Loving the Living Word - Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

good morning still morning yeah still got a little bit left a police officer pulled over a driver informed him that because he was wearing a seat belt he had just won a thousand dollars in a safety competition the officer asked what are you going to do with the prize money he responded i guess i'll go to driving school and get my license at that moment his wife who was seated next to him spoke up said officer don't listen to him he's always a smart aleck when he's drunk this woke up the guy in the back seat who boarded out i knew we wouldn't get far in this stolen car [Laughter] right about that time there was a knock from the trunk and a voice asked are we over the border [Laughter] yet uh i don't know why that's funny but it is i i read this one a couple months ago but you deserve to hear it again this is how i learned to mind my own business i was walking past the mental hospital the other day all the patients were shouting 13 13 13 the fence was too high to see over it but i saw a little gap in the planks so i looked through to see what was going on some idiot poked me in the eye with a stick then they started shouting 14 14 oh goodness that is just classic classic it is one of the better ones all right well i have the privilege today of talking to you about the word of god and i remember i remember as a as a young man first of all in school i i got good grades i keep saying i wasn't a good student my mom always corrects me afterwards but she's not here so i can say it i wasn't a good student i i didn't learn uh some of the study skills that you should learn in school i i was able to kind of cram before a test and and get a good grade on the test and and so anyway it was creative learning on my part yeah i uh so i i didn't read i hated reading i hated reading and i hated writing i hated reading and i hated writing the two things my life is spent in right now is is like the lord says hmm divine humor let's see how this works out but i didn't i didn't i'd enjoy reading it all i hated it and and i remember when i when i i really gave everything about my life to jesus everything lock stock and barrel as they say in my commitment to christ i remember i mean i loved to hunt fish i honestly didn't care if i ever hunted or fished again i didn't care if i ever owned anything besides the clothes on my back honestly i had every ambition i had was all laid on a put on a cross on an altar and i just said yes to jesus and that was my that was my response to what he was doing and speaking into my life and i remember i i started reading which was a miracle i remember i actually read uh seven books back to back to back in a fairly short period of time all on the subject of prayer for example i just couldn't get enough i i'll never forget where i started i started reading this book called normal christian life by watchmandy anybody else read that book it's a classic great book i remember my experience of reading this is i was i was blown away by his insights and i was reading this book thinking this is what i was thinking in my head i thought this is all from the bible and while i had a hunger for knowledge so i would read people's books i especially had hunger for the word of god you can be fed with people's books i write them i hope people read them i hope them to help them but they're supplements the meal is the scripture the word of god is perfectly fit to speak into any and every given situation of our lives and so when i when i said yes to jesus to absolute serve with him as my lord and to be a true disciple i just had this hunger for the word and uh and i've i've never i've never stopped in that pursuit of hunger i've i've had times where i'm hungry hunger than others but one of the things i learned in the kingdom is that in this natural world you get hungry by not eating but in the kingdom you actually get hungry by eating and so putting yourself in a place where you have continual exposure to what god is saying actually creates an appetite for the word itself i i began to i began to read somewhat randomly i found that it was helpful for me to have a disciplined place of reading and so for me i i like to read like from genesis to revelation or maybe a new testament only i'll read just matthew through revelation sometimes in fact when we moved here to reading i i took a period of time it's about 10 years where my the bulk of my reading for 10 years straight was just the gospels in the book of acts i just read over and over and over and over again i remember at one point john paul jackson was here and he spoke to us about this uh this next wave of revival and what would be um what would be involved in that and and the lord had spoken something very clearly to him that it would be all around romans chapter 4. so i remember in that in that meeting i started that day i read romans 4 every day for three years besides what else i was reading but i made sure to read that every day for three years with the exception of five days because of international flights the point is is to stay exposed to what god is saying and doing and there are times i read just the books of law sometimes just the poetry books whatever the point is is i encourage people to have what i call recreational reading but also disciplined reading not one or the other do both uh recreational reading for me is i have history with god i have history with him where i have been in trouble i've been disheartened i've been discouraged i've been challenged in my faith i've been confused not knowing what decision to make and my habit throughout these 40-some years is to always go to the word of god when i'm in one of those moments and i read literally i read until he speaks i've sat down and i've read 20 chapters 20 plus chapters just back to back to back i will just continue to read until he speaks to me and i find life here literally life jesus there's this statement in scripture man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of god i'm alive i live because he talks i live because he talks and so i would i would read and still to this day if i uh anytime i have a challenging situation oftentimes what i do is i will actually go back to a place where i met the lord before for example i'll go to joshua chapter 1 and i'll spend time there i'll go to isaiah 60 i'll go to psalms 27 