Bill Johnson Sermons [September 17, 2021] | The Prayer for Spiritual Power

welcome to the bethel church sermon of the week we hope you enjoy this message by pastor bill johnson for more information about this podcast and other resources visit bethel.com i don't remember the year it was somewhere back in the 70s my parents my mom is here wave your hand my my parents pastored here at bethel 1968 till i think 1982 and during that time i was on staff for five of those years 73 to 78 and i think it was somewhere around 1974 somewhere in that area my dad began to teach out of the book of ezekiel and he talked about all believers being priests under the lord and uh of course many of us when we think of priests we think of you know the the white little caller it's not that kind of a priest it's a priest priesthood of the believer that has three basic areas of ministry and this is this is christianity 101 for us this goes way back into our roots but it'll set the stage for what i want to do today he began to talk to us about the three areas of ministry that every believer has we have first of all our ministry to the lord himself he is not an egotist in need of our encouragement he's not an egotist in need of our flattery he's the almighty god and we become transformed as we worship we always become like the one we worship and so this ministry to the lord is first and most important and second to that is our love for the people of god for the church not organizations but for people and third is our ministry to the world it's a right and true list of priorities but if we're not careful it would cause us to misdiagnose or missed the conviction of the lord regarding our third ministry it's not that it's least and important in fact let's look at it this way in worship i will worship god throughout eternity i will be with you for all eternity and i will love you well throughout eternity but the only thing that is urgent in pressing in time is evangelism because that's only now and so while the other two are are superior in the sense of their order of priority they actually enhance and set the stage for us to be more effective in our heart for evangelism it can be said that evangelism in its purest form is an overflow of worship there are those who have this notion that if they really get locked into worship they'll not want to do anything else and that's not that's not what the scripture teaches in isaiah 6 you see isaiah before the lord and he says i see the lord and here's this stunning moment where he sees and he is before almighty god and then he hears father son holy spirit converse together and they say there's this particular assignment they said who shall we send and isaiah says send me so in other words anyone who truly worships to her they see the heart of the father they don't want to stay there they want to take their out to the people they want to take that moment to many others it's it's it's causing people to taste and see the goodness of the lord and that's the great privilege so worship is this great privilege and so my dad would teach on this out of ezekiel i think 47 if i remember right and he talked about the ministry of the inner court that's in the actual presence of god and the outer court that's where you're with people and i remember after i think it was the first meeting there was a syria it was a series but i remember uh the old bethel church was over on pacelli lane and there was the sanctuary was long this way and there were two sections like this and then there was a balcony up way in the back and i remember i was sitting over here probably three four five rows back right on the outside edge and i remember when he was through with uh with that message it wasn't it wasn't a response time there was no altar call there was there was nothing of that nature but i i just remember when we came to the end of the message i remember sitting right over here i remember just bowing my head and i prayed this prayer i said god i give you the rest of my life to teach me this one thing i knew i had just heard the word that was to define the rest of my life since that day uh the lord has has been instilling in us his heart for worship again he actually doesn't even look for worship he looks for worshippers because worshipers are transformed people and that's that's what he longs to draw us into this the scripture says he looks for worship with those those who were worshiping spirit and truth so since that day uh that has become a standard for this church family and today uh things are very normal for us that in that day were fought for worked after very very hard to teach line upon line and to restructure the priority system of the church but if we're not careful there is a misunderstanding on this sense of urgency for evangelism and uh and and get this list all messed up if you will in uh in isaiah 60 for example it says it says um your walls will be called salvation your gates pray so it's describing the church it's describing the people of god as a city as a community so that's the metaphor that's the illustration and he basically says the salvation of god is what protects you it's the walls around the city that's what keeps you safe and then he says your gates are praised and so he's actually describing this place through which god enters to engage and to mingle with his people and it's called praise and so we know biblically that we enter his his gates with thanksgiving in our heart we enter his courts with praise so there's this progression into the presence into the glory and it should be the the ambition of every believer we have service after service they typically are called worship services in the bulletins all over the nations and and very seldom does worship actually happen because worship is this very tender intimate place of interaction with god i don't say that for the purpose of shame i'm just saying it's it's uh it's it's so deep and so long into this thing called divine encounter so here's this picture i'm trying to draw for he says um he says your walls are salvation and your gates the place for which there's this entrance in the presence is praise and it's something like 15 verses later he says it's now in isaiah 62. he says go through go through the gates clear the way for the people are in the context what are gates praise so now he's exhorting go through go