Bill Johnson Sermons [September 20, 2021] | With God On Your Side You Can't Be Broken

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 what an amazing opportunity to see the goodness of the lord i i've had a i've had an interesting a couple of weeks just personally experiencely with the lord and and uh um so let me just get to it i really don't have a teaching i have an exhortation an invitation a something i don't don't even know what to call it probably 10 days ago i i joined a school of ministry out here under the tent and we had a it was a wonderful time of worship but something started to happen that maybe it started previous to that but i became uh unusually aware aware of of the glory of the lord that began to fill that tent i could feel it tangibly i've had these experiences uh throughout uh throughout my own personal journey i remember when i pastored in weberville i would uh i would take uh time often just to walk through the sanctuary back and forth when nobody was there i would uh just just just a worship just to pray i remember there was a little piano there and i would sit and play a bit and just just do whatever i could to give him the best offering i could give him i remember times where the presence of the lord became so overwhelming to me that i i'm embarrassed to say it now but i quickly thought of something else to do i i quickly thought of things that it that doesn't mean when things come to mind it's necessarily the enemy sometimes the lord brings things to mind that we need to take care of but it wasn't that it was the the intensity of presence was so was so strong that i found myself just getting nervous just getting a little bit anxious and uh and i didn't recognize it immediately it was it was later i i started to see that there's there's a measure of presence where where all of us that all of us delight in and measure presence that takes us into great great discomfort um which is fine because he's the comforter so my opinion is uh he makes you uncomfortable so that you need the comfort and uh and he's pretty good at that there was a story with moses where he um he could go no further until he had done what the lord commanded him to do in in that case it was to circumcise his kids his sons um he had gone to this distance and then suddenly what was a normal journey became life and death and i i i don't mean to suggest life-and-death decisions although i do think they exist for us um instead i i i want to emphasize that we're on this relational journey and they're just come there they're come there comes to us points in time where he has an agenda and mine won't do i mean you can have you know if you've been in this a while probably for all of us or you know 95 of the people that would be watching every agenda you have every agenda you have has been shaped by scripture it's it's not like it's not like wanting revival is an evil desire it's not it's just in the glory all my agendas all my ambitions all my dreams as lofty as they are they all have to take place another place outside of this glory because in this glory there's only one thing that matters and that's the face to face with this one i i'm not there as a pastor i'm not there as a speaker or a writer or whatever else you've blank you'd feel and i'm not there is that all those hats are left outside the door there's only one hats they had of a son it's the only one that works in there and um i've had this sense for quite a while but it's becoming more uh tangible in the last uh especially the last 10 days where in in that in that uh tent in that time with students i started to rediscover something that hadn't been lost that would be wrong but there was a there's always a freshness to his presence that makes it almost makes you feel like you've never had it before it's so fresh you know there's always something so new with what he's saying and doing it almost feels like it's the first time you've ever heard him speak and yet outside of that experience you can see the history that brought you here but in that moment it's like it's like it's like hearing hearing for the first time i it reminded me of something oh goodness it'd be 2010 2011 somewhere near eric my son was was leading the second year school of ministry and there was a there was about a five-month period i don't remember the year but there was about a five-month period they met over our twin view campus our second campus and they were the the school uh the second year school was there and i don't remember how many students there were i would guess 300 maybe but anyway uh that room was you know packed and eric was leading and and as one of the pastors i have a time slot where i i go over there and and speak and it's always an incredible privilege to to do so i remember i would walk in there was this there was this five-month period of time where i'd walk in it was like walking into a cloud i mean it was it was it was like walking into a cloud that's alive it wasn't it wasn't fog it was walking into this to life itself on a level that was so wonderful and so overwhelming i remember i would come in and back i would come sit down sometimes i'd make it to the front i'd come and i'd sit down and eric would be there and listen this wasn't led by you know a great worship time those were there and that's important we just had a wonderful time now and that kind of uh uh instrument that the lord uses is very significant and important but but this was different it was it was almost like the holy spirit the choir director of heaven entered the room and he was he was conducting something wow i remember sitting down next to eric and he would look up at me what do you want to do i said i'm not touching this i i have absolutely nothing to say there are times in the glory where that's what you do there's a word there's a word of the lord it's the ultimate moment i mean you want those moments i i don't want to suggest at all that somehow when that that manifest presence of jesus comes in that measure that we that we don't speak and somehow teaching goes out the window i don't believe that and and i've seen the opposite happen i've seen those moments that are so overwhelmingly pregnant and filled with god himself in the room and then there's a word and i i believe that but this wasn't this wasn't that season it was it was five months of coming into a room where where it just didn't matter strange strange to say you could have this burden or this vision or this desire or whatever to preach this or to pray for this or to do whatever but somehow somehow in this in this living cloud of presence oh goodness it it just doesn't matter it doesn't matter and i i remember during that period of time i don't even know how many times i actually spoke i did a few times but it wasn't very often it wasn't very often but i sure encountered jesus a lot i sure encountered the love of god even through people there was such an unusual interaction in those times you know you don't jesus said i gave them my glory that they may be one there's something there's something about the glory that just makes everybody fit together perfectly it's not through striving it's not through effort it's not through determination it's in the glory it fits and and the reason is is that's what we were designed for i was designed everything about me everything about me that's of him