37. i go to these places where i have history with god i've wept before god in some of these places and the lord has spoken to me and he's fed me he's fed my soul he's fed my soul with his word and it's changed my life simply because he spoke i've i've come desperate i've come hungry i come with his word in front of me and there's just those moments that you have in life with him where he he breathes upon the words that's on the page you can't always explain what you just read and i love that part of learning in the kingdom as he doesn't touch my mind first he touches my heart if i'll come to him and surrender he'll impact me here where the change begins before i understand what he's doing that's a huge part of learning that's the way learning takes place in the kingdom and so he would he would speak that word to me so what i call recreational reading is to go to a familiar place in scripture where i've been many many times before and i will go back to those verses i i refer to them as my cabin in the mountains you know you want to get away you want to have a break you just go up to the cabin there's a little lake there you go fishing or you can sit by the fireplace or you can do whatever you want to do but the point is you're just in rest mode uh just recuperating recovering and i have places in the word of god where it's my cabin on the mountain it's it's my place of personal refreshing and this is where i have history with god this is where i've taken time with god through the years and he's met with me over these portions of scripture and i have them mark and i i know where to go i i know because i i have history it's like it's like you being married for 30 years and you still have the love letters when you were you're engaged you go back and you read those letters that's what it is it's a love letter to me and some so many people approached the scripture so so carelessly and i i saw a video i watched a part of it again this week and i had seen it maybe a month or two ago uh no more than two months ago where in in china where they're not allowed to have bibles in some places in china you can't get a bible in fact what these believers will do in these underground churches is they'll have one bible and they'll tear individual pages out of that bible and they'll pass it around one family will have one page for a week or two weeks and then they exchange with another family so they get another portion of scripture and in this particular place they had somebody was able to smuggle in bring in uh a box full of bibles and so here's this home with all these believers and somebody brings this box and you have all these people video all these people standing around and then they cut open this box and here's a box filled with bibles and they just run they grab they hold it to their chest and they just begin to weep and weep and weep because they have the privilege of reading scripture and the great sobering warning to me is famine always follows misused abundance is to have so much liberal access to something and yet have that thing close off in your heart where it no longer feeds you there's this summons there's this invitation to come and engage with god himself as we read that which gives life people will sometimes say well i don't remember what i read and i've i've told you this before but people will say i don't remember what i read and i said well yeah i don't remember what i had for breakfast last monday either but it still nourished me it still had its place in me it's it's it's going through the privileged routine if you will of going through scripture now i like the random reading the uh the the cabin the the weekend on the cabin i love that kind of reading but i always try to have the discipline reading through the scripture maybe through the four gospels maybe through the old testament whatever it might be but the point is is what you'll find is you'll be in a point of crisis or need or you need clarity for something and you will find that jesus actually has you in the chapter you're in on that given day you turn to where your bookmarker is you open it up and you find there's the exact thing that i need an answer for because he set you up he's big he's sovereign and he loves to set you up for life and the point is is we do the discipline and then as the sovereign god he sets us up for divine encounters the encounters we need we just have to keep the thing going i hear people say oh i read a scripture this morning it was so deep it just fed me all day long whatever i like food i consider food to be the will of god for my life and i i will choose quality over quantity i like good food i have favorite restaurants around the world my favorite restaurant is down in napa valley called the french laundry i've been to a number of three michelin star restaurants around the world and oh goodness gracious you just almost get a whole new release in your prayer language eating that food i mean it's just encounters with jesus at that table and uh i i remember the first time i ate at french laundry we've been blessed enough to go there a number of times and i remember the first time about the there's like nine courses and then they throw in some freebies you know and it's all just the finest food in the on the planet you know and uh so i remember sitting there and they bring out this little this little bowl with uh caviar and oysters it's called oysters and pearls uh chef keller is world famous for this for this specific dish now you need to know the inside hate oysters and i hate caviar all right so here here i have this set before me that i would not order if i had a choice but what we do is you choose vegetarian menu which is never going to be chosen by me or the real people that's not the way to say it or the meat venue so all your vegetarians you you love me week after week i don't know how you do it you endure you endure such torment for me but so they brought out this little bowl and it's it's a big plate but a little little tiny bowl with caviar and oysters and his sauce and i looked at ben and i said i'm spending too much money for this meal not to at least try it which is not my norm but i thought i'm going to be bold i'm going to express great faith and i i took a bite of the oysters and pearls i could not believe what was happening in my mouth i turned to benny and i said i want a chili bowl full of this stuff