4825 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021