was was designed to fit seamlessly in the glory seamlessly i'm actually wired in oh you are too every born-again believer we're actually we're actually wired to recognize him and to respond to him and part of that response is obedience obedience is the most natural thing in the world in the presence you know if you can imagine isaiah 6 where isaiah says i see the lord he's high lifted up train fills the temple it's overwhelming this overwhelming baptism of presence where he sees the throne of god and then he hears god say not to him but in conversation in heaven who will i send see there's something about in the glory the glory is is not just to absorb and walk away blessed it's to be impacted by so that we impact everything around us and and the lord asked this question he said who will i send and it says i'll go i can always tell when people are truly in the glory because they want to serve now you can want to serve without being in the glory but when you do the heart of god is what launches you it's not uh it's not my ministry goals that matter it's it's not you know it's not me fighting to see my gift expressed or appreciated or whatever all that stuff just dies it just dies it's so unimportant in that moment it's embarrassing to discuss because in that moment all you know is i hear a heartbeat and that heartbeat has become my heartbeat and something has shifted and changed at least in this moment how i see life and i remember i remember that that five-month period of time as there was yesterday because it has become yesterday ten days or so ago in the tent with the students last sunday night was the same kind of a same kind of a moment in the tent i don't know maybe we're just built for tents maybe maybe i don't know maybe we should just do the big old revival tent and get it over with you know there's i don't know there's some i don't know what it is i don't understand it at all but i know that last sunday night i experienced it again it was he was he was there and that's all you know that's what the glory is is to manifest the presence of jesus he was just there you say well he's here he's with me now that's true i i get that but there are so many dimensions of his presence that that no matter what you're experiencing there's more and the key to more is stewarding what you've been given it doesn't matter if it's money anointing gifting doesn't fringe friends doesn't matter what it is the key to increase is always stewarding what you have well and there are there have been times in my life where as i stated earlier that that presence that glory would come so strong in that little sanctuary up up in the mountains that i would just become nervous and find something else to do and so i don't say this in shame embarrassment i'm just saying this is reality there's no increase in that moment i found my limit and so somehow coming into that place of presence again and again and again with whatever in me needs to yield so that there can be more i can't describe it but that's the journey you see he's got us on one track there's he has one ambition base you know there's a lot of dreams for us i don't want to make it overly simple but there's this statement in haggai chapter 2 i i will never forget when i first read this as a pastor in weaverville it just lapped at me it's it's haggai chapter 2 which is one of the small little guys he's it's kind of hard to find him if you get to matthew just turn left if you get to daniel turn right he's in there but he says several things here that i think would be worth noting and then i want to talk to you a bit about where we're headed where where where we're headed according to him verse five according to the word that i covenanted with you when you came out of egypt so my spirit remains among you do not fear the presence of the lord makes fear illegal the presence of the lord is a partnership with a foreign spirit for thus says the lord verse 6 once more it is a little while i will shake heaven and earth the seed the dry land i will shake all the nations and they shall come to the desire of all nations my translation highlights this phrase in this way desire referring to jesus as the desire of the nations and if i will fill this temple with glory says the lord of hosts the silver is mine the gold is mine says the lord of hosts and here's our phrase the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former if god is in charge there's always an increase of glory if we are we just build monuments to what has happened in the past we build them in our theology we build them in our experience we build them in our routines our disciplines they all shout to the past but there's something that is always expanding in the presence it's this it's this intangible thing called the the glory of god that is always deepening and always i don't know i don't think we ever arrived to be honest with you i i've got a feeling that heaven is uh is going to be one continuous journey deeper into the glory and there is no limit there's not an end it's not like okay father says that's all there is sorry we'll have to exist the next hundred billion years just with what you got there it's just this unending journey into the presence into the glory ephesians two talks about the riches of his grace which is one of the expressions of glory and in that phrase in ephesians 2 he says that in the ages to come we would discover the surpassing riches of his grace ages to come the billions of years ahead of time off in eternity in those ages there would be the continuous unveiling of yet a deeper level of this mystery called grace and that mystery of grace always introduces us to glory we find different stories in scripture that uh that they they rock me i'm assuming they do you as well ii chronicles chapter 5 is one of them it's this amazing moment in the dedication of the temple solomon had uh well let me back up david his dad had discerned that there was a shift actually there was a shift in worship but more specifically david perceived a reality that existed in heaven that was not discovered in the law it was not revealed in the law and david started to realize in his relationship with the lord that the lord wasn't interested in the blood of bulls and goats it doesn't mean it didn't count it was important for that season but it had its it had its limits it had its its measure of impact it wasn't the it wasn't where god's people were going to land was on the sacrifice of animals that's not the landing point that was the illustration that got them ready for the real lamb of god that once and for all settled the issue but david somehow discovered this in his journey with the lord and the prophets nathan and gad confirmed what he was picking up it says in chronicles later he picked up this shift in in worship and and that the lord was actually looking for the sacrifice of the heart the contrite heart the yieldedness the fruit of the lips that gives thanks or praise to his name the lord was actually looking for for people to put themself on the altar as an offering to him and it's not because he's an egotist that needs our affirmation he's quite secure he's he's he doesn't need anything i hear people say well he he he needs our life he doesn't need our love he doesn't need anything he's he's very self-sufficient while the son holy spirit they make a real good