i don't know what's in the sauce you know what what we do is i as you already know i'm a cookbook buyer even though i don't cook and let's say you go to french london or some nice restaurant you you taste the finest thing you've ever tasted and you go into the in the reception area of the of the of the restaurant and there they've got cookbooks by chef keller or whoever happens to be and you say man i want that again and you pull off that menu that the the cookbook and you find oysters and pearls and you start looking at all these ingredients and you go you know what i don't like that that's oysters i don't like that caviar oh look at that spice i never did like that oh they put that but that's kind of bland i don't know why you put that in a recipe and you go all through this recipe and you find there's not very many things on there you would ever enjoy by itself unless of course you throw in chocolate chips at the end and so you've got this recipe of bitter tasting things fishy tasting things sour tasting things too salty too sweet too bland but somehow the master chef has put it together in perfect balance and it becomes the best thing you've ever eaten in your life this book has bitter things sour things things that are so sweet it's things that are so confrontive things that are so challenging things that are so exotic in and of themselves but when they've been blended into the hole it is the absolute finest meal you will ever eat this is that which you were born for it's the whole council of god it's not just some people they just drive me nuts they just go through and find just the feel good verses no you need to be slapped it's called a sword for a reason there are things clinging on to you that shouldn't be there the bible says the word of god is good for correction proverbs 12 1 says and this is this is like in the new king james translation this isn't the message bible it says he who hates correction is stupid [Laughter] he who makes correction is just plain stupid they're just dumb let me extend it he who hates to be corrected by scripture is stupid and i tell you what we've got an option because you will be corrected it'll either be in private with a sword or be in public with the community but it will be exposed oh just looking at your faces is such a great joy for me right now watching watching the squirm in people's faces this this is a relational journey i i'm so thankful i've got goodness i don't know how many bibles and bible programs and study materials and books i have on my ipad i love it i sit on the plane i go yeah what does that word be did i look it up and touch the word it just opens up i got all this stuff i love it but i want to tell you do not have a relationship with god over the scripture that is on a screen only have something you could write on because this is going to be your history i got up about three o'clock in the morning august 2009 i think was the year i was headed to argentina i went in to use the restroom there was a book sitting there by kim clement i looked at the inside cover he wrote a note to me he was here he wrote a note to me wrote a scripture reference down i looked at that reference it spoke so deeply to me that i went to my bible and marked it and put the date down because i never wanted to forget the date so it's on the right page in the book of name of my bible the date when gus book so you want your history with god you want to underline you want to make cross-references god speaks to you out of the gospel of john and you see a similar thing back in joshua then find it in john then go back to joshua write the reference on you want to have that silver thread of your redemptive journey with king jesus who is teaching you how he thinks and how he sees you need the confrontive stuff you need the stuff that's harsh the book of judges the things that that by themselves maybe isn't that pleasant but in the whole of scripture in our journey to come to know him and be a true disciple we find out that these things they don't contradict each other as we thought they actually complement each other this flavor that's bitter by itself when it's added to this part of the meal it enhances the flavor of that part of the meal and this thing is written in its entirety to minister who we are to bring us into our sense of purpose and into our sense of destiny i want you to open your bibles we're going to read two portions of scripture and the first one is going to be in psalms 119. i'm going to read the whole psalm to you no no i'm not doing that actually yesterday i was thinking about it i was just fluent from new york by the way god's doing so many amazing things in new york i'm so thrilled to be there new york city right downtown wow fun fun fun to see so many hungry people and i flew home yesterday and because of the work on the runway in san francisco we needed to redirect our flight and so i arranged to fly out to sacramento then i have a couple interns that came and picked me up brought me home and uh on the way sitting in the back seat i just start thinking about psalms 119 and so it's a psalm that is so rich in defining the role of the word of god in our life i actually want to challenge you sit down at one setting and read the entire psalm it doesn't take as long as you are fearfully thinking you know that we read faster than we talk right if we read out loud we read at a certain space if you don't read out loud you actually read faster and that's true for just about everybody on the planet do you know how long it takes to read this entire bible if you read out loud is only 72 hours 72 hours it tells you how much we read 72 hours for the whole thing genesis to revelation 119th psalm take note of the word word statutes precepts testimony commandments all those kinds of words because they are all different angles of this one thing called word of god and what i want to encourage you to do is read this at some point in one setting if you can split it up if you have to but go into this with this question what role is the word of god supposed to have in my life if you go to this book with questions you'll find answers otherwise you'll find random information psalms 119 we're going to read about five or six verses here beginning with verse nine how can a young man or old man cleanse his way by taking taking heed according to your word with my whole heart i have sought you