through the gates clear the way for the people you've got to catch a picture of this something happens when the people of god become a worshiping people there's something that happens with an atmospheric shift over cities over regions of the of the nation because there are worship worshiping people in that environment you just becoming a worshiper one who just stands before the lord to worship in your home i i don't know how to explain it i don't i don't understand it but i know this is a reality you stand on a regular basis just to exalt the name of the lord jesus you have neighbors around you that facing a problem a year ago never would have considered god as a possible solution but because you're a worshiper something has changed in what they get to draw on because of the influence of your life in that environment worship worshiping god is is central to who we are so i like to break it down this way i don't care for formulas in the presence but it helps me to to kind of put a hand on things there's thanksgiving there's praise and his worship thanksgiving is our response to the acts of god um i don't know if he shared testimony this morning i know chris chris gore shared with us the other night about this great miracle of healing candace shared a great great story uh earlier of somebody with four stage cancers being completely healed we hear these stories and and we just celebrate the goodness the kindness of god and and there's this thankfulness and we express it we we cheer we raise our voices we we become we become amazed at this father who is so kind and so good to us but thanksgiving is our response to what he's done whereas praise is our response to who he is and there's this it's almost like an indictment on the nation of israel in the days of moses it says and israel was acquainted with the acts of god but moses was acquainted with his ways in other words they took the action and they followed it until they discovered his nature they followed this that he had done they weren't just satisfied with water out of a rock so to speak they weren't just satisfied with provision or or protection or deliverance they wanted to find this one who authored that very action that very uh deliverance or protection provision whatever it might have been so we've got thanksgiving is our response to the acts of god praise our response to his ways worship i i always think in terms of worship is my response to his presence it doesn't mean just emotionally discerned because sometimes worship comes at a very very low point so it's not it's not this overwhelming sense always of of a presence but it's it's worship by nature the word worship actually means one of the words for worship actually means it's the word to kiss by implications this tenderness it's this it's this uh it's this profound interaction between you and the one you worship something powerful happens to a group of people that that live in that kind of atmosphere their authority the their awareness of the heart of god increases so dramatically that when they get into an evangelistic environment or into an environment to serve and help people they're much more clear much more precise much much greater confidence in the heart of god for a given situation so here's what i want to do i want you to read with we're going to read out of matthew chapter 9 we're just going to read several verses there and and then we'll we'll talk for a little bit all right matthew chapter 9 verse 35. then jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom healing every sickness every disease among the people but when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd then he said to his disciples the harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest verse 37 the harvest truly is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray the lord of his harvest of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest i i've i've always been fascinated by this uh this verse for this reason he didn't say pray for the harvest i think there are other scriptures that that would lend itself to that and so i think it's a legitimate thing to do i know just driving out of my driveway this morning certain people that i've become friends with through the last number of years who don't yet know the lord i i just i bring them up before the lord just on a on a regular basis and just pray god let them know the goodness of god let them taste of the kindness of god and and i think praying for people to come to crisis is is a no-brainer that's obviously legitimate but when jesus wanted to give instruction that was about to affect the course of history he didn't say pray for the harvest he said pray for harvesters pray for the harvesters so i have to ask the question is it possible that the size of the harvest is actually determined by the amount of laborers in other words the harvest is there but there has to be harvesters there are people and it's it's a deeper theological conversation that we can have in this environment but there are a lot of people that uh say over and over again that uh you know god god is in control and whatever he wants is going to happen well he's god anything he wants to pull off he can pull off period there's find no argument from me but there's a number of things that he has put in front of us that without response without embracing responsibility there's actually unfulfilled potential is unfulfilled promise in other words it requires our involvement the nation of israel is a great example they were they were spoken to about this promised land and god says it is yours i give it to you now it's all yours. and uh and he gives them this incredible promise of the promised land but that generation didn't enter into it god promised them but they didn't enter into it but it wasn't god's fault it was they they failed to co-labor with him his way to bring about his purposes and so now we have we have commandments like this we have directions in prayer that are supposed to be taken seriously because it actually has the an effect on the outcome of things how many understand jesus doesn't give us spiritual assignments to keep us busy you know he he he doesn't say here dig this hole as soon as you get it done he says now fill it back in he's not trying to keep us active in christian you know christian busyness quite the opposite he's trying to