From Glory to Glory to Glory - Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

see all of you by faith i i trust you're there how's that i trust you there um 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 um so let me just get to it i really don't have a teaching i have uh an exhortation an invitation a something i don't even know what to call it uh probably ten days ago i i joined a school of ministry out here under the tent and uh we had a it was a wonderful time of worship but something started to happen um 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 throughout throughout my own personal journey i remember when i pastored in weberville i would i would take time often just to walk through the sanctuary back and forth when nobody was there i would 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 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 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 cases 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 want to emphasize that we're on this relational journey and they're just come 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 hands they had of a son it's the only one that works in there and i've had this sense for quite a while but it's becoming more uh tangible in the last especially the last 10 days where in in that in that tent in that time with students i started to 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 or 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 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'd 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 i would come sit down sometimes i'd make it to the run 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 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 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 obedient so 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 this 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 i 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 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 i don't understand it at all but i know that last sunday night i experienced it again it was he 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 french 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 i mean a lot of dreams for us i don't want to make it overly simple but there's this statement in haggai chapter two 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 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 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 5 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 i 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 2 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 um that they they rock me uh i'm assuming they do you as well ii chronicles chapter five is one of them it's this amazing moment in the dedication of the temple solomon had 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 is 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 like 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 but it adds something to them that nothing else and everything that they have made could add 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 so 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 as this father-son thing it was like the only time i could find in history um 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 their 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 he 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 their 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 it 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 uh 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 under 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 cloud just 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 says the levites who were singing all those of asaph and haman and jeduthen 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 nother family line they were singers a whole nother 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 whenever 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 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 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 get this massive massive crowd and they're all playing not for the nation of israel they are playing for the audience of one we are playing to him directly to him every strum every clanging symbol every every syllable that is lifted up in song everything is for the one and when that happened and 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 were as the song of the lord with the lord himself is 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 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 yieldness 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 release 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 is 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 you can see his heart and not want to go i i don't know if it's possible to sit in that moment where where you see him or where there's overwhelming sense of who he is and what he's like and then 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 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 cord 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 they're 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 now 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 and 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 i 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 so i invite you to do that with us as a family and i give you things amen if if you invited jesus into your life please tell someone on the in the chat room if you're a believer that has just really really really find yourself fighting with what god is saying and doing you know pray with somebody on the in the chat room as well we just want everyone to have this ongoing encounter with king jesus amen god bless you thanks for joining us love you much

Channel: Bill Johnson Teaching (Official)

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Keywords: bill johnson sermons, bill johnson, supernatural, bethel church, miracles, christian, bethel, holy spirit, revival, sermon, holy ghost, 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, God’s Presence, glory to glory

Id: BN7EN3-nD1o

Length: 44min 40sec (2680 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 05 2021