Designed to Hear From God - Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

wow it's nice to see people humans humans i love you too i discovered i am addicted to humans and it's a serious addiction not even 12 months of withdrawals could change it i am still still here good to see you and i'm glad uh glad that you showed up um open your bibles if you would the gospel of john chapter 12. it'll take me a few minutes to get there but i'll read something to you first a wife asked her husband to go to the supermarket said get a carton of milk and if they have avocados get six short time later the husband came back with six cartons of milk the wife is surprised and asked why why did you get six cartons of milk they said they had avocados we'll prayerfully meditate while you ponder what i just read the good news is it can only go up from there there's only one way to go we're going to improve all right it's funny how people believe that we're designed but they don't believe in a designer and yet we have been very intricately designed for many many things one in particular is we are actually designed to hear from god it's in our nature as a believer to have faith but it's our nature as a human being to hear from god people will say well i just don't hear god speak well then you couldn't be born again because our conversion is in response to his invitation it's never initiated by us it's interesting you can have a gathering like this and preach on evangelism and people will come to christ and i don't know that any of that them that came would say i clearly heard the voice of the lord and yet they became aware of their unsaved condition and their need for god what is that the result of it's a result of hearing from god see comprehension is not the evidence we've heard comprehension is not the evidence we've heard we tend to put god on the same level as we are as humans talking to one another and yet god's languages are so diverse and oftentimes he speaks things that are so deep and so profound and so beyond our paid grades so to speak that he speaks to our spirit man in a way where he makes a deposit that may take days weeks or even months to unfold but it is true many times people perhaps in business you you make this decision for your business and it just turns out to be just this gold mine decision and others of you make a decision for a family member maybe as a gift that you give and it was unusually timely and you didn't know you had no clue and and you make that phone call it could be any number of things but what happens is we oftentimes make that brilliant idea of not realizing that god actually ministered to us in the night weeks before the event because he knew it was coming and he spoke to us and he prepared us for that decision that we think is brilliance and it was actually the product of the voice of god he speaks how many of you have been in moments or seasons where you you would say i just i'm not hearing i don't hear from the lord very well in this season but i but i sense his presence i'm going to say that all right that's his voice he is the word when the word shows up his effect is voice we don't interpret it as voice and yet it is it's as clearly the voice of god as anything we've ever heard he speaks by presence in luke chapter 4 jesus quotes this verse out of the old testament man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god we are alive because he speaks we live as an evidence of his voice you sitting there doing nothing but listen to a guy talk is evidence he speaks if it were possible for someone to not have an ability to hear from god the moment he spoke they'd have an ability to hear from god because he creates when he speaks he spoke the worlds into being in romans 10 it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of god why don't you quote that with me faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god i i grew up hearing people teach on that and and the most common thing i would hear is that faith comes from hearing the word of god it's not that's not what it says it says faith comes from hearing hearing comes from the word of god we listen to god's voice not to find something in addition to scripture but to clarify what's been written rhonda worley gave us an illustration so many years ago where the father spoke to abraham to sacrifice his son and as the sword is coming down the lord spoke and said never mind and he emphasized how happy isaac was that his dad kept listening to the lord many isaacs have been slain because people listened to what he had said but not what he's saying it's the present tense voice is actually the cause of faith the very nature of faith implies i am hearing you just have a situation come up and you just believe god for this breakthrough how did you get it he spoke i hope that what happens as a result of today is that we broaden our perception of how god speaks to us we've talked before on the multiple ways god speaks and it's always fun the stories are fun and we all have unique uh experiences in in the voice of the lord i'm not wanting to go into that today i just say it's bigger than you could imagine but what i would like to emphasize today is that you have already been designed to perceive into here it's already in your design the passage out of hebrew hebrews 5 says having your senses trained to discern good and evil having your senses such human physical senses can actually be trained by immersion in the presence can actually be trained to recognize good and evil i know you already know this but um when they train uh people who work in the banking system to recognize counterfeit money they only study real money they never study counterfeit money they just become so exposed to the real that the the counterfeit stands out they may not even know why they just know there's something wrong with this and that's how you discern good and evil is you don't discern evil by studying evil you become immersed in the person and anything that doesn't fit in there is evil it's immersion in presence and the emphasis that i one primary emphasis i want to make today is the very fact that presence is voice and i'm not always ready to to understand or to move in what he's saying to