lead us into fruitfulness into effectiveness and so he gives this assignment and he gives the assignment because there's something in his heart that has to be touched by somebody made in his image that will bring that case or that need before him there's something he longs to do but he's actually looking for agreement before it can be done because it will not be forced on the will of humanity it must come out of the will of humanity so he says here's my heart the harvest field is rich with harvest but you've got to ask the lord of the harvest to send out laborers now that word to send out laborers herein was in verse 38 to send out is a word that actually means to forcefully thrust it's the word used in the very next chapter when jesus talks about casting out demons he casts demons there's this demon in this afflicted individual and jesus comes and he thrusts he throws that thing out that's what he that's the same word to throw out harvard harvesters in other words it's a military term almost of like of like forcefully throwing us into the middle of this incredible rich harvest field where we're in over our heads and we can't help but do anything but bring the harvest in for the king bring the harvest into the game the moravians had this statement i don't i don't have it down perfect but it's basically to win for the lamb the reward of his suffering to win for the lamb the reward of his suffering there was this there was this thing that they would pray and and quote and they may have even sung it but it was this it was this this whole thing we've got to win for the lamb the reward of his suffering and so we've got this passage look at verse 37 again it says the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray the lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest what was he doing when he came into this moment of of burden uh he he if if you can imagine jesus standing on the edge of his promised land and that's this massive harvest and he catches a glimpse of something what was he doing when he saw that he was healing the sick he was casting out devils he was preaching declaring the gospel of the kingdom so he he was in that context when he was moved with compassion and he then turned to the 12 and he said listen you've got to pray you've got to you've got to pray and contend for the father to throw out harvard's to cast forth harvesters into his harvest field but look at verse one because there's no chapter breaks in the original manuscript of scripture in verse 1 of chapter 10 and when he called his twelve disciples to him he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out to heal all kinds of sickness all kinds of disease verse seven as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick cleanse lepers raise the dead cast out demons freely you receive freely give this entire 10th chapter is to equip these 12 disciples if you will to become the very harvesters jesus told them to pray into i have a pastor friend of mine years ago he he put flags of the nations all around the sanctuary and then would be the name of the missionaries the people that that they that were part of their church that were in these various countries and then if they didn't have a missionary in that country where they would normally have names they would put a mirror and they would say go pray go pray for laborers and he would stand before that flag of that nation with a mirror with a question am i the one am i the one to be the harvest am i the one to go forth in jesus name i was reading this passage today earlier today out of the passion translation says jesus walked throughout the region with a joyful message of god's kingdom realm he taught in their meeting houses and wherever he went he demonstrated god's power by healing every kind of disease and illness when he saw the vast crowds of people jesus's heart was deeply moved with compassion because they seemed weary and helpless like wandering sheep without a shepherd he turned to his disciples and he said the harvest is huge and ripe but there are not enough harvesters to bring it all in as you go plead with the owner of the harvest to thrust out many more reapers and to harvest his grain plead pray with the lord of the harvest to send out that's that's you and that's me so we have this we have this mandate to minister to god as the most important thing but there's something that happens in that environment as worshipers were actually it sets the stage for evangelism this is 62 passage forgive me for just making reference to it and hit and run but but i need to do that today you can look at it on your own it says this go through the gates clear the way for the people remove the stones remove the dusty rubble what is it describing it's describing worshipers who in their worship caught up in the presence the glory of god completely infatuated with him expressing their love devotion to him not realizing that what they are doing is they're removing all the obstacles that have been raised up in culture and society removing the obstacles spiritual bulldozers that just create fact then it says to throw up a highway before god what is the highway it's a place of quick easy access it's the removing the obstacles what how much of the devil are we focused on in those moments zero we're focused on god but we're ministering to him but it has this effect i've watched this for years it has an effect on the evangelistic anointing of a group of people the second part of that story or this assignment is to minister to believers and and mistakenly there are there are many who are caught up to just care for people around them but never take it outside of that group and i'd like this i'd like to say this jesus said in john 13 35 he says they'll know you're my disciples because of your love for one another in other words they will see how you compassionately walk through conflict they will watch you as you respond to the person who's in christ's need they will watch you care for them they will see how you practice community how you learn together to reign in life it's not competition with each other but it's a true communal community uh pursuit of glorifying god by reigning in life together they will see that and they will come to the conclusion you are my disciples let me put it in this language they will see your love for each other and they will