Moving From Defense to Offense - Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

so much thank you thank you beautiful thanks please be seated good evening nice to see you glad you showed up this thing i think you have to take a college course i don't i'll just i think i'll just raise it excuse me i should have done this before i got up here but it would have been hard because my arms aren't that long all right merry christmas if you see me talking to myself please go your way i'm self-employed and having a staff meeting this is dumb imagine i love this one imagine falling in love with someone [Laughter] imagine falling in love with someone and then finding out they clap when the plane lands [Laughter] that's so dumb jesus can walk on water i can walk on cucumbers cucumbers are 96 water therefore i'm 96 like jesus i eat twice as much meat just so that one vegan who thinks he's making a difference is making no difference at all the fastest land mammal is a toddler who's been asked what's in your mouth i wish mosquitos suck fat instead of blood [Laughter] all right grab your bibles you guys ready ready to get going well let's uh let's go to uh matthew we're gonna start we've got several verses we're gonna bounce around so get your gospel track shoes on and uh let's go to matthew 26. we'll start there and um i really had uh some stuff really dropped into my heart this morning in our uh our staff uh we have a staff prayer meeting at seven and um really had some stuff stirring in my heart then so i've been i've been chomping at the bit all day just to be with you and talk so i'm glad somebody showed up otherwise it would have been gabe and me but i i'd have gone for it gabe i'd have gone for it i'd had all call at the end too just want you to know i wouldn't i would have had one matthew 26 the disciples only asked jesus to teach them one thing now he taught them many things if if i were in the disciples shoes from where i stand now i might have asked him how to raise the dead or how to heal the sick or how to do any number of extraordinary things how can you do that food multiplying thing you know there would have been a lot of things on my list i would have loved for him to teach me but though the disciples the 12 who were with him constantly were actually moved by everything jesus did and said but they were rocked by one thing and one thing alone above everything else and that was lord teach us to pray they they somehow knew um i think through observation they knew that whenever jesus left them and went up onto a mountain things were different when he came down there was something in in their ability to observe how he functioned how he had handled stuff for example uh scripture tells us that you know he had such great admiration for john the baptist his cousin the greatest of all prophets he prepared the way for jesus himself to come and the bible tells us that when he got news that john had been beheaded he left the crowd and he went up to pray you can i don't want to read too much into it but there's obvious obvious in some measure in his humanity he was rocked by the one he admired so much who really laid down his life for jesus himself he just he had to get along get alone and pray our prayer life is defined by so many things we we um we tend to learn we tend to learn to pray fervently or passionately out of pain uh maybe a loss maybe a crisis uh we we uh we do reactionary prairie defense praying uh fairly well um there's a crisis uh maybe somebody's dying we'll call it fast none of that is inappropriate those are appropriate things but we tend to learn to pray focused fervent prayer out of pain or out of crisis of some sort jesus the disciples were with jesus in mark 9 and they tried to bring deliverance to a child uh this dad brought his son to them and and they tried their best and and you have to remember that the disciples are the most experienced people in deliverance of any group of people to ever live on the earth up to that point there was no one more experienced at deliverance than they were except for jesus and so they tried everything they had done before previous on this child that was brought to him and he couldn't get him free and jesus came up and brought deliverance and when they asked jesus they took him aside privately and they asked him how how come we couldn't and you could and jesus didn't give the answer that that the church would give the church would say well jesus is god and you're just human but that wasn't that wasn't the logic jesus functioned with because he knew he was functioning out of his humanity dependent on god which is available for every disciple of jesus so his answer was different he said he said well this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting and then he brought deliverance which means he neither prayed nor fasted see at the beginning of jesus's journey beginning of his ministry he fasted 40 days he wasn't fasting for a problem he was fasting into a lifestyle we tend to pray defensively reactionary we got this crisis we've got this challenge we've got this opportunity and we pray into it not wrong not wrong at all but because of that we're always we're often playing catch up catch up not heinz 57 catch it catch up sorry i'm in third grade mode this tonight expect more it'll come so we're always playing we're always just a little bit behind trying to catch up and think i always is too big of a word it's not true but frequently we're behind the game in certain areas and we're having to fight our way back to the front so the disciples asked jesus to teach them how to pray so that moves me because it was the only thing they asked to be taught out of all the things they saw him do so somehow that tells me that was for those who watched him that was the key to everything now go in matthew 26 we're just going to take one verse that's verse 41. watch and pray lest you enter into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak let's read it again watch and pray lest you enter into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak this is our first verse we're going to bounce around so please keep your bibles in front of you watch and pray lest you enter into temptation so then that tells me that prayerlessness or weakness in prayer exposes me to temptation i didn't need to face it not only allows exposure to temptation i didn't need to face it sometimes exposes me to temptation that i may or may not have the grace to overcome he goes on to describe this thing of praying so that i don't fall into temptation he's not i don't believe he's saying pray this way oh god please don't lead me into temptation i don't think that's what he's addressing here i think he's saying a prayerful life insulates you from temptation a prayer-filled life a life of ongoing prayer um a few weeks ago i talked to you about uh first thessalonians 5. rejoice always pray without ceasing and everything of things and i mentioned in that message three things about that about that verse that i felt the lord spoke to me it was in the middle of the night is about two two and a half months ago now i was awakened in the night a friday a saturday night before coming here early in the morning and awakened me with this phrase and in the jur in this dialogue i had with him or i shouldn't say dialogue in my uh uh searching my heart and mind for explanation for what he spoke to me this the passage rejoice always prayer without ceasing and everything if things came to my mind and as i began to think over those verses i felt as though the lord spoke to me and said the key to mental health is is giving thanks in everything the key to mental health i then remembered hearing a psychologist on talk radio once saying that um something like i forget the exact number now something like 90 of all mental illness can be traced back to the attempt to avoid pain so there's something about embracing your moment surrendering it to the sovereignty of god knowing that he and he alone is good and giving thanks in the middle of it and then i felt like he spoke to me and said the key to emotional health is to rejoice always see before you were a believer you only rejoiced when you had joy but once you're in the kingdom you get joy by rejoicing so the measure of joy in my life is actually determined by me so if i'm locking joy it's just the evidence of my choices and then the last part of that verse is to pray without ceasing and and what really hit me on that was that kind of lifestyle prayer without ceasing is the key to heart health what is heart health about jesus said adulteries murders all this horrible stuff comes out of your heart but then on the other end of the spectrum he said blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god so the the management of the heart is vital for how well we do in life uh one of my life verses that a dear friend of mine gave to me goodness it was 1972. um he he gave me this verse out of proverbs 4 23 that says watch over your heart with all diligence because from it flowed the issues of life all the issues of life flow from the heart so think about this heart health is praying without ceasing by keeping my heart in touch with god's heart the right things flow from it when i allow distance to come between the heart of god and my heart i have to fight to do the right things it doesn't come as natural as it would if i shared his heart does that make sense i'm not sure if i'm saying it perfectly but you get the point just work with it until it sounds right okay all right now here it is again watch and pray unless you enter to temptation the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak what what's that about the spirit is willing to do what to pray the flesh is weak about what prayer so the strength of my prayer life is according to the strength of my spirit over my flesh a weak prayer life is a dominant flesh the holy spirit lives in your spirit there's perfect communion there they function well day and night but there's something that will sometimes take master mastery over your own spirit and that is human weakness frailty flesh appetite desire that is very natural and can become very very carnal the issue of mastery over flesh is vital to an effective prayer life yeah that went over well all right um let's see where else should we go let's uh go with me to acts chapter um [Music] yeah let's go to no let's go to second king six second king six we'll go there first then we'll go to acts 3 then isaiah 59. now the purpose of prayer you know we could probably make a list of 100 things and still fall short so i don't want to over oversimplify or or rob the part of prayer that is the most important to you but let me try to summarize at least from my perspective here tonight the purpose of prayer is not merely for me to talk to god about doing stuff it's really about obtaining his heart because the more i obtain his heart the more i pray not parrot prayers but the product of relation of relationship relational product called prayer see it says in john 15 a servant does doesn't know what his master is doing the friend does the servant is accustomed to responding to commands and that's not wrong the most basic part of our our initial time of learning to walk with jesus is responding to command but what he's what he's looking for is an interest in us about his heart so we're not just waiting for command we're looking for his values his intentions those are the things that move us see when you pick up his heart you start praying what he would have prayed if he were in your shoes since that is that cold laboring the goal of prayer is to co-labor where his heart is revealed in the earth not because he commanded us to reveal it or gave us recorded prayers to recite but instead becoming a people who in seeking him not just prayerful outcomes but seeking him we mirror his heart and his nature in our prayer