let me not wander from your commandments your word i have hidden in my heart that i might not sin against you i can still hear my mom's mom my grandma quoting this verse i think she was trying to help me she would quote this verse for me you know how can a young man cleanse his way and then she'd go into this one your word i've hid in my heart that i might not sin against you let's stop and look at that that concept for just a moment your word i've hid in my heart that i might not sin against you do you know what happens when you worry you're actually planting a lie into your heart until the roots grow down and affect your soul they actually impact thinking values emotions all those things come under the influence of whatever it is you're worrying about anxiety fear resentment jealousy suspicion offense all of those things when they're held dear the longer you hold it the deeper the roots get that's why repentance has to be so deeply felt when we turn things over to jesus it's not a mere you know oh by the way forgive me sorry about that when it's a lifestyle for many years where the roots have gone down deep and they've actually affected my personality my soul then that thing has to be deeply dealt with i don't mean through self-abuse i mean just through deep deep confession god i see the the uh the i see the impact of my sin of this way of thinking it has affected who you've made me to be and it has been wrong and i've held to this thing for 20 years god please forgive me and deliver me from this way of thinking repentance has to be deep especially to uproot those things that we've held down to so dear for so long what happens is with offense and jealousy is the book of james actually causes calls jealousy wisdom it's one of the craziest things you'll ever see the book of james calls jealousy wisdom but it calls it inferior wisdom that which is natural and demonic so why call it wisdom at all because what it's saying is by by acknowledging that it is wisdom jealousy is kept alive by information jealousy suspicion resentment attracts information to reinforce the position of offense you will attract more information to make you feel secure in your conclusion but it does not exist in the heart of christ and that's why we keep the word of god in our heart why that we might not sin against god if our reaction is anything other than love it will lead to sin if our reaction leads it comes from any other place then love it will lead to sin jesus is very serious about having us having him well represented in the earth for how we deal with the things that come our way there's only two responses in life fear and love there's only two places from which we speak fear or love there's only two places from which we act and make decisions fear or love and there's a lot of believers they get confused in this area and they think they're discerning something when they become suspicious resentful or filled with offense at another person and they that offense actually attracts information to keep them locked into that place and so the scripture says your word i have kid in my heart i've kept it there so that i might not sin against you it's your word in me releasing its spiritual nutrients if you will that helps me to say stay center in an accurate and authentic representation of who jesus is jesus was talking to a crowd in john 5 and part of that crowd was a group of pharisees and he looks at the pharisees and he says you don't believe me because my word was not in you so think about this here's the pharisees doing their routine reading scripture studying doing all this stuff but they never let it get into their heart it only was in their head they had the concept so they could debate they could argue they could accuse but it was never transformed their heart so jesus shows up here's the messiah he shows up on the scene and they do not believe and he says the reason you don't believe is because the word wasn't in you you didn't put it in your heart so the implication is what the word of god in my heart sets me up to believe for whatever he's about to do next verse 11 again your word i've hidden in my heart that i might not sin against you blessed are you o lord teach me your statutes with my lips i have declared all the judgments of your mouth i have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches i will meditate on your precepts contemplate your ways i would delight myself in your statutes i will not forget your word you can see statement after statement after statement is to draw our hearts into an affection for scripture the scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing by what the word of god faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word the scriptures set us up to hear so that we can believe faith comes from hearing hearing comes the capacity to hear comes from scripture there's two words in the new testament regarding the word of god that would be wise for us to know the one is the word logos and the other is rhema some of you have heard these words used in the past logos genuinely refers to the printed or written scripture rhema generally refers to that which is freshly spoken by god in a given moment you may be reading for example out of the book of ephesians all of a sudden this phrase just leaps out at you and it just just brings comfort to your soul or direction of wisdom or insight or faith or whatever it might be but he just breathes on that which is written and so there's the logos which is printed but the rhema is that which is freshly spoken of god in the anointing the line between logos and rhema disappears it all becomes empowered to feed us to empower us to direct us to correct us i return to the scriptures frequently for so many well every day i just don't miss a day i i missed a day 37 years ago because i got kidney stones you know those are way overrated it wasn't near as fun as they said it would be i i middle of the night i had the boys leah wasn't born yet so however long ago that was 38 years ago i guess and i was in such pain i i thought hell had come i i was in pain it was unbelievable i called benny wasn't there she was at a women's retreat and i called my doctor was a personal friend and he said i'll meet you at the hospital come come down right now i said i can't i can't i can't move i was oh goodness gracious i was so doubled over with pain and and he said all