be convinced that jesus is raised from the dead he is present in the midst of his people evangelism i uh quite a few years ago there was a one one of the one of you uh families in the church uh picked up a homeless man and brought him to church on a particular sunday sitting right back in there and um and there wasn't very many people in the sanctuary at the time and i was walking around just talking with people welcoming them and i i saw them so i i made a beeline for him and and i saw he had a cast on his arm and uh and he was obviously uh in pain and discomfort and really protecting protecting that arm and uh so i went back and and just was talking to them and talking to the family that brought them and see how they're doing you know just just being social and wanting them to feel welcome and um and so i i asked the guy with a broken arm the homeless guy said so what happened and he said oh he says i fell off a bridge i think it was like 35 feet or something crazy he fell onto fell onto this wrist and and completely shattered that uh in the injury and it had just been done so he was very tender very uh very very much uh watching over and caring for this broken arm and so i asked him i said is you mind if we if i pray for that and he and he looked at the the people that brought him you know this is like is this normal for you guys and uh and they were good with it so i i just tenderly just prayed for him and prayed for the lord to heal his arm and he began to he began to move it and it was i wish i had a video of this because his eyes went like this his jaw dropped and he looked at the people who brought him because now he has absolutely no pain and he's got full movement in the use of this arm well it's a wonderful wonderful thing to see happen we've we've seen that happen just countless numbers of times through the years soon after that prayer i came up and the people began to come in we started the service we worship the lord as we love to do we pray for each other we do the stuff we like to do we open the word when i was through i invited people to come to know jesus guess who was first the guy who had just tasted of the kindness of the lord see we want people to buy into a whole meal but we don't give them samples [Applause] it says taste and see that the lord is good the bible says it's the kindness of the lord to lead to repentance it is in conflict with the goodness of god to think we can come to god without repentance there is this notion that well jesus is the door to the father but anyone who is sincere no no heaven is real hell is real eternity is a long time it's a long time and it helps nobody for us to dilute and and ruin this simple gospel message that out of the kindness of the father he laid down his own son as an offering to pay for to atone to cover the one issue that was destroying all of humanity and that sin only one possible solution there are not many roads to god if that were true then he was unusually cruel to his son jesus to require that death it was done because it was the only possible solution that is the message but because of that extravagance of a father to love people it means that broken arm is in his target zone and he would love to restore that it means the cancer that we heard about this morning fourth stage people dying setting up ready to die are prayed for and god completely heals and delivers him i spent some time yesterday with a friend he's actually in a coma but uh things haven't been going real good for for him life hasn't not not doing real good and organs shutting down heart liver and uh had a wonderful chance to go in to be with him with his wife and hold his hand and just talk to him as though he were sitting up in bed i remember ray larson who pastored here before i did wonderful man of god wonderful friend he had such an unusual gift in evangelism i i brought him back after i pastored here i told him to preach on a sunday and he did and i said man make sure you give an altar call man he had so many people get saved that they just you know how many remember the jesus people movement you could you could just about sneeze and people would get snakes saved you know it was it's just one of those moments in history where people just where the fish were jumping into the boat you know and uh so i i i was i was there next to his bed and talking to him ray larson um story i was going to mention to he there was a young lady that was in a car automobile accident here in reading and he went down to the hospital to to pray with us she was in a coma near death and he just talked with her as though she were awake because the spirit man is awake remember that when you go into a hospital room and he shared the gospel with her and then he prayed with her to receive christ and when he was through he looked up there's a tear coming down the side of her face and then a short time later she died so yeah i i want to make it hard to get to hell from reading [Applause] i oh make it hard we've done this in times past where we've we've prayed especially for the emergency room workers for the the people who are with the dying hospitals with the convalescent care uh places the uh ambulance drivers the policemen the firemen all these different folks who are more likely to be with somebody when they're dying i want them to be people that are mindful of god that are not timid in that moment because i i i i stood on the edge on the edge of eternity with my friend on the edge of eternity begin to remind him of his purpose in life i believe the lord's going to raise him up but but the but apart from that on the edge of eternity reminding him why he's alive what he was bought for what his assignment is affirming that that place in christ that he is to give all for his wife was there he she told me that she knows he heard because what i was praying for me opened his eyes and looked at me the whole point is is eternity is a long time and it's not a position it's paranoid it's not fear-based it's it's my goodness we we love people we love people we love people it's it's it's the it's the lepers that that went into the enemy's camp if you remember the store in the old testament and the enemy god had driven the enemy away and there's all these riches there's all this food and they've been starving to death and the people the city they were from is literally starving