relationship in our co-laboring relationship see touching the heart of god gives us a unique advantage that i'm hoping in this next phase this next season of our life as a church family we can move into more aggressively and i'll illustrate it more in a in a moment let's just take a look at in fact what we're going to do is we'll go to acts 12 after this one second kings chapter 6 verse 8. now the king of syria was making war against israel and he consulted with his servants saying my camp will be in such and such a place and the man of god sent to the king of israel saying beware that you do not pass this place for the syrians are coming down there then the king of israel sent someone to the place of which the man of god told him thus he warned him and he was watchful there not just once or twice therefore the heart of the king of syria was greatly troubled by this thing and he called his servants and said to them will you not show me which one of us is for the king of israel and one of his servants said none my lord o king but elisha the prophet who is in israel tells the king of israel the words that you speak in your bedroom [Music] it's the advantage of knowing god he knows stuff ahead of time and if we're listening we could pray in advance to prevent a disaster or to pray so that things are in place for the disaster when we don't use that advantage we have to respond or react to things as they happen i remember one of our uh couples uh in in weaverville uh their their two kids young kids were in the back seat kind of whispering together and and the mom turned around and said what are you what are you doing they said nothing she said what did you do and they said nothing she said tell me what'd you do said nothing she said okay i'll ask god and she turned around she said you were playing with matches and they freaked because they had started a fire that they had to put out close to their house it's cheating but it's not you have the advantage to pray in advance of something or to to know where to step into place to aggressively pray or to serve how many of you have had just a subtly just an impression you wouldn't you wouldn't you wouldn't have glamorized the moment by saying god spoke to you it's just a thought i'll call somebody and happen to be exact moment they needed a phone call so the lord's voice sounds so much like ours that because he speaks most often for us internally internal thought internal impression inspired thought and learning to lean into him is a huge part is a huge product of effective praying is that you pick up his heartbeat without trying it's not this groaning and travailing to have the heart of god it's just simply you're all i want you're what i'm interested in i want your heart to shape mine and that really is the outcome of prayer jesus said come to me you are weary and heavy-laden and i will give you rest the real point of prayer is prayer is a time of exchange come to me with your weighty stuff i will give you my light stuff there's an exchange and if you come to jesus and you leave feeling the way you came in you weren't praying you were complaining prayer makes an exchange prayer takes on the heart of god and sees a matter from his perspective that's the whole purpose of prayer and it's not just to leave us there in that problem with his perspective it's so that we can pray as co-laborers to see things changed effectively changed he's invited us into a relationship listen in in you know what we call the lord's prayer the prayer our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name in the gospel of luke jesus teaches that prayer in response to the disciples question lord will you teach us to pray so imagine this you're one of the 12 you're watching jesus things just happen when he does stuff you see him run up to the mountain and he's there overnight it comes down the next day there's you know stuff just takes place and you finally just have this moment you say teach us to pray and then he gives you a prayer that is the greatest commission in my in my thinking and i i i'm sure i could be well never mind it's just my that's my opinion the greatest there's the great commission to go into all the world but the greatest commission is to pray on earth as it is in heaven because the whole world the whole going into all the world getting disciples is a part of the on earth as it is in heaven prayer so think about this they say jesus teaches to pray and he gives them a tool that is to cause the collision of two worlds this is not a minor thing this is not a philosophical thing this is not an invitation to dialogue with god so that you feel good it's about a literal shaping the course of world history through your communion your conversation intelligent conversation with the almighty god so that you know ahead of time what does he want he wants on earth as it is in heaven so then we pray we press into these things so that we see it manifested in the practical areas of life our father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day now we break it down into the practical parts of life there's no lack in heaven so there should not be lack here so there is the confident request for the provision of bread some people when they translate that verse they've actually said we're not praying for today's bread we're actually praying in advance of tomorrow's bread that tomorrow's bread would be released today give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts our sins as we forgive those who sinned against us that's the the nature of heaven over our over our personal issues our personal life lead us not to temptation deliver us from the evil one for yours is the power of the kingdom of glory forever it's everything else in that prayer is a manifestation of the first part so imagine being one of the 12 and jesus gives you a tool and he says here you can actually impact the entire globe with this one tool so here's a prophet that hears what a