right i'll come to your house so i called chris next i said chris i need help meet me at the hospital i need you to take my boys because there was no one to take them so chris comes down he's in the lobby with my boys and i was there in such pain and i i just want to give praise to god for whoever figured out demerol is magical demerol as far as i'm concerned is an absolute gift from god they gave me however many shots i needed of that stuff until i was in la la land and until that thing passed and uh and the next day i was fine but i didn't read that date i didn't read it that day but unless it's something like that i'm going to start my day i'm going to end my day and if i have the chance i will during the day read wigglesworth i think it was said of him if if he wasn't speaking or or intermediate or doing something he wouldn't go 15 minutes without reading the word he had a little new testament his back pocket he just bring it up sit down a bus station sit on a park bench wherever he's at just stop and would read keeping ourselves connected to what god's saying is a life source it is not optional it is life itself i live because he talks the power of his word way back day of creation he spoke he said let there be light do you know that at this moment the universes are expanding at least at the speed of sound if not the speed of light they're continuously being formed and created why because he never called his word back how powerful is his word what he declares he enables he empowers and he makes possible and he wants us to delight in the privilege of having him speak to us go to first timothy chapter 2 timothy chapter 3 and we'll wrap it up with this one are you alive everybody alive i wrote just a quick quick list this morning things i could recall from the bible what it said about the bible says the word instructs corrects directs inspires empowers gives faith heals and gives promise if you want to know what divine health looks like study the book of proverbs and look at every time you can find life and health and find out how often it's actually connected to the word of god the word actually inspires health in the human body it's the gospel that was bad that was bad that was pretty stinky all right let's let's hurry and get on to the scripture second timothy chapter three here's a promise for you to put on your refrigerator verse 12 yes and all who desire to live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution let me read it again this is this is one of the tart verses that helps the rest to be enhanced cleanse your palate you ready all right here we go yes and all who desire to live godly in christ jesus will suffer persecution evil men imposters will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived but you must continue in the things you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in christ jesus wise for salvation interesting phrase wise for salvation you say well bill i'm already saved yeah i believe that i believe when you the moment you received christ you were saved you were born again but paul talks about working out your salvation daily so there's these there's this threefold dimension of salvation i was saved at such and such a time but i am presently being saved and when jesus returns or i die and appeared before him i will be saved there's that triune dimension of salvation he's talking here about the word of god as being that which enables us to work out our daily salvation in other words we'd be more saved today than we were yesterday that should have excited you much more than it did but we'll just we'll just move on i'll pretend it was a good response yeah verse 16 all scripture is given by inspiration of god it is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the man of god may be complete or the woman of god may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work here's the deal the word of god equips me spirit soul and body intellectually emotionally mentally which is different than intellectually it's the state of my mind physically in the natural thoroughly equipped for every good work in other words any challenge that comes before me i am ready to represent the king with adequate adequate service to invest into that situation so that jesus is well represented it's the word of god the word of god working in and through my life equips me to be adequate and successful in any opportunity i have to represent the king in a given situation that the man of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work keep reading chapter four we'll wrap this up it says i charge you therefore before god and the lord jesus christ who would judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom preach the word now this is everybody in the room this is not this is not a pulpit it's not an exhortation for pulpit people every one of us should be declarers of the word of god it may be in a small group meeting it may be a coffee with a friend but the point is is you're engaging in fellowship and there's the exchange of insight in life that comes from scripture preach the word would be ready in season out of seas in other words do it when you feel like it do it when you don't convince rebuke exhort with all longsuffering and teaching time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desire because they have itching ears they will heap for themselves teachers they'll turn their ears away from truth here's this incredible warning in the context of the purpose and power of scripture there are people right now that are just making a mess of the bible because they're pulling out any words of judgment any words of correction any words that make them feel you know insecure removing all of that and just anchoring into promises that are rewarding them so that there's there's absolutely no sting left in scripture there's supposed to be a sting there that's supposed to be it's never from a father who wants to destroy us it's a father who says i am working intently and seriously in your life and you will look completely like jesus when i'm done and to do that i need to use a sword it's only going to hurt for a moment and he speaks and he cuts off that thing that was completely unnecessary and he invites us into the escapement with scripture and sometimes it's inspiring you you you you can't uh you don't want to stop reading you need to get to the office or whatever it