to death and they're eating all this food and they said wait a minute this isn't right we can't enjoy this all for ourselves we have to go back and let the city know what we found and so they run back as old testament evangelists and they tell them that there is a meal waiting for them and they can go and have as much as they want and that's the gospel that's what we do we take this this incredibly good news this joyful news of a king and a kingdom where there's true forgiveness of sin fresh start and empowerment to live entirely freedom this living offering where we get the privilege of worshiping god and loving people and and and making a difference and and increasing the size of the harvest it's not about membership at bethel it's it's not even about you and me being able to put another notch on the back of our bible it has nothing to do with that it has to do with he is worthy of a sizable harvest that moravian phrase to win for the lamb the reward of his suffering this is why we're alive if it wasn't for that one thing jesus easily could have just caused us to breathe our last the moment we received christ take us to heaven for our eternal reward he is looking to see the glory his own glory manifest on the earth with a harvest that is appropriate to him one last illustration how many of you remember where you were when you heard the iron curtain fell in the in the soviet union i was actually now i was actually in reading but i was pastoring weaverville we were down here with a group of men we were doing a men's retreat staying at one of the local hotels and i remember going into into my my bedroom at the hotel and seeing on tv these people pouring by the thousands pouring through this place in the iron curtain in the the that wall but divided east and west germany there's a section of the wall that was taken down and they were pouring through by the hundreds and and actually by thousands uh through that through that gap in the wall and they were they were singing they were all singing this song this is the day that the lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it they begin to sing this song these hundreds of people are pouring through this gate and they're singing they're singing this incredible song this is the day that the lord has made let us rejoice and be glad i come to find out sometime later that at that very place where that section of the wall was removed the the symbol of division between east and west germany when that that was removed the night before there had actually been a very significant and powerful prayer meeting at that place that actual place in the wall there was a gathering of believers the night before and that's when it broke loose man you never know when your next prayer is going to be the prayer that brings breakthrough that's so these people who had probably gathered for who knows how many years but they prayed again and it was it was liberty came during that that period of time i remember myself i ministered a bit in in europe but i remember going through different parts of europe and i even remember making the announcement i believe the iron curtain is going to fall you know no ism can stand against christ and whether it's communism or socialism or any ism that people come up with nothing can stand against the power of the gospel and you know it's the kind of thing you say that's absolutely true and it gets a lot of amends but it doesn't always give preparation here's what happened this iron curtain fell and right previously a couple years before this removal of the iron curtain prophets prophetic communities had been announcing that the iron curtain was going to fall and that's the kind of thing everybody would say a man to but nobody was preparing for there was not money set aside there were not laborers ready to go in the moment the iron curtain fell it was none of that stuff it was it was all in concept yes we agree amen but but no one was ready to go as a result when it fell all the missions organizations began to put their reserves together their finances together started training people and of course flooded as much of the country as they could he meet quickly with with the ministers of the gospel and it was wonderful it's beautiful but the problem was they had been reduced from prophetic timing be alert and ready to natural timing when the iron current fell so what's the result they prepared themselves and got ready so did the mafia so did the various cults they all got reduced to natural timing and not till the prophetic time do you understand what i mean what i'm saying by that that they weren't ready to go in the moment it fell they got ready the moment it fell which means so did every other lie every other cult every other group and the lord gave the advantage the insight to the to the church to be ready for this invasion of the gospel we have heard for 20 years 20 years ago it was first brought to us that there would be a one billion soul harvest and it's the kind of thing we say amen to it's kind of thing we're excited for us the kind of thing we go boy that's right that's what's going to happen but the point i want to make is i don't want to make the same mistake as was made all those years ago with the sergeant union when the word of the lord comes forth it means i must position myself for what god just said i must be about the father's business i must be in the harvest and pray for the harvesters what's happening right now in various places around the world i've never seen anything like it's it's been common in christian circles especially the or organizations that i work with around the world various ministries of streams of churches and and missions organizations europe has has all but been given up by many of them is the dark continent now and yet something is exploding there that is so amazing they said it couldn't happen and it's happening just a couple of weeks ago ben fitzgerald one of our own and and but we're in austria and thousands of believers are on the streets sharing the gospel people are getting saved people run in this large literature and run from the back all the way to the front just to meet this jesus and to come to christ there was this thing they said it couldn't happen not in places like that in germany a few years ago nuremberg they they they they chose that place because that's the place