enemy king is saying in his bedroom actually no i have a friend of mine he was having an argument with his wife and there was a prophet that was a friend of theirs that they both knew that was hearing the conversation not naturally but spiritually this is true story he was hearing the cover he was some distance away but he heard them arguing and so when he met my friend he said your wife is right so i just i did he didn't he didn't like that so you know it's it's just it's just cheating all right go to acts 3. forget acts 12 we'll do that next go to acts 3 and then isaiah 59 you guys all right i do hope so this this will help if we can make it all the way through it acts chapter three is an interesting verse uh the lord is is uh speaking of course to all the believers and in verse 25 he says you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant which god made to our fathers saying to abraham and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed the part i want you to capture is he announces to every believer you are sons of the prophets why would he say that every believer is to live with a prophetic anointing every believer there are few prophets but there are many who are to be prophetic if i can be really practical there's few evangelists but all of us are to be evangelistic there are few who are pastors but all of us can be pastoral in our care compassion for people apostolic this all all across the board the point is is these graces are to be functioning in us according how to how we are influenced by these kinds of of people in our lives we pick up their graces now so that we can get a title to tell what what's the purpose of a title the function is what's important and so here here to every believer if this were happening right now the decree would be made to each one of you you are all sons of the prophets now isaiah 59 expands on that concept and it's in verse 21 the last verse of the of the 15 did i say 29 or 59 59 go good good i meant to say 59 so i'm glad it came out that way you just never know all right so isaiah 59 verse 21 as for me says the lord this is my covenant with them my spirit who is upon you and my words which i have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth nor the mouth of your descendants nor the mouth of your descendants descendants says the lord from this time and forevermore the lord has just identified the way his giftings work in a family line he says you hear god you tell people what he says good now your kid's going to do the same and your kids kids everyone after you is going to inherit the same grace to hear from god and tell people what he says now the prophetic is simply that it is that let's forget the title for a minute i believe in titles but they're completely unnecessary in this context the important thing is that everybody in this room has the realization i can hear from god but we have to learn how he speaks because he doesn't always speak in english in fact he rarely speaks in english i love how he talks to me it's a lifelong adventure to discover his voice and what i found is if there's a willingness to hear there's a willingness to speak if there's a willingness on my end to hear what god is saying there's a there's a willingness on his end to actually speak there's a passage in in john 7 that says if you're willing to obey his word uh i'm going to misquote it i can feel it and i don't want to because it's it's important so give me just a moment here if anyone if anyone wills to do his will he will know concerning the doctrine whether it's from god or whether i speak on my own authority jesus is talking he says if you're willing to do his will you'll know whether i speak on my own or from him what's the point you don't know until you're willing to obey it's it's that illustration that we've been given through the years sign your name on the bottom of the contract and then he'll write the contract all right acts 12. am i out of time or did it just never start never started i haven't gone that long have i no all right oh oh i'm i'm not stopping wild horses couldn't stop me all right this is such a great chapter but there's a real sobering part of this chapter so let's let's uh let's talk through this uh beginning with verse one acts 12 now about that time herod the king stretched out his hand to harass from some from the church and he killed james the brother of john with a sword and because he saw it pleased the jews he proceeded further to cease peter also now it was during the days of unleavened bread so when he had arrested him he put him in prison delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him intending to bring him before the people after passover peter verse 5 was therefore kept in prison but constant prayer was offered to god for him by the church when herod is about to bring him out that night peter was sleeping bound with two chains between two soldiers the guards before the door were keeping the prison an angel of the lord stood by uh by him a light shone in the prison he struck peter on the side raised him up saying arise quickly his chains fell off his hands the angel said to him gird yourself tie on your sandals and he did so and he said to him put on your garment and follow me he went out followed him he didn't know that what was done by the angel was real he thought he was seeing a vision that's you know it's got to be weird to be in one of those moments you don't know if it's real or if you're watching tv you don't you just you just don't know you don't know the moment the moment is so has so caught you off guard that you don't know what's real and what's not real the verse 10 when they were past the first and second guard post they came to the iron gate that leads to the city which opened to them of its own accord and they went out went down one street immediately the angel departed from him and when peter had come to himself i don't know where he had been but when he had come to