me that's why you be in a time like we had this morning where the worship team is leading and it's just this unusual aware of god's presence don't be quick to try to figure out what he's doing just be the pliable child be be the the sailboat with the sail that just is moved by wind we we just catch what god we just catch the fact that he's here and i i don't discover him through analysis i discover him through surrender it's not that understanding is wrong he commands us to pursue wisdom and understanding it's vital but the problem happens when we only obey what we understand because then we have a god who looks a lot like us he's our size and what he's looking for is a people that are yielded to him who say yes before he speaks and we'll look at it in a moment if i remember that the yes before he speaks is actually what attracts his voice so we have this statement in romans 10 faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god god will not speak inconsistent with his written word that's why exposure to this is what helps us to recognize that which is outside of his word i i heard this funny story i don't think i have all the details right but it's close enough you'll get the picture this family is driving on a mountain road and their little boy just out of nowhere declares there's a there's a big rock in the road right around the the turn and the father was driving was somewhat stunned by the word and went around the corner a little slower than normal and sure enough there's this huge rock in the middle of the road they were so impressed that their kid could hear from god they said what else is he saying he said we need to stop at mcdonald's when we get to town which sounds very typical for all of us i got it right once let's see if i can extend it into my will i've got a great plan for your life so let's so faith comes by hearing but the capacity to hear comes from exposure to his word if it was just the recording of his word i've got multiple translations on my phone i could play it all night long and by the end of the week i'd have the faith of wigglesworth if he just came from hearing scripture i don't want to downplay that because i do that i i love to listen to the word of god but faith comes from hearing the the living voice the one who is ever present who in that moment i don't know what he just said i just can tell that he just deposited something in my life i'll never forget oh 40 goodness 40 some years ago i was on staffing with my dad and i remember i i had this period of time where i was reading through isaiah and i got to isaiah 62 and while i read beyond that chapter stumped me and it was almost like it reached out and grabbed me and i i would read it and reread it reread it and you could ask me what does it say and i would have to say i do not know all i know is that when i when i read it it grabbed me and it spoke to me and i don't understand it i could never explain it but something's happening inside of me because of what i read i believe that that is biblical learning where your spirit man learns before your natural man but it doesn't mean we're not supposed to pursue the understanding i want to be able to explain i want to be able to illustrate but oftentimes the lord speaks to us here first and it's that sensitivity to the fact that he's here what is he doing i don't know but i'll i'll cooperate whatever it is i don't want to dictate him i want him to dictate me and then all of a sudden you just have this seemingly passing thought seemingly passing thought i should call so and so and you do and you're at a crisis moment that if you weren't leaning into the fact that presence's voice you might have missed it presence is voice there's this other passage and don't worry we're going to get to john 12 in a minute we're all i'm almost there i have to totally exhaust you first then we'll read the scripture and there's this verse in hebrews 1 verse 3 says that he sustains or upholds all things by the word of his power so the billions of universes are actually held in place because he speaks you have the capacity to sit here because he speaks it is his voice that keeps us alive it keeps us engaged so much of what we understand in life came simply because he spoke to you in the night he spoke to you through a friend a circumstance a situation he arranged all the players in your life to deliver this insight this piece at this time and it prepared you to make the big noble decision later in life but it started as such a small concept because god is building in us the ability to become the word made flesh forgive me if that sounds blasphemous let me explain it jesus is the word made flesh he's wanting his word to be made flesh again he's wanting people you and me to be able to model and illustrate exactly what he says that when you look at our lives you see the life of christ you see what has been written in scripture so faith comes by hearing but the capacity to hear the the uh emphasis of hearing is comes from the word of god jesus taught in parables not to illustrate truth it's one of the strangest things i always just grew up hearing the parables of the good samaritan and you know on and on the seed and the sower all these wonderful wonderful stories that he gave but as you go through matthew 13 and you find out the disciples asked him about the parables and he explained to them that i teach in parables so that those who don't understand won't understand let me rephrase it he he hides truth in parables so that those who are not ready to obey will not understand because if he increases the knowledge of those who are not ready to obey he just increased their accountability it's the mercy of god for him to conceal truth and then make it to where only the hungry can find it so there's this there's this posture i i i used to have this massage chair i'm going to be getting another one soon thank you jesus but that massage chair was the will of god it it was the will of god and uh you know you just push the right button and you're just in heaven that's all i can say is is the verse is fulfilled on the earth as it is in heaven and i'd be sitting in that chair and benny would be sitting in another one in another chair and she'd say honey