where hitler announced his his thing they wanted to go right back to the root of that movement and and see a redemptive turnaround where a generation be raised up not to promote nazism but the the gospel of jesus and and something has happened in germany since that event something's happened and it's rippled through various parts of europe and it's what's happening right now is absolutely stunning it's the beginning of the billions of the buildings it's already started but let me tell you there's not enough room in all the churches in the nation to contain what god wants to do we've got to we've got to think different we've got to position ourselves better it's not just sending them to a discipleship class as much as i believe in those it's you the believer caring for the new believer discipling teaching them everything you've learned this is the privilege of the gospel and the billions old harvest has started and i don't want to stand in heaven looking at what could have been possible so many years ago wrote a song it was actually i think a part of a chapter in a book or a poem or something you know somebody else put a song to it but it basically came down to this said some people want to live within the sound of chapel bells but i want to run a mission a yard from the gate of hell yep right on the edge time eternity right there right there it's worth it pray this with me father god let's pray this together father god i receive the privilege i receive the opportunity i receive the assignment to be a harvester and to pray for harvesters give me your heart your eyes your touch to redemptively see the most broken situations in life turned around for the glory of god we say yes to the billion soul harvest increase our capacity to be in the middle of what you're doing that the lamb of god would receive the reward of his suffering [Music] amen amen amen 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 well welcome welcome welcome to god of revival is the album that bethel music released just not too long ago and actually we had planned to unveil this series and then this pandemic hit so we delayed a little bit because we we felt that we obviously needed to speak into to that issue 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 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 bra bible that i've seen they all uh they basically declare that revivals are seasonal and that um uh 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 uh 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 revivals get cut short for so many reasons sometimes uh extraordinary things happen and 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 uh 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 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 a 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 had 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 think 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 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 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 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 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 whitfield what a great man um to look through all 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 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 the catholic 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 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 uh many uh 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 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 i've been tender to the lord my whole life i remember receiving christ as a child and uh and i 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 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 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 yesterday benny and i were watching a documentary which i don't want i probably should watch more documentaries but but i don't i 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 multitasker but i fake it you know i 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 began 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 passed on to the next one they died 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 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 now 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-generational 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 too 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 co 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 critic 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 for 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 touched 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 a 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 i want to read to you out of the book of joel 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 to 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 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 reign 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 the manifestation of his presence jesus validates this in john chapter 7 where he refers to the holy spirit as a river but look look at this again he will cause the rain to come down for you the former rain and 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 days 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 outboard 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 a 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 cause 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 it'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 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 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 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 it was like the lord was asking me this question did you mean it when you said more at any cost 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 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 are 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 disciplining nations and feeling personal revival you have the opportunity to give at bethel dot tv slash podcast slash donate [Music] [Applause] you

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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: as7dolApaMU

Length: 82min 0sec (4920 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021