himself he said now i know for certain that the lord has sent his angel and delivered me from the hand of herod verse 12 we'll read just a couple more verses so when he had considered this he came to the house of mary the mother of john whose surname was mark where many were gathered together praying what were they praying for for his release as peter knocked on the door of the gate a girl named rhoda came to answer when she recognized peter's voice because of her gladness she did not open the gate it's interesting the the angel opened the gate out of the prison but a little girl was to open the gate into the house some things god will do for you some things you have to just keep knocking she did not open the gate she ran in and announced that peter stood before the gate they said to her you are beside yourself so she kept insisting it was so they said to his his angel peter continued knocking they opened the door they were astonished it's just a fun story a fun story it's amazing to have the answer to your prayer knocking on the door and and is saying oh no it can't be peter it can't be a revival our job is to pray for revival not have one but go back to the beginning of the story james was murdered peter was prayed for the holy spirit orchestrated the organization of these two stories james was arrested and murdered what was the will of god in that situation god can use tragedy so good that people think he sponsors the tragedy his ability to turn the effect of a tragedy into a positive thing is so masterful that others look at it and assume it must be god who wanted murdered him perhaps you've heard statements like uh martyrs are the uh they're really the foundation of the church they are those the seed of the church where there's been great increase multiplication absolutely true absolutely true but if you look at first timothy chapter two there's instruction pray for those who are in authority that you can live a peaceful life what is the will of god the peaceful life what did james experience martyrdom slight difference i don't know if i can say this right i've tried to teach it before i never felt like it came out right but it'll just fit into another one of my heresies in the category of heresies okay i got i got to get a running start on this one is it possible that the will of god in a particular situation is determined by what we've become is it possible that the will of god in a particular situation is determined by what we've become the non-praying church had a friend who died the praying church had a friend who was delivered to them see prayer shapes us the main thing about prayer is not me persuading him to do anything the main thing about prayer is that it shapes me it shapes how i think you know faith gets answers but enduring faith gets answers with character delayed answers gain interest but they also prune the soul they also prune the heart and the pruning of the heart in delayed answers is essential what i what i have watched take place in many people's lives is there's a great hunger for the breakthroughs of god but that hunger i've watched for the last 25 years i've watched some some people with great hunger great desperation but it leads them into unbelief i know that sounds awkward and strange but it does it does if if um let's see if i can phrase this better desperation either leads to breakthrough or to unbelief that passion of the soul that is dependent on an answer to be satisfied usually leads to unbelief the passion of the soul that leads to a person ends up different the person we're in in i'm seeking for this miracle but the number one ambition of my soul is to discover who he is moses said let me know your ways that i might know you every time every time god reveals an aspect of his nature it's not automatic that i've encountered him but it is an invitation revelation of his nature is always an invitation for encounter that's that's how he works he showed he showed abraham that he was uh he was jehovah jireh what was the point abraham needed provision and he showed him a possibility he showed him what was available and he came to know the god of provision that story can be repeated countless times throughout scripture the point is when god reveals his his nature it's always an invitation for relationship for encounter he doesn't show us what he you know he doesn't show us stuff so we get smarter i mean intelligence is part of it but it's a byproduct it's not the goal the goal is encounter with the person because the the more the more i see him the more i am like him you know that passage it says when we see him we will be like him that's true but it's also a progressive part of our journey the more i see his heart the more i see his nature the more i become transformed in my own soul in my own heart i started by saying we learn passionate praying out of pain and it may be a crisis it may be a need but but the point is is we're desperate and so we we we we don't just do now i lay me down to sleep kind of prayers we don't just do bless the food and the people who made it kind of prayers we're actually we're actually praying to make a difference in something we get our heart and soul into it and um either we learn to pray out of out of passion we either learn to pray passionate prayers out of pain or we have to have we have to find somewhere else within us to learn passionate prayers because prayers that don't move you don't move him you know the token stuff that we do i'm not gonna say he he can or won't ever answer i'm i'm not going to tell you i'm not going to tell him what he can do but we can see in scripture the things that move him are is when people put their life on the line and they cry out this uh verse i read a little bit ago out of excuse matthew 26 keep watching praying that you may not enter into temptation the spirit is willing the flesh is weak i didn't know this until this evening i was i was looking at this word the spirit is willing