i'm joining in the kitchen you want something to eat i go oh yeah i'm starving i wasn't starving enough to get out of my chair and go get it i was starving enough that if the conditions are right and you actually bring it to me i will consume it and many people look for the word of the lord that way if it comes to me if it's forced upon me if it comes just right i will receive it but i don't have the courage to get up and to pursue there's not the leaning into there's not the anticipation what would he say if i told him yes before he spoke what would he say if i told him i will do it no matter what he commanded me to do there's an interesting verse in john 7. it says if anyone wills to do his will he shall know concerning the doctrine or the teaching whether it is from god or whether i speak on my own authority jesus speaking now he says anyone who is willing to do his will will know whether the teaching is from god or not what is this saying think through this if i'm willing to do whatever god says my hearing will be clearer and i will be able to distinguish that which came from the father versus that which came from a person the distinguishing gift came through the willingness to obey it's the willingness to obey that actually positions a person to hear now john 12. you still have your bibles and they're open to john 12 you're very patient people you get extra points all right verses 23 through 26 jesus is talking about what it looks like to follow him verse 27. he's about to go to his death and so he's making a reference to this jesus speaks in verse 27 now my soul is troubled and what shall i say father save me from this hour but for this purpose i came to this hour i made a list once a study i did through the whole new testament to find any time jesus would indicate why he came to earth it was just fascinating to to create that list and um for example first john 3 8 says he came to destroy the works of the evil one and there's this wonderful wonderful list he came to reveal the father you find that a lot throughout the gospel of john but this one says he came for this purpose to die on a cross that's why he came he says he prays this prayer verse 28 father glorify your name then a voice came from heaven saying i have both glorified it and will glorify it again therefore the people who stood by and heard it said it had thundered others said an angel has spoken to him then jesus answered and said this voice did not come because of me but for your sake now no miracles happen in the following verses he's just explaining and then we come to a conclusion verse 37 but although he had done so many signs before them they did not believe in him although he had done so many signs before them they did not believe him in him that's fascinating because the the more common story throughout the gospels is people believe because of the signs but in this particular case a crowd had been exposed to the miracles but it did not bring them to faith it did not bring them to surrender and that's supposed to be the purpose is it reveals the heart and nature of god lays out the covenant of god brings the invitation for relationship that's the purpose of miracles and in this case it says although they had seen the miracles they did not believe that is verse 37 but follow me now that was their condition before the father spoke audibly from heaven and jesus gives this profound explanation he didn't speak audibly for my sake it was for yours and yet half the crowd heard thunder and the other half thought it was angels but it wasn't for them in other words there's a natural explanation and there's a supernatural but it's impersonal and it's not for me i can relegate whatever's going on to well who knows what's going on but it's it's either there's a natural explanation or there's supernatural activity it's just not for me i i remember people would say that about about the revival they would say we know it's god it's just not for me so here's what i'd like to the picture i'd like to paint for you is here's a group of people that have been watching jesus do what he did and they were not brought to faith you know you're brought to faith because you're brought to surrender faith is a result of surrender not striving so here they are they're not brought to place of faith like so many others instead they're in this place of unbelief which is the ultimate sin i i believe it's just my opinion the ultimate sin the the the attempt of the enemy is always to lead us into unbelief because in unbelief we stand in defiance to his nature of perfect faithfulness i owe him the response of faith because he is so faithful anything less is a defiance of his of his nature that's a good point bill just keep keep going for it keep going for it all right so here they are they're in this place where they see they behold they are not moved to faith what's the other option resistance callousness hardness of heart in that condition jesus prays this prayer father glorify your name and the father speaks audibly to a crowd jesus clarified it that wasn't for me that was for you to think that the father didn't speak clearly violates his own personal standard for how we are to minister don't stand in front of a group of people and preach in tongues you're supposed to preach with clarity we are communicators tongues has a role it's just not for preaching to people are you getting what i'm saying so he gives instruction on clarity of speech and for him to speak to a crowd and not be clear on his end violates his own standard so what does it tell us it tells us he spoke audibly to a crowd but their own resistance filtered that voice into thunder and angelic activity that wasn't for them i i use this illustration because i believe it's possible and necessary for us to live in continuous anticipation of what god might be saying what he might be doing it's the the term that we use early early days is leaning in i could find myself we would come together night after night after night i could find myself just leaning into i know he's here i know he's going to do something wonderful i don't know what it is i just want to cooperate that's all i want i just want to be able to say yes my whole approach um in that season