Guest Speaker: Bill Johnson | The Mind Of Christ | Sojourn Church Carrollton Texas

hello hello nation of texas this is honestly the first time in in maybe 15 years i've not brought my passport with me i always bring my passport you know you never know when something's going to happen here with you guys you know i've i've been told a number of times that that you're ready to do whatever you need to do and uh i just want to make sure i'm on the right side of that one so it's fun to be always fun i was i was uh we were just in austin last night and this morning we have a church there and and uh met with that team this morning just for counting uh pastor joaquin evans if you and if you know him wonderful wonderful guy and uh he was on one of the trips that i made here and one of the first trips in fact i think it was the first trip and we had so many bizarre things happen in those oh my goodness gracious we were talking about some of the miracles uh like right back over here was a young lady that had lost uh had problems with their teeth because of a drug addiction she had been freed and born again and part of the church and just right in the middle of nothing happening she screamed and embarrassed herself when she screamed but she just screamed and i sent somebody back finding what happened because that's not normal people don't usually scream when i'm talking oh occasionally but and they ran back to sea and she had been missing a tooth because of the drug issues and it literally just appeared in her mouth it just was created right back over there so if you have teeth issues come on that's the spot right there so that's not fun we hit so many in fact the first time i was here somebody was healed of a gunshot wound do you remember that yeah yeah it was it was it was a bunch anyway good to see you if you've been shot you're at the right place if you want to be shot you're probably at the right place don't don't go there bill don't go there all right well i uh this has got to be the most interesting time to be alive ever ever certainly in my lifetime ever it's i don't know if it's a good thing to do but i enjoy the humor online concerning kovid i i know it's real and i know people have been horribly affected by it i don't want to be light on that but you know sometimes i just need to laugh and uh guy who said i'm starting to understand why my dog runs out of the house when i open the front door you know after you've been quarantined for so long you know another one said i was i was grounded for most of my childhood this quarantine is cake i like the one that said i've eaten 11 times i've taken five naps and it's still today all right let me read this to you and then we'll get we'll get probably not any more serious but we'll get serious uh in case you haven't heard this one this is an enjoyable one for me a man and his wife and his mother-in-law went on vacation to the holy land while they were there the mother-in-law passed away the undertaker told them you can have her shipped home for five thousand dollars or you can bury her here in the holy land for 150 dollars the man thought about it and told him he'd just as soon have her shipped home the undertaker asked why would you spend five thousand dollars to send your mother-in-law home when it'd be wonderful to have her buried here and spend only a hundred and fifty the man replied a man died here 2000 years ago he was buried here three days later he rose from the dead i just can't take that chance and if the message goes bad i have a lot more to read so i i sometimes turn to them when i'm in trouble you know so sure good to see you guys good job chris and vanessa bless you guys i'm so thrilled to meet you so honored that you've stepped up to take this place you guys turn this is amazing amazing we have just a lot of history and it's just fun let's uh let's go ahead and get started here there's so much swirling going on in the unseen world that it's really affecting people's thoughts people's thinking people's perception of truth of reality it's uh i don't know how much is going on here i'm sure it's like everywhere else but some places seem to be a little bit more crazier than others but it almost seems like the inmates are running the prison or the patients are running the asylum kind of thing at times and it's it's it's strange to watch things that only a couple years ago would have been called insanity to be held up as examples of truth so we live in that time we live in a time where where there we've always been able to say with understanding and conviction that the battle is in the mind it's not mind over matter it's not that sort of thing it's it's the fight for the mind of christ it is the fight for the mind of christ it is the fight over the mind of christ the mind of christ is perfect wisdom it is in in is fully alive in creating and transforming the mind of christ always has redemption and hope in the picture so any thought that i entertain that doesn't have redemption and hope in the picture is actually not the mind of christ it is actually i'm giving place to that which wars against the mind of christ when i've been here in the past we've used i've used terms like what's mentioned in romans 12 verse 2 where he says don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove the will of god be transformed by the renewing of your mind you and i are only transformed in the measure our mind is transformed we maybe have experienced this much but our transformation is equal to the renewing the transformation of the mind it's not because the mind is the seat of all things it's not it's kind of the canvas that god paints on when we allow him to create his own design the the heart can take you where your head can't fit there's the need to be able to faith comes