team they don't need anything but they desire many things they desire many things they desire my heart they desire for it adds something to them that nothing else and everything that they have made could have and he desires yours and it's that wonderful that beautiful expression of just turning our our attention our affection towards him see the war that's been going on over this last year with the pandemic and all the other stuff is it's a war for attention because the enemy wants to dilute your affection it's always to divert attention to defile affection and there's something about this this reconnection with presence that is is home it's just home it's it's home it's like everything else is where i'm visiting this is actually home i'm set out from home i get to do all this stuff but this is home this seamless connection with this manifest presence of jesus the seamless connection between my surrendered heart and his heart for me is just the most beautiful thing and so when solomon becomes king he builds a temple we many are familiar with the story it's a it's a truly truly wonderful story but he built it with the materials that david set aside for him you know solomon's given the credit for this extravagant building but it was david's wealth that built it he set the stuff aside there's this father-son thing it was like the only time i can find in history where if i can call this revival what david was experiencing where a revival increased in the next generation for solomon now solomon didn't sustain it tragically or everything would be different but he didn't but for for a brief season there was an acceleration and where they learned the value the beauty of ministering directly to the lord not just for the lord and and you know they had to still do the blood sacrifice because there had to be that point of obedience that they never lost sight of that sin is only dealt with through blood it had to be established in your thinking and yet here's the rub the blood of bulls and goats can't deal with it it only postpones the penalty for one more year and so there's this constant reminder they need the lamb of god they need that the law was given as a tutor a teacher an instructor that that would lead them to christ and so all of this is a part of that journey but throughout this journey they got to taste moments of grace grace was not just introduced in the new in the new testament grace is seen all through the old testament there's just moments there's just moments where there's no other explanation but god just has mercy on abraham and considers him righteous because he believed that's grace that's great said actually that story became a new testament model it became the prototype for every new testament believer it happened in the old testament happened before the law it's extraordinary what takes place through all these moments where there's just this like just little windows that open to let us see what grace looks like another one i i'm thinking of is when when there was this in nehemiah's day where he uh in in nehemiah eight they they found the scriptures again they had had it for a generation or more and so they're they're standing in the open square and everybody's there i mean everybody kids babies infants everybody is there and they're all standing at attention as the word is read and this there's this there's this overwhelming conviction that comes on the people because they see god's standard is here as the word is read that they've not heard probably in their entire lifetime god's standard is here and there are lifestyles down here and they begin to weep and to mourn because they didn't qualify and the priest ran among the people said stop mourning this day is holy i don't know how you grew up but i grew up thinking morning and holy were synonymous you know the more you wept the more you were able to illustrate how holy the moment was and and it was it was it was actually the tears of mourning in that moment defiled the holiness of god and so the priest ran among the people and they said stop it stop it send portions to those who have nothing grab your food grab the meat grab the wine grab all these things that you have in a family feast get them together and start rejoicing because you understood the words that's stunning god's standards here my my lifestyle is here and god says the time to rejoice is when you understand that changes everything you actually rejoice your way into maturity sounds like a child most of us need to grow down instead of grow up so here we are in this moment fast forward to solomon's day he builds this temple and it's time to dedicate this i'm going to assume the most extravagant building that's ever existed man i would love to see it and so here's this moment where the priests have come together and i remind you exodus 19 verse 6 and isaiah 61 verse 7 announce to the people of god you shall be priests under the lord second peter 2 verse 9 says you are priests unto the lord old testament pointed to the future said it's help it's going to happen peter and the book of revelation chapter 1 i think it's verse 5 announce it's not coming it is now you have the right and responsibility to minister directly to him so everything we see of that nature of that of that uh that function in in the old testament is is to seed the clouds is to give us insight and so here we have um we have all these priests gathered together and we have verse 12. let's just start there it says the levites who were singing all those of asaph and haman and jedython with their sons with their brethren stood at the east end of the altar clothed in white linen they had to wear linen they couldn't wear wool because if they wore wool they would sweat and there was nothing you could do on your own works sweat in the presence of god everything was to be by grace so here's another glimpse you're never there by your works and that was that was the insistence of the lord they had symbols stringed instruments harps and with them 120 priests sounding trumpets man that had to be something i mean there were entire family lines their whole job was just to play trumpets and you think about it almost seemed silly a whole another family line they were singers a whole another group they were just symbol players the whole point was they had to become excellent what they were doing and they were to carry on that mantle throughout their family line 120 priests sounding trumpets verse 13. it came to pass when the trumpeters the singers were as one to make one sound yeah but i want to stand out no you don't no no you don't you're privileged to be a part of the whole it's not about you it's not about me when they were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the lord when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and symbols and instruments of music and praised the lord saying for he is good for his mercy endures forever that the house the house of the lord was filled with a cloud so that the priest could not continue ministering because the cloud for the glory of the lord had filled the house what did we read in haggai the glory of the latter house will be filled will be greater than the former it's always his intent to take us from glory to glory anything less is man's influence it's always his intent to take us from glory to glory it does doesn't come because it's