day after day after day is two questions that asked number one did god show up number two did i do what he said if i could answer yes to those two questions it didn't matter how many people came or how many people left it was a good day because i did what he said he came and i did what he said there's this anticipation some people in the natural speak so softly in a room you actually find you want to hear them and you find yourself leaning or maybe you're eavesdropping in the airport and somebody behind you is talking quietly secretly the whole point is is when we want to hear we lean in we lean in we anticipate and what the lord speaks to us in the john 7 passage is that the willingness to obey before he speaks is what attracts his voice into our situation the two things that i'm looking for today and talking to you about this this whole thing is number one is just acknowledge god talks all the time i'm not always aware of it but he does but the second thing is is in that position of anticipation what might god be saying now here's the thing that's that's fascinating to me i don't know how this works for you most of the time when i ask god a question i don't get an answer immediately rarely do i get an answer no some of you you just have this ongoing conversation and i'm jealous of you but just right now be quiet i don't want to hear your story i want you to hear mine most honestly most of the time when i when i have a question for the lord maybe a scripture i said god i don't understand this i ran into something this last week i mean every time you open the bible there's stuff you don't understand but this one puzzled me i don't get this i've done that through the years and and he'll speak to me but rarely in that moment it might be a month later but when you ask the question you have the responsibility to recognize the answer when it comes because sometimes it will come through a friend in conversation not even knowing that they're answering your question it may come on a tv show it may come on a worship album that you're listening to it may come as just an inspired thought you're driving down the road and you go oh i get it now but it's because you're in in anticipation of the one who speaks and somehow positioning ourselves as hearers of god is huge and here's the bible says don't despise the day of small beginnings what does that mean don't discredit infancy don't discredit what you think is inability instead of focusing on small ability did that make sense it made perfect sense to me when you discount whatever progress you've made and you criticize yourself or think little of yourself because of what you're not you actually hurt the progress you've made i've heard people say well this isn't revival go ahead you know that three-foot circle you're standing in may not be in fact if i got to vote i would agree with you i see god do something powerful and then i watch the critics now i don't even mean i don't mean the people who don't like us i'm talking about the people who like us and i'm not saying this to somehow strip sympathy i'm trying to point to the fact that sometimes we have a seed that started to grow and somebody comes in and kills it because it's not a full grown tree i remember my first trip to argentina one of the first things i wanted to do was go examine this that i had heard about read about for so many years the amazing outpouring of the spirit that they were experiencing and i i wanted to i wanted to see if it was anything similar to what what we were experiencing and besides the amazing conversations i had with leaders and people that were so affirming to me i basically went down and came back with this conclusion the art the revival there was like a huge red ripe sweet apple and what we were experiencing had just started to form on the tree and it might be sour it might be bitter but it is 100 percent apple and you don't steward this into maturity by discrediting it discrediting it translate that now into your ability to hear from god never say again never apply imply again it's hard for you to hear from god because it's your nature to hear from god it's your nature it's who you are it's in the design everything about you was wired and designed to perceive to recognize to have fellowship and exchange with the almighty god everything about you i'm not as good at it as i want to be but i'm better than i used to be and it's not now what it's going to be but it's my yes before he speaks that positions me to anticipate to lean in you hear better you perceive better it's the strangest things i've i've watched it in meetings where extraordinary miracles take place and i do so many of these kinds of things with with randy clark one of my my best friends and a guy i learn from all the time but i watch him and i learn from him how often there's the most subtle impression when we think of word of knowledge when we think of prophetic word i at least think of something much more obvious that's a no-brainer of course that's the lord not those that subtle little impression that says someone was injured in a white van that rolled over and it says it's as easy to miss as it is to get it wasn't demanding you actually had to lean into it to recognize it and then all of a sudden you're you're fed up with trying to protect your own dignity and your own reputation and you think what's the worst that could happen nothing and that's already happening [Applause] and then all of a sudden i was in a meeting where that actually happened i used that as an example and there were i believe five people in the room that had been in white vans that had overturned what are the odds you know there's a couple thousand people there but still what are the odds that you have anybody in the room that's been in a white van that flipped over and then to have five that all had the same experience four were instantly healed just in moments and the fifth one i don't i don't know about but the point i'm trying to make is it's not about signs and wonders it's not about the prophetics now about any of that it's about the fact god talks and you hear me lean in and you'll you'll recognize better what he's saying if you'll just say yes before he speaks um so did i read the