from the heart not the mind the mind is essential but it is secondary to the yielded surrendered heart try this side over here slow pitch faith does not come from the mind it comes from from the heart faith does not develop in our life through striving it develops through surrender faith can only be in the measure of my yes so what we're looking for is we're looking we're looking for those moments those opportunities and actually that lifestyle of absolute abandonment and trust on the lord it does not mean being thoughtless or mindless it's quite the opposite your intellect will go much higher under the submission to the holy spirit than it will apart from this kingdom of god is so unusual that um there's the entrance to the kingdom and the room inside the kingdom is bigger than all the room outside of the kingdom it's bigger in this world than everything that exists outside of this world and to not understand that the scripture says that we it's a straight and narrow road to the kingdom christ jesus is the door there's no other way but through christ jesus if there were other ways then the father was cruel in requiring the suffering that jesus went through there is no other way but once you're in the kingdom it's a broad way the walk of the kingdom lifestyle with jesus is not a straight and narrow way it's a broad relational journey where we get to explore the love of god the single greatest reality in the universe right now at this moment is his love for you to live unaware of that is to live aware of the inferior whenever we anchor our soul in the inferior we we can only expect inferior results from our life he has designed us for representing him well in fact i think it can be said and should be said that we are perfectly designed for obedience yes i am the most fulfilled in my design in my purpose for being when i do what he directs me to do i was designed for this to mistrust the most trustworthy one mistrust most trustworthy one is a violation of design everything he made he made to fit perfectly into his purpose and plan and you're a part of that i'm a part of that the renewed mind proves the will of god this the roman 12 2 passage be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove the will of god what is the will of god the clearest definition that i've been able to find in the scripture is in the prayer that jesus taught his disciples when he said your kingdom come your will be done what's the next phrase as it is in heaven what's the will of god on earth as it doesn't happen how is it displayed most consistently through the renewed mind faith doesn't come from the mind we've already stated that it comes from the yielded surrendered heart so what purpose then does the renewed mind serve it creates the banks of the river for faith to flow in the renewed mind creates the context creates a a resource of understanding of his nature his promise and how he works in in people's lives it creates a context in which faith is able to be released you and i will exhibit faith no greater than our understanding of his goodness faith will always explore what revelation reveals do i need more jokes i i have i have some good ones i have some good ones faith will always explore what revelation reveals so let's think through that for a minute we'll open the word in a moment here so whenever the lord speaks when i say revelation hopefully if there's somebody here that doesn't know me already please understand i'm not talking about in addition to scripture i'm talking about him highlighting what is already in print i tell our folks they say listen this is this is jesus in print don't tell me you love jesus you don't love his word if that's true just slap yourself until you're thinking right and if you don't have the courage to do it your neighbor certainly will so it's not adding it's not adding to this this is the word of god as wigglesworth says this does not contain the word of god this is the word of god i don't know where i was going but it was really good it was good wasn't it it was a good one well you were amazed i was just i could hardly wait to get there i got so excited about wigglesworth's bible so i uh all right we'll just pick up on the subject and i'll perhaps i'll find my way back and if i do i'll get really happy inside but i won't let you know what it was oh revelation reveals thank you so whenever the lord highlights something in the word in fact let me let me give it in two areas when he highlights understanding in the word and whenever he gives you a uh a spiritual encounter it may be something that you just experience in worship or you just feel peace it may be something bizarre and extreme it doesn't matter what it is both revelation in the word and divine encounter introduce you to inheritance when the lord shows you something let's say that tonight some of you somebody one of you laid hands on somebody with a tumor on their neck and you saw the thing dissolve and then you pray for 20 more people with tumors and nothing happens that first experience was the introduction to your inheritance not the 19 that followed why do i say that because what the lord will do is he will give us experiences in god here's my level of faith all right and i have this unusual bizarre experience in god and i want to live there and so does he he wants me to live there but he knows i can't handle the leap from this to this and so he gives me an experience that causes my level of faith to rise is it up here not yet but we're working on it as long as i don't back down as long as i don't quit as long as i remain faithful to to carry on what god is revealing to me then that faith will always continue to rise until that which was unusual and bizarre now becomes lifestyle and that's what we're hungry for right that's