my goal it comes because i surrender to his so here in this moment we find i don't know how many are there there's at least 120 they're there that are playing trumpets then you've got probably the same amount or more that are singers you've got the symbols you've got stringers you've got all this stuff so you've got this massive massive crowd and they're all playing not for the nation of israel they are playing for the audience of one we're playing to him directly to him every strum every clanging symbol every v every syllable that is lifted up in song everything is for the one and when that happened and it it became a united sound when they sang as one with horns that's a miracle right there when all of that comes together as one sound the cloud the cloud came and so filled the temple nobody had to stand up and say i think it'd be appropriate if we went to our knees right now just to honor the lord i i believe those moments are fine i've done it and probably will do it again who knows day's not over but it wasn't that kind of a moment it was an involuntary i've got to hide my face from the one who just entered the room here's the deal this all happened under an inferior covenant and inferior covenants do not release superior blessings if what happens in this context happened in the old testament when they were just learning what it was to sing to the lord and to honor him and to give offerings of thanksgiving and praise if if it would happen in that environment then how much more has he not designed it to happen here with us i remember a prophetic song we had in weberville prophetic songs whereas the song of the lord with the lord himself is singing i mean i didn't hear his voice but we we heard through another voice i remember the word he said did i not fill the tabernacle of moses with my glory did i not fill the temple of solomon with my glory how much more should i fill the place that i build with my own hands my beloved i'm building you no matter what we throw into the mix our ambitions for our families our countries our cities or whatever just put it all in the pile it is all profoundly impacted by the glory where is this thing headed i i can't shake the fact that his goal is for the whole earth to be filled with his glory now he's god he can make that happen now but it would be a military invasion it wouldn't be through partnership see his longing is always to accomplish the significant things through co-laboring through the yieldedness of his people those who've been made in his image created in his image would respond with likeness with the same heart as he has to model to illustrate to released to activate his will in the earth and that's the heart of god that's the heart of god that's the privilege that we have in this hour we we know his heart i may be confused by a thousand things but the one thing that's not confusing not if i read this the one thing that's not confusing is he has got me on a track it's not a road where i can take directions i want it's a railroad track you don't turn the direction has been set you can stop you can go backwards but you can't change the assigned direction the direction is from glory to glory from glory to glory so i remember i've been uh sentimentally stirred up in the last week or so just in my own private little world remembering i'll never forget the sunday sitting right down there where brian my son happened to be leading a worship that sunday he may have played two chords i've always said it was one but it might have he might have gone to a second chord but something happened on that second chord where he filled the room and we didn't get to our first song for 40 minutes and no one was keeping track it was after a fact you look back why because some something happens when he comes in everything that was important to you you can't even remember it's not like ah i'll bring it up later no you can't remember it in in the manifest presence of the king of glory suddenly there's only one thing on your mind it's what i was born for i i was born for this seamless interaction between the king of glory who has made me qualified because i could never qualify myself he's qualified me to be here in this moment and it's in those moments we hear him say who shall i send and without even thinking the hand goes up people who tell me i love to worship the lord i don't like to i don't like to leave that place i'm not sure they saw him yet i'm not sure they actually saw him because i'm not sure he could see his heart and not want to go i don't know if it's possible to sit in that moment where where you see him where this overwhelming sense of who he is and what he's like and and he says who shall i ascend and you find your hand going up said i'll i'll do it you name it i'll do it i'm there i don't know what i'm doing but i trust you go with me i'll go i i'm not sure that anybody who wants to just sit there and do nothing has actually seen what they claim to have seen there's there's something about who shall i send i'll go there's something about that moment of going where that glory never leaves you it's not like i'm departing the glory it's like i'm i'm going to now enter into a greater realm of glory because i will now be an instrument in his hand and perhaps that is how the whole earth becomes filled with this glory as people in the presence carry the presence to bring change i believe you know i i teach a lot unfulfilled dreams and you know the desires that we have i believe they're meaningful to god i i do all that i haven't changed my tune at all but i i have been strangely apprehended again for something that's way bigger than us i love us but this one's bigger than us this one's bigger than us i remember that one sunday morning where brian hit i think it was the second chord and and he just i don't know how to describe it you know it's afterwards in the moment you don't know what to do you know afterwards you look back and go man he just walked into the room and that was that kind of a moment i'll never forget that we've only had that happen on that level one time in 25 years but i remember a sunday night where the worship team was playing and there another one of those moments where the glory just came in and everybody up here just stopped and everybody out here just stopped and it was almost like we were suspended in time you know you know how people get nervous when nothing's happening you know like somebody especially in pentecostal circles somebody need to pray in tongues or prophesy or laugh or get out and dance or do something you know it's like we get nervous with blank spaces there was no nervousness with that blank space because he filled the blank space he he just came into the blank space and all of a sudden you didn't have to tell people turn your affection to him it's just there was just silence i don't remember ever hearing silence for that long in a in a crowd that likes to make noise it was like the ultimate offering was just to shut up but yet nobody said or suggested it was just it's what you do when he enters the room you find everything that you could think of to say is completely meaningless and i'm hungry for that again i've had tastes in the last 10 days or so at levels measures that i've not had for a while and it tells me that we're being set up and it's going to be good but it won't be about you and it won't be about me he has set something in motion and he wants us to see that he was absolutely serious when he said it the glory of the latter house would be greater than the former the context was there were people that saw the temple before it was destroyed and then rebuilt and they remember both and the first one solomon was just incredibly glorious and the second one wasn't near as beautiful and so you had you had two groups of people there some were laughing for joy because look the temple's built and others were weeping man it's nothing like it used to be and so that prophecy was very very specific in in other words this thing that you see over here that's not it i'm going to do something in the earth that is going to be way more glorious than even solomon's temple which silenced and stunned the leaders of nations god will do it again in this house that's you and that's me i feel like there's an invitation i i wasn't sure how to how to label this talk this conversation with you today but to me i i can't talk about it without feeling invited without feeling compelled dissatisfaction is a holy holy gift see sometimes our satisfaction in the absence of revival is what prohibits revival as that i'm actually okay without it sometimes the absence of the manifest presence of the king of glory sometimes my satisfaction in those moments may be the very thing that propels that glory so here's here's an invitation i'd like for everybody watching to join me in this very very simple prayer god i can't make myself suitable but i can surrender and there are people right now watching you don't even have a personal relationship with with the lord jesus christ and this is the most unusual message ever to invite you into the family but i'm going to do it anyway in this moment you have this sense some of you in your homes there's going to be this sense of presence you've never seen before you've never felt before you've never realized before but it's happening now i had that sense early this morning that there would be this encounters with the lord himself in your home i love the corporate gathering but there's see it was in my one-on-one stuff that helped me to realize the corporate stuff so wherever you're at some of you have never surrendered to jesus i want you just to simply pray this prayer and in in the online chat room tell somebody what you've done but it's just praying this prayer of god i give you my entire life that you would be glorified do in me whatever pleases you that your name would be exalted do in my family in my home that which delights your heart see the scripture says the lord speaks at one point he says for i'm not ashamed to be called their god i would like everybody watching this to have the lord shout over your actual home the physical home that you live in i would love to see the lord of glory stand over your household and shout to everything that exists i am not ashamed to be called their god there's something about to be released in the earth and it's through surrendered people so father we pray right now i ask that you would use this overwhelming sense of presence and that you disciple us this way you teach us this way that we would never be satisfied with anything less than you again like moses we want to say if you're not taking us we don't want to go up from here we don't want to go just blessed we don't want to go just with favor and open doors if you're not going if your presence isn't that which makes us different than everyone else then we don't want to go anywhere so i'm praying that i'm praying that for us us this tribe this family the bethel family all over the world mark us with the glory god invite you interrupt our dream time teach us what you like teach us open up new pathways of discernment and perception in our physical body our hearts our minds that we just expand our ability to recognize you the glorious one and that somehow that would be the contagious factor not a pandemic not a virus but a contagious factor called the glory of god the glory of god has become known in the earth that's what we want i invite you to do that with us as a family and i give you thanks 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 slash podcast slash donate [Music] [Applause] hello hello hello i miss us my goodness gracious this is like the longest fast ever this this is like this is worse than fasting food fasting hugs it should be illegal and in fact i'm through fasting hugs so if if if that bothers you stay away from me because i will grab you and hug you so all of our online family i know we've got folks gathering in homes right now all over the redding area which is just the coolest thing ever so glad to hear that and then our international community we're just we're glad we're just glad glad to be able to call your friends glad to be able to call your family um i i know that when um there's like a pandemic i mean this is it's serious it's a real disease and i don't want to ever make light of that but i do try to find things to laugh at in the middle of everything and so if that is annoying to you plug your ears do something go la la la la la while i read to you a few funny things chris put this on his i'll blame him he put this on his instagram page i used to spin the toilet paper roll like i was on the wheel of fortune now i turn it like i'm cracking a safe [Laughter] that's a good word right there yes it is i think the coronavirus is turning me into a dog i'm roaming around the house all day looking for food told no every time i get too close to a stranger and i get really excited about going for car rides [Laughter] oh goodness i love this one too i ate 11 times today and took five naps and it's still today [Laughter] okay um thoughts and prayers go out to all the married men who spent months telling their wives i'll do that when i have time all right let's uh let's get started how are we doing for time we're doing good um i want you to open uh open your bibles please to second chronicles chapter seven it's a very familiar passage which i'm thankful for there are just some portions of scripture that should stand up more than others because there seem to be things that the lord is really breathing on and and i feel it so strong on this passage right now um in ways that uh uh really hard for me to describe i've been looking forward to today i've i it's been an unusually busy season for us as a staff you would think with this slow down it there would actually be a slowdown but i didn't notice it if it came it went past me it's been an unusually busy time but thankfully uh benny and i were able to take some vacation time uh this month and that was just real wonderful uh the letdown of course is not being with you but i uh we we did have uh some wonderful time to rest and and uh just enjoy being home so we're we're glad for that um for uh for the last several weeks i i don't know exactly how long but for the last at least two weeks maybe three or four i've been waking up morning after morning often not every morning but morning after morning sometimes in the middle of the night quoting this verse you know sometimes you find divine moments because you you you're saying something that you didn't come from here didn't come it was it wasn't a premeditated statement it was just something that came up from here just that volcanic eruption and i have been finding this happen to me over and over again in recent weeks and it's this passage second chronicles 7 14. we'll read the whole verse and then i'm going to take you through it we're going to talk about it verse 14 if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land let's read it again if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then i will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land for probably 40 years or so of my life this has been a a standout passage i remember uh as a as a young man attending conferences uh at jack hayford's church in van nuys california i remember one in particular where the entire event was about prayer and intercession and speakers would speak and oftentimes this passage would be used as as a real driving force to bring healing to the land to bring healing to 100 plus nations represented by our viewing audience but specifically for the state of california for the nation united states that we bear responsibility for and it's not only in the heart of god it's in the history of god to bring healing when there has been great devastation when there's been great uh disaster uh morally uh naturally natural disasters that sort of thing wars whatever the lord has a habit of bringing healing and bringing restoration and uh and doing a work that only he could do and uh but it is it is instigated by the people that he shared his name with she says if my people it's not it's funny to me sometimes that as christians we get angry for unbelievers acting like unbelievers and i i'm not sure where to go with that but just i'll leave that where it is the lord puts the weight of responsibility for transformation on the shoulder of his own people he didn't say when the nations turned to me he didn't say when those who are struggle with addictions when they get free he didn't say when the marriages are healed he didn't he didn't say any of that stuff he just said if my people the ones that i gave my name to think about that for a minute the ones i gave my name to it's extraordinary because jesus said he said you will ask the father in my name you're going to use my my name you'll ask the father in my name and anything you ask for will be done for you then he says wherever two or three of you are gathered in my name i'm there in the midst then he says wherever two or three of you agree as to touching anything in my name it shall be done for you so the the weight of of responsibility for transformational expressions of god rest on the shoulders of those to whom he has given his name i'm giving you a name now use it to bring change i've given you my name one of the most beautiful things that has happened in this strange season these four months has been we've been reduced to our point of strength which is the two or three gathering in his name as many of you are doing in homes the family unit the two or three gathered in his name the government of heaven rests upon the shoulders of the two or three gathered in his name there's responsibility we are not here taking up space keeping busy until we die or jesus returns we are here with a transformational assignment on earth as it is in heaven and please notice that that expression is linked to a prayer that we pray because we've been given his name if my people who are called by my name i believe that the most important ministry of all ministries is prayer worship and prayer is the premier assignment that we've been given i'm personally thankful that in uh in recent weeks the lord's been refreshing me in what used to be a much greater strength than it has been in the busyness of recent years no excuse whatsoever but there is a strength being restored to my own soul of the place of prayer it's from our knees that we have the greatest effect on the world around us it's from our knees it's from our place of prayer of intercession that we become actual partners with god god's not looking for people who know how to stay busy he's looking for people who know how to represent his heart and i'm not going to represent in action what i've not found in prayer it's the connection with the heart of god that gives me the authority to represent him with absolute confidence in action prayer without action is incomplete in the same way that faith without works is dead we've been called to a lifestyle of prayer and i hope and pray that everyone listening everybody who uh is here uh can feel the that particular stream deepening in your own soul as i i believe the lord is is is to to be honest is trying to get us to repent our way back into a place of righteous influence that god has called us to and that is from the place of prayer he says if my people the ones i gave my name to will humble themselves chris one of the first words we had in the beginning of this unusual season chris broad and he made a statement i think something like this the way forward humility is the way forward humility is the way forward perfect and timely word humility is the way forward at a time when it's easy to be hurt and offended and angry and zealous and withdraw and do all the stupid things that we as humans know how to do humility is the way forward and so the lord said if my people the ones that i gave my name to those are the ones who have actual responsibility i think it was john wesley who said that god does nothing in the affairs of man except in response to prayer that's something that i have actually believed and tried to live aware of as that statement for the last 40 some years is that god looks for partnership without him we can't without us he won't as another statement that i've heard through the years without him we can't without us he won't and so that place of prayer is a place of coming into a place of agreement with the heart and the mind of god to exercise his authority in the earth so that his will is done here as it is in heaven there is the prayer there is the the contract the the the request that is made um i i itself also made a statement uh this a couple weeks ago that it really moved me he said that something like this the key to answer answers to prayer he says 98 of answers to prayer is from abiding in christ it's living in the conscious presence of the almighty god that is the strength of the answers to prayer it's the two or three gathered in my name i'm there so the whole issue of the breakthroughs in the earth come out of living in that awareness that awareness of the presence of god with me and upon me to make a difference in the world around me that is the connection for answers to prayer and so he says if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and pray it's foolish to be given such a transformational tool such as prayer and not use it it's foolish to face an impossible situation everybody knows how to lift up a panic prayer i'm not opposed to that i'm glad he sometimes answers those but transformational praying is more like giving birth paul actually talked about that he used the he used the concept of giving birth to illustrate prayer he was referring to one of his associates and he said he is praying he is laboring in prayer the word labor as physical labor of a woman laboring in prayer until christ is formed in you was the phrase you used it's a it's a different kind of a praying it's it's it's digging in i know the heart of god i know the will of god and i know there's opposition i don't know necessarily what the problem is i just know i have nothing better to do with my life than to abide in him until the presence of god his own faith becomes my faith and i learn in prayer to petition god but also to represent him as i make decrees to standing opposition i understand something like 20 5 26 of christians vote that's insane the moral cesspool that has grown in many of the nations of the world watching this broadcast that moral cesspool has developed and grown on our watch and the lamest excuse invented by the devil himself is that i only have one vote my vote doesn't really matter the devil made that one up to disengage the most powerful influential people on the planet because there's no such thing as a act of obedience that is powerless there's no such thing there's no such i don't care if you're taking a sandwich out of your grocery store to the homeless man in front of the store it is an act of obedience that releases presence and power i don't care if it's the phone call to your neighbor that you haven't seen and you heard that they were sick and you're finding out what's happening every act of obedience of a believer releases presence and power the glory becomes manifest in the atmosphere of obedience the simplest act of physical obedience and the thought that i could do something responsible for my nation and vote for my city and to be powerless is an absolute insult to the power of the gospel that he has given us his name he's given us his name a single act of obedience to the lord just do your best pray vote values not personalities and let's see if we can make a difference i know he's not talking about voting here but i am it's it's honestly our responsibility is to pray you know there's a lot of people moan and groan they call it intercession and but do nothing outside of that to make a difference in your own culture and we've been called to make a difference it's our responsibility to make a difference if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face the face of god is what we are invited to pursue think about that for a minute because the scripture gives that warning anyone who sees his face dies so it's a great invitation [Laughter] come and die and i tell you what every time we come before the face of the lord something dies that shouldn't have been alive the lord invites us into this ongoing interaction with the countenance of a perfect father so when he says seek my face he's not saying seek my hand i i've i have tried to make a strong point for the last probably 20 years that jesus never scolded anyone for seeking his hand blind bartimaeus wanted to see jesus didn't say or you're supposed to seek to know me he didn't gave him healing in his eyes you know the one with the dead relative they you know jesus brought through his hands the power of god to establish kingdom he's never scolded anyone for seeking his hand his blessing i think it's a responsibility we have but forgiveness doesn't come from his hand it comes from his face it's from the countenance it's the father who welcomes and that's what's needed right now is a group of people that get recalibrated to the face somehow seeing the eyes of a loving father recalibrates every value in my soul things that were important 10 minutes ago are no longer important things that plagued me or worried me or frustrated me suddenly they don't have the bite that they once had why because there's something about the countenance that just absorbs every offense or distraction that i carry in my heart it just gets absorbed in this face of a loving father and he says if my people the ones i gave my name to if they would just humble themselves seek my face turn from their wicked ways there's a picture given old and new testament that to seek the face of god automatically implies turning from something i must turn from the inferior to seek the face of god you can't drag both values into one act he is the all or nothing god he is the he he is he likes being first and king i mean he that's him everything is about putting him first so here he says seek my face turn from your wicked ways in hebrews 6 it says turning from dead works faith towards god it's this turning from unto and one of the things that i'm so thankful for about the lord is he welcomes us into his presence regardless of the condition of our heart you can be bitter he can be mad you can be indifferent you can be you know careless it doesn't matter where you're at he says come but you can't leave the same way you came that's that's the whole deal you can't you you can't expect i'm gonna bring all this baggage and i'm gonna come in and then i'm gonna leave the same way that's not how it works we come in before him and we just get refined in the journey that's part of the whole process is that i come to seek his face and things get recalibrated in this in this journey it may be a five-minute journey it may be an all-day long journey but it's this journey where i engage once again to the face of god that reveals the heart of god that automatically engages me into my reason for being he said if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek the countenance of this wonderful father i've been reading the last couple days again psalm 67 which is personally a favorite of mine and in verse 1 and 2 of of that great psalm verse 1 says lord bless me which i love that prayer i'm into that kind of praying anytime bless me and cause your countenance to shine upon me countenance is a word for favor it's the loving favor of a father it's it's the uh uh brian and jen that just adopted another little boy and uh and we uh we got to have him at our home again last night and and it's just you you don't have you know a a parent will make faces to an infant that they would never even make in the mirror to themselves while they were alone i mean you say things you make noises you do all kinds of stuff to this little tiny infant that that you don't even know you're doing it just seems to come out of you as you as you and i've been told that children are actually infants are trained in a lifestyle of joy through the countenance of their caregiver and so it's that face and so here we are we seek the face of the almighty god this perfect father who welcomes us welcomes us we come with baggage we leave clean and powerful we come with issues we leave confident he is settling the issues and he says you seek my face you turn from your wicked ways then i will hear that's an amazing statement because the bible tells us he doesn't always hear i don't know if you know that or not but the bible says scripture says if i regard iniquity in my heart god will not hear me if i come conscious of sin and i'm unwilling to repent so here he welcomes us he says turn from your wicked way seek my face then i will hear from heaven forgive their sin this is amazing to me forgive their sin personal blessing and heal their land corporate influence the personal breakthrough becomes a transformational influence in the land sometimes i think people avoid times of prayer because they think it'll take hours and you know sometimes i've been in moments of prayer where you just lose track of time those are glorious glorious moments but history has been shaped by people who prayed simple prayers but they were all in all in the history of our nation we're celebrating independence weekend history of our nation has been shaped by the prayers of a general in an army where it looked like they would certainly lose and they just took the knee and they prayed a simple prayer and everything changed simple prayer a president a governor different ones who just simply take the knee and pray acknowledge the almighty god this is something that we have the privilege of doing throughout the day it's not just the two hour block of time it's the five minutes of surrender here it's the 10 minutes of praise and exalting him there it's it's that riddle throughout my day i never want to escape the fact i carry his name and i carry it for a reason i'm here to make a difference and in the abiding presence of god i've been finding that that the prayer meeting never stops it never stops it started while i was sleeping i found myself praying if my people were called by my name i would wake up bring that bread get up in the morning i would grab my bible sit out on my deck it would continue it continue throughout the day it just it doesn't stop because the abiding presence of the almighty god is upon me as a testimony to me that you hear son to make a difference learn to pray out of abiding learn to pray out of the presence learn to touch to tap into the heart of god express that in prayer and decree and let's do what we're supposed to do make a difference in the earth this is what we are assigned to do this is who we are we're people that have been given this day this will seem very elementary to you as it is but this next statement is one that i think is forgotten often and it's this we battle not against flesh and blood we battle not against flesh and blood that's not our problem and to fight effectively in the war we were born into requires a strength that is found only on our knees it's only on our knees i'm going to assume that you've been experiencing this as i have i would have been embarrassed to admit it but it feels like more and more i am being delivered from the prayer life that wants to convince god of doing what i want him to do i never would have thought that that it would ever be a desire of mine but i can tell sometimes that the frustration and prayer comes from that and the whole issue about effective prayer is it begins in surrender it's not that great things aren't supposed to happen we're designed to make a difference in the course of history we're shaped for that i made a statement here some years ago that you can't find your significance until you have found your insignificance and sometimes it's just that place of going low and surrender where you where you you are not confident of your strength i don't need self-confidence i need god confidence and i i don't want to you know i don't want to speak bad about being self-confident but i've had it it's disappointing it's disappointing self-confidence is no greater than self and it's very unimpressive prayer is engaging with the unlimited strength and the unlimited heart of compassion of a perfect father it's that countenance of a father that says son now now pray this now do this now call this person now give this away now do that it's it's that it comes out of it comes out of this the countenance of a father who can guide you with his eyes he looks at you in a certain way and you you just know this is this is not my responsibility it's the abandonment to the heart of god it's the abandonment to the will of god then suddenly we find ourselves praying simplest prayers that move heaven and earth because they come out of abiding they come out of surrender they come out of the acknowledgement that god is with me god is with me not just as a theological statement i sense the might the beauty the wonder of the almighty god who is now resting upon me because he has assigned me to do something i remind you jesus stood in luke 4 before he had done any miracles and he said the spirit of the lord god is upon me and then he declared why the spirit of the lord god is upon me and then he announced why it wasn't arrogance see in abiding presence and abiding presence there is courage to declare truth regardless of what it sounds like to somebody else it's not permission to be offensive it's just the spirit of the lord god is upon me to open the eyes of the blind to proclaim the favorable year of the lord and he had not done any of those things i'd like to suggest to you that in that abiding presence comes that god confidence we were all designed for the god confidence that they can look at a situation and say no that will not be happening on my shift no no that will not be happening that disease no we draw the line no further no the destruction of that family line no that ends today it's not a careless prayer it's something that comes from the abiding presence of digging your heels and saying i know the heart of god i know the mind of god and i know why i am here i am here with a purpose and it is to bring an end to that that that will no longer happen i want you to stand if you would i'm gonna wrap this up i know i've got more time left but i'm gonna end it in a moment anyway all of you there at home you can stand if you want those of you in your car i like how you said it earlier don't stand if you're in your car don't stand please i i i was about to say i feel like commissioning for prayer taking place but it's different than a commissioning it's an invitation it's a summons it's a summons come into the courts of the king i gave you my name for a reason come into the courts of the king learn to recognize my countenance pick up my heartbeat because it's in that abiding partnership my purposes are accomplished in the earth father i pray that you would increase that that global sense of summons the summoning from a perfect father to come and to pray and to make a difference in the earth i'm asking for everybody in this room everybody watching online give us the grace for this season to not fight against flesh and blood to not mistake people for the enemy give us the redemptive touch the eyes of a perfect father the loving heart of a father help us to represent you well i want to end with this i know that anytime we have as many people as we have gathered on bethel tv youtube the various forms formats there's always a high probability that there are people watching that don't have a personal relationship with jesus you don't know what it is to truly be forgiven by god and welcomed into his family i want to say this is your moment now is the moment whoever calls upon the name of the lord jesus christ there's no other name whoever calls upon the name of the lord jesus christ shall be saved wherever you are in fact if you're watching at bethel tv or youtube any of those formats please you can uh write right now on your comment and and get the help of a pastor one of our team that will pray with you i pray for that right now that there will be transformation of people's lives all over the world through this beautiful and wonderful gospel amen now how many of you say amen to the invitation to not fight with flesh and blood but instead abide and see answers amen amen amen all right bless you thank you you

Channel: The Teachings Of GOD

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Id: UjXraPAF0Ks

Length: 83min 11sec (4991 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021