passage to you out of second corinthians okay let me just read it to you i i've spoken twice already and there's one more to go by the end of that one i won't even know what city i'm in just joking second corinthians 3 16 nevertheless when one turns to the lord the veil is taken away strange verse when one turns to the lord the veil is taken away you would think the veil is taken away so the person could turn to the lord it's backwards in his mercy the veil isn't lifted until they turn because there's enough evidence to the voice of god in every human being that if there's that turning then suddenly what has kept them from clear perception of the things of god is lifted and they see clearly the clarity of sight is the reward for turning the clearness with which we hear from god is oftentimes the um the clarity with which he speaks to us and the code which we hear is given to people he can trust with what he says i know this sounds a little awkward but there's a different responsibility before the lord if you receive a slight impression then versus the audible voice the audible voice you have no excuses the subtle impression it wasn't as clear we want to grow in the clarity with which we hear but what regulates that clarity is our yes before he speaks all right i've already said it about 20 times it's probably enough we'll just wrap this up let's do this i know that whenever you talk about leading into the lord and hearing these unusual things that i create space for weirdos to rise to their surface finally there's somebody who understands me and they then have permission to do all these weird things and blame it on jesus but i don't i don't ever have the intention of preaching a balanced message there has to be risk in what i say the written let me rephrase it the risk for what i say has to be greater than the risk for those who will misuse it and while i know that people will lean in quote unquote and they will do stupid things they'll blame it on god and they'll say i taught them there's a whole other youtube video right there the risk is worth it because maybe there'll be 10 people in this room that will just lean in and hear things that they've never heard before and realize he's been talking all this time perceive things about their life their family their destiny that have never been acknowledged before and suddenly there's this domino effect through a family line because somebody was leaning to hear to recognize and they said yes before the command came that's worth it even though now i have to endure the weirdos there's always a chance anytime there's this many people in a room and i forgot to acknowledge our amazing online bethel family my goodness it's it's a growing family and it's literally all over the world i forget how many 130 nations or something amazing i want to acknowledge and honor our online family bless you guys for being so faithful you've been faithful for a long time and uh it's only it's taken this weird season to fully appreciate you as much as as much as i do right now i travel around the world not lately lately i travel around my neighborhood [Laughter] but i travel around the world and i have people grab me all the time and they'll thank me for bethel tv and now for the youtube so bless you thank you i know that there are people watching in fact there's somebody who has had multiple heart attacks i think it's it's at least two it could be it could be three or four but your health is very compromised you're in you're in a physical condition where there is not hope for recovery in the natural because things are just shutting down i believe that over the next 30 days god is going to reconstruct your heart it's not an instant in a moment thing although i think you'll sense the presence now but the lord over the next 30 days is going to rebuild and restore that organ the organ that that heart for you but i i wanted to throw out the net so to speak i know that there are people online there are so many that have come to christ in these recent weeks and months and there could be somebody here who has never made that confession of faith in jesus christ i want to ask all of you to stand and hold your places if you would and we're going to have ministry time and all that up here in just a moment but first i'd just like to have you stand if you would thank you and i just want to give the invitation if there's anyone here you do not have a personal relationship with jesus where you are his disciple you are his follower you have committed your life to follow this son of god the son of man jesus christ you've never been born again changed from the inside out but you'd say bill i don't want to leave this building until i know that i'm right with god if that's the case then i want you just to put a hand up where you are and we're going to make an agreement with you just real quickly put a hand up so that's me i don't want to leave until i know that i've been forgiven of sin i've been brought into his family okay i'm going to assume everybody in the room is in the boat so those who are online please acknowledge that you want to surrender your life to jesus please do so in the chat room we have pastors we have all kinds of people there that are ready and able to pray for you guys you wouldn't believe how many people have come to christ online and it's just been and extreme miracles i mean people out of comas by praying online over facetime or youtube or whatever so we just declared that healing word that uh that invitation for salvation to everyone who is watching tom why don't you come and just wrap this up for me

Channel: Bill Johnson Teaching (Official)

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Keywords: bethel.tv, bethel church, bill johnson sermons, faith, bill johnson, holy spirit, bill johnson 2020, bill johnson ministries, bill johnson bethel, bethel tv, bethel church redding, sermon bethel, is God good?, christian theology, Christian, church, miracles, bethel miracles, bill johnson ministry, prayer, prayer and fasting, prayer sermons, bethel tv live, bethel church live, hearing God, does god speak to us, the voice of God

Id: fxbf7EZngeQ

Length: 44min 32sec (2672 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021