what we're hunting for i mean i would i would love to just put the thing in the microwave and have it done in 30 seconds and boom here i am like jesus if that were possible we would have figured it out a long time ago it's not it's the journey you and i like the outcome we'll save money for the car we will go to school to get the degree we will pray for we will fast for two weeks and we see the person healed we we love outcomes he likes the journey see his goal is the journey his goal is the journey i think what he writes in his book he says bill i really liked it that time you were so worried and anxious you couldn't sleep at night and you got up and you prayed i really liked that that was his goal so when i was in trouble i turned to him my goal is to have what annoys me fixed but his goal is that i include him in the journey the more we think from his perspective the more we will be responsible with our choices eternity i felt like the lord spoke this to me years ago and i can't prove it at all yet but i'm going to stick with it eternity is the cornerstone of logic and reason once we lose consciousness awareness of eternity we make decisions for now and decisions that only affect now are always short-sighted when we live with an awareness of eternity we always live investing in them the wonderful thing is when i invest in eternity it does affect my life now but if i live for now it doesn't affect eternity in the way i had hoped all right let's see how about we open the bible you think that's a good plan let's let's hurry and do that before i wander all over the map um let's do this open with me to proverbs 22 and first corinthians chapter 2 corinthians chapter 10. now because i feel the enemy is targeting the mind of the church more than any season i have ever witnessed in my life the thought life the the process the values the swirling there's so much confusion there are so many people that have have embraced ideologies that are so antichrist in nature but they can't see it and there are they're our brothers they're our sisters they're our friends they have married id ideologies in fact i shared on this uh with our group in austin last night a little bit different context but you remember king solomon he married all these foreign wives and it caused his heart to turn from the lord do you know why he would make marry the foreign wives it was always to increase his favor so just work with me on this for a minute solomon already has every king of the known world sitting at his feet to hear his wisdom and now he wants to increase his favor with the surrounding nations so he marries their daughter because if they marry the daughter of a neighboring nation then the thought is that nation will never attack them in war so he's trying to create favor for himself that he already has and when when you try to obtain through carnal effort what god has already supplied you will defile the very thing that god has supplied what happened to adam and eve the serpent comes into the garden says if you eat of this fruit you will be like god they already were they tried to obtain through their labor what they already had by grace and the lord will bless the world this may may shock you a little bit but the lord will actually bless the unbeliever before he blesses the carnality of a believer because if he blesses the world it can woo them to him kindness leads to repentance but he blesses the carnality of a believer he actually promotes their rebellion i just wanted to bring you a light motivational speech here how is it how is it working it's already i'm smiling on the inside i just want you to know i'm i'm i'm a happy guy i really am all right look at verse 22. did i tell you proverbs 21 22 well it's verse 22 you should have known that if you were prophetic sorry proverbs chapter 21 verse 22 a wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold a wise man scales the city of the mighty brings down the trusted strongholds two things that we should see here immediately what comes to mind for me scaling a city we're talking in old testament times the the large cities that had these massive walls sometimes so thick you could have chariot races on top so a wise man is able to scale the wall of that city to bring down the trusted stronghold tells me a second thing strongholds are places where people trust other than god you look into any culture and what what you find people trusting in in a crisis moment shows you where the stronghold is remember the most trustworthy one in the universe is worthy of my trust it is robbery of me to trust anything in the place of him and to do so repeatedly actually creates a stronghold a stronghold for what a stronghold that hides the demonic and their influence to kill steal and destroy a bad thought does not create a stronghold a lifestyle of bad thoughts creates a stronghold if you can imagine each thought being a brick a demon can't hide behind that but if you keep thinking that way self-criticism self-hatred whatever it might be you'll create this this wall that eventually becomes enclosed and it's a place from which the enemy goes out to kill steals destroy but you can't recognize him because he's hiding behind your thoughts the devil doesn't know what you're thinking but he does know the thoughts he gave to you he can't read your mind but he can read his letter you know he can read his fiery dart he can recognize what he said and he can tell by our words and our countenance whether we receive the fiery dart so this says a wise man scales the city of the mighty brings down the trusted stronghold so then that tells me another a third ingredient of this verse that's essential as we get into corinthians and that is that wisdom has a role see wisdom is the mind of christ wisdom is not just being able to solve problems or puzzles or something it's that but it's so much more cr wisdom is actually the creative edge and nature of god that's why it's in proverbs 8 as wisdom stood with the creator on the day of creation so it tells me then that wisdom plays a part in our ability to destroy strongholds now listen to me that for those of you that have heard me talk before i i don't i don't spend much time talking about the devil he's not worthy of my attention paul does say i don't want you to be unaware so i'm doing one of those unaware talks i don't want us to be unaware that's all i want to cover my bases and then we'll just be happy the rest of the night all right he's apparently then wisdom plays a role in us being able to dismantle that which we have trusted in family members or perhaps even a community in a nation what we have trusted other than god because those areas of trust actually conceal the enemy now let me throw in one more verse and then we'll go to corinthians it's in nahum chapter 1 verse 7 and i'll just quote it to you it says the lord is good a stronghold excuse me a a strong the lord is good and is a stronghold and he knows those who trust in him remember it's about trust it's about his goodness and then the lord then becomes the stronghold for us so what i shared when i shared this stuff with our family here a few weeks ago i said choose your stronghold choose your stronghold wisdom says i'm going to hide in the name of the lord in the mind of christ i may not have all the answers but i have the spirit of the living god inside of me and he is ready to demonstrate who jesus is now seated at the right hand of the father did i say i was going to mention one more verse before corinthians i came close to it this verse is in corinthians it's just not the one i was mentioning in second corinthians three no first corinthians three i'm sorry i think it's in verse three paul is correcting the church of corinth and there's a phrase i want to use as we go into the next passage the phrase the phrase is paul rebukes them and he says you're acting like mere men how many times have we heard people say well we're only human no no you were you were but you now have the dna of god coursing through your veins the spirit that raised jesus from the dead is in you more is expected of you than a band-aid over a sin problem more is expected from us now because the spirit that raised jesus from the dead that functioned through him for the walking on the sea and the multiplying of the food and the raising of the dead and all the things that he did that exact same presence now resides in me all right let's go to corinthians let's just do that so we can say we made it first or second corinthians chapter 10. verse 4 though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh when flesh is used in this context it's not talked about humanity it's talking about the carnal part of the human life when we walk in the flesh when we walk as human beings we do not war according to the abilities talents skills that come just naturally to us as people because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal they are mighty in god for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of christ let's take that last phrase we'll do that and then i want to go through these two verses it says take every thought into captivity to the obedience of christ listen for just a moment let's just pretend we're all in a in a we're all soldiers in an army we are all at war with the most vicious enemy mankind has ever seen and you are in this conflict and you take one of those prisoners captive if you could take that prisoner captive and convert them to where they fought with you in the battle that would be this verse take every thought captive to the obedience of christ get that thought converted to where now instead of that thought working against your destiny now that thought works for your destiny instead of working against your identity it is now working to establish that very thing that the enemy used to undermine your faith is now being used to create the atmosphere of faith when we take thoughts captive they are not it's not just saying i can't think this thought anymore it's not that we take that thing prisoner and that very thing let's just say you're filled with self-criticism and self-doubt you take that thought captive and you say now wait a minute i'm a new creation in christ what did you just do you took a thought that the enemy throws at you to undermine your faith and you work through the scripture until it is your impulse to think i am a new creation in christ the spirit of the living god lives inside of me it's not just something that you say on a sunday morning to feel better about yourself it's the place from which you do life when that's happened you have successfully taken a prisoner and converted him amen bill that's a real good point amen all right now the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they're mighty in god for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god casting down arguments every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god if i'm having a problem with a friend or you know maybe a political leader i mean just anybody just fill in the blank i've got a conflict and i i really am irritated at that person if i entertain thoughts that do not have hope or redemptive solution as a possibility that i am embracing ideologies that are raised up against the knowledge of god because it wars against what god thinks god doesn't look at one problem and say man i don't know what i'm going to do he doesn't look at one unconverted person and say yeah i don't think i can save them he doesn't look at one problem and say i have no redemptive solution so if i give place to an attitude a thought pattern or process that wars against what god has said i am actually partnering with that which wants to kill steal and destroy and i'm raising up ideas i'm raising them up even though they contradict the knowledge of god god's knowledge of this situation is this is fixable i may not understand the solution but that's where trust comes in trust does not require understanding it's why it's superior to knowledge christianity is not called the understanding it's called the faith we're called believers not understanders he's designed us as people of faith it is normal for you to believe god it's normal it's in your dna because the the nature of christ is in your nature as one of our staff members told us some years ago he said jesus never taught on how to deal with unanswered prayers because he never had any and when he brought us into relationship he didn't give us problems and put a ps at the bottom and say i don't always want to do this he didn't say abide in me that my words abide in you you ask whatever you want and it'll be done for you most of the time if you've if you've really had a good week you know i mean it you know that's silly he doesn't say that he actually gives us the absolute promise so if there's absolute promise and i'm not having absolute breakthrough the problem is never on his end of the equation self-criticism of self-doubt does not get me to where i need to be one of my favorite stories in the bible is when the father brings his child his son to the disciples because he's tormented with demons these demons throw him on the ground and in a fire and try to kill him and the disciples try and and they don't get them free and so he sees jesus he brings him to jesus and and jesus sets him free here's a couple things that may not stand out to you the disciples were shocked when it didn't work which tells you what it had always worked and it always worked i don't mean i don't mean it's a it's a magic tool i'm just saying they had been given the authority to do that they sent out two by two they accomplished that stuff they do what jesus did they were deputized by his authority his anointing and they demonstrated who jesus was and they had done it over and over again they partnered with him and saw these miracles take place so when in this instance it didn't work they were shocked jesus comes up brings deliverance and the disciples take jesus aside and they said how come it didn't work when we tried and he said this kind only comes up by prayer and fasting we often take the outcome of that story to be prayer and fasting it's a good place to start but that's not the lesson when the miracle didn't work they took jesus aside that's it that's it it didn't work the way you said and i know you're not the problem see this is the standard i wish i could tell you it always happens the way it's in print for me no i'm glad when it does i'm overjoyed but i too face those moments those times where it seems that the opposite has happened to the promise see faith brings answers but enduring faith brings answers with character and the lord is looking for more than just filling my life with good experiences he's wanting to fill my life with his nature his character so that who he is can be seen in the power for the miracle and the power to endure the weapons of our warfare are not carnal the mighty in god for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments if ever i've lived in a season where the air is filled with arguments i mean i think there are people out there arguing with themselves they're arguing with what they just said [Laughter] it's like the guy on a deserted island and they find him and they said what are those two structures and they said those are two churches how come there's two he says well this one had a church split so he's he's the only one there sorry so he says casting down arguments i'm going to assume that all of us in the room have the same kinds of things that we have to deal with but there are arguments raised up in our thinking against the knowledge of god don't treat it as a friend don't treat it kindly don't massage it for all it's worth throw it down throw it down take the stupid thing and throw it down in fact throw it down and step on it just kind of get some attitude going i'm not going to agree with that that undermines my faith any longer i i i'm serving notice and we take that thought and we replace it you can't just remove negative things and not replace we know from the house that's clean and swept in scripture the enemy moves in seven times worse our responsibility is to fill the places that were occupied by wrong thinking by wrong attitudes by wrong values wrong behavior replace them with the righteous things yeah all right so casting down arguments every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god i've already said it once and i i just needed to say it again maybe it's for my sake but when i think about a person or a situation and i actually entertain thoughts about them that don't have hope and don't have a redemptive solution i'm partnering with the high thing lifted up against the knowledge of god i've given my yes as temporary as it may be i'm still giving my yes to that which is in conflict with the mind of christ i can't afford to have a thought in my head about me that he doesn't have in his head about me if i entertain any of those kinds of things i'm actually giving a part of my heart away my energy you know thinking is exhausting and why pour your strength into that which is why would you lend your strength to that which is to undermine your relationship with god to deter to in fact to put a fly in the ointment so to speak so let's go back to the beginning place and then we'll we'll wrap this up what the scripture says in romans is that the the renewed mind the transformed mind proves the will of god what is the cry outside these walls in each of our states our cities this nation the cry is for the authentic rule of king jesus to be seen you say well i don't know anybody who has that kind of cry the scripture says he's the desire of the nations so it tells me everybody wants a king like jesus they're not going to get it through our sermons there's an effect that our our words have i don't want to downplay that but it's through our lives it's through our lifestyle it's the fact that you can be opposed and you don't compromise to obtain favor and this is what solomon did he married foreign wives to obtain favor and act it ended up being his downfall whenever we as the church embrace false ideologies to obtain favor from that particular group we are entering into a marriage covenant of idolatry that will affect the heart of the church the the lord is bringing us into holy unto the lord lifestyle and if there's ever a time i i i just feel like drafting everybody in the right we're just going to create an army you're all drafted you know and this is it it's it's it's not we can't waltz through this one that's right there have been times where you can you can coast and you can coast on the strength of people around you i'm not even going to say it was wrong there are just there's just been times where you're just so fatigued but the people around you the faith is so strong you're just hanging around the right people and you end up coming out of that season and you're doing great all right this isn't that one this isn't that one there's no coasting in this one because nobody knows what they're doing nobody knows where they're going so we just maintain this the simplicity of the gospel i was born to live in and to live with the mind of christ when he uses this word in romans 12 about be transformed it's actually a word that is related to the word transfiguration if you remember jesus on the mount of transfiguration so the transformed mind then picture jesus transformed before his disciples i believe it's luke's gospel that describes jesus in that moment as his clothing is actually flashes of lightning now if you were a sleeping disciple you probably woke up pretty good with that vision right in front of you of jesus standing there he appears different than he's ever appeared in his clothing is actually flashes of lightning that word for the fl that transfiguration is related to the renewed mind and it's my conviction that the renewed mind in the spirit realm has the same appearance as the transfigured christ on the mount of transfiguration when people are thinking the thoughts of god something is released something is released and the enemy is the most frightened of you and me thinking and seeing what god sees because there's not one thing he looks at with fear and trembling there's not one thing he looks at with any sense of hopelessness every single thing he looks at he has a redemptive solution amen i think i'm done i think that's it i think it's sometimes talking about these ideals of the gospel it appears before us as a mountain that is just simply too hard to climb when in fact it has already been written into your dna and that which looks to be impossible is actually a part of your nature as a believer sometimes it's the yes that is so quiet and so simple it's not noble it's not the grandstanding yes it's the driving down the street and there's that thought that has always been an issue for you and you've entertained the wrong thing creating a place for the enemy just to steal your blind and then that moment you just turn your heart to the lord and you just say no i trust you that's it what was quiet in your car is broadcast over heaven in the 23rd psalm i had a situation a few years ago that was really difficult physically had a growth in an intestine and long story it was just a it was a rough season and i just would read so many things from the word but one thing i do daily is just read 23rd psalm the lord is my shepherd i shall not want and there's this verse where he says even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil because you're with me even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil because you're with me there are measures of his presence that you can only find in the valley of the shadow of death he hides himself there for you he says i will prepare a table before you what is that table that table is rich fellowship great nourishment wonderful time with jesus and he says i'm going to put the table in the presence of your enemies when the lord said he's going to hide you he didn't say he's going to hide you out of view he's going to hide you out of reach you'll still be in view but it's not to make you nervous this to torment the enemy that should make you happy [Applause] now if you're sitting at this table with jesus and you get preoccupied with the enemy that's watching you've missed the purpose of the table let me let us walk away into this situation backwards i'm aware of all the craziness that's going on around me that must mean there's a table and i need to find it i need to find the face because he said it would be here and i got distracted by this accusation i got distracted by this noise over here this conflict there's got to be a table here somewhere there's got to be a face on the other side of that table and he's invited me into that place i'm out of reach so let me find the face

Channel: Sojourn Church Carrollton, TX

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Keywords: sojourn church, Chris McRae, Noon prayer, Terry Moore

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Length: 49min 40sec (2980 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 29 2020