might be and there are other times you're there just pushing through because you know there's life there i read the genealogies when i'm going through scripture and it's genealogy time that's the bland part of the recipe but it helps the recipe it helps it helps the whole meal to be what it is that which nourishes challenges changes me there are some people that are going running around saying we don't have to pay attention to teachings of jesus because jesus all of his teaching was actually in the old testament which is true because the new covenant was when his blood was shed so all of his teaching during his three and a half years of ministry was actually in the old testament so they say we don't need the teachings of jesus well think about this was jesus the greatest teacher of all time yes if god the father had him teach at the tail end of the old testament for three and a half years and that was the only time that teaching was worthwhile then god is the worst steward ever to exist to have the best at the last tail end of several thousand years for three and a half years with just a few thousand people under its influence it's crazy to deal with that that that the writers of scripture knew would be coming in the future and first john he says anyone who comes to you that does not have the teachings of jesus do not even receive them into your home it's that serious don't even receive them into your home that's not saying your neighbor who doesn't know christ it's saying those who are masquerading as believers they'll have nothing to do with the teachings of jesus do not engage in interaction with them if they refuse to repent and they hold to those ideals because they will infect your value of scripture all right people come and say well there's errors in the bible no there's not but let's just pretend there is for discussion's sake there's not as many errors in here as there is in you and i'm not gonna let you redefine what is valuable in here for me [Applause] other than that i'm quite happy all the time i pray that the lord would gift you with a grace for the word of god for scripture for understanding the bible says knowledge comes easy to him who has understanding if you can imagine a mail room where there's slots for different individuals different offices when you have the slot you have a place to put knowledge when you have understanding there's a context for what god would like to say but he's not a bad steward and he doesn't release revelation knowledge to a person that doesn't have a context to put it in so one of the things that we do that we get hungry we fully respond to what he's spoken to us so far we live from his word we have history with him and then we attract ongoing understanding of revelation so that we can impact the people around us so i want you to stand up because we're going to pray i'm going to pray for you jesus make it come alive i you know what i i remember i was probably 19 at the time the church was in the old facility that no longer exists there was a little library there i remember pulling this little tiny white book off the shelf i remember i'm not a reader but i was just starting to engage with reading and i pulled this little tiny white book off the shelf and i just opened it in the middle started reading and as while i was reading i thought this is amazing i could feel it coming off the page honestly i could feel it life coming off the page and i kept reading kept reading kept reading and i turned the page kept reading and then there was a scripture reference and i saw oh i was actually reading the word and i didn't even know it it's why life was coming off the page as he was quoting a passage of scripture to prove a point life i live because he talks so father i pray that you would make your word come alive at a level that we've never known before and that every person in this room all of our friends that are scattered around the globe with bethel tv that there would be this fresh fresh gift of hunger for the reading of the word of god for delighting it you'd expand our wisdom expand our our devotion to the written word i pray this for the honor of the name jesus amen now i want to have the ministry team come to the front and i there's been an altar called people have already been invited to christ do people did chris do that and and he did do it during the communion okay okay if you could hold on a moment it really would help us thanks just ministry team only just come to the front if there's anyone here in fact let me just ask the question is there anyone here that would just say bill i've never been a disciple of jesus or if i if i was i i chose my own way entirely and i want to return to him today i want to place my faith in him and become a true disciple of jesus disciple means learner when we stop learning we stop being a disciple and you would say bill i want to be the lord i want to be forgiven of sin and really healed from the inside if that's anybody in the room put your hand up real quickly because i want to make sure anybody right right over here is one anybody else you would just say anybody else right over here is another one right over there one that's so beautiful come on right over here's another one that's so cool so clear right over here to my left are you guys setting that up right over here to my left is a group of people that we know and trust there'll be a little banner there so you kind of know where they're at but right over here to my left those four of you and if there's more i want to ask the four of you please come quickly to this group over here because i want them to talk with you i want them to pray with you just leave your seats come come to them right now and this team is going to pray for you because i i want you to be blessed beyond measure yeah church bless them as they can that's awesome right over here come on [Music] amazing all right are you wrapping up come and grab the mic tell everybody what to do hold on just a second let me get to the back and uh he'll tell us what to do come on can we just give uh pastor bill around that's such a powerful word

Channel: Bill Johnson Teaching (Official)

Views: 50,065

Rating: 4.8847456 out of 5

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, bethel sunday service, bethel, Disciple

Id: 4HnSI-lQI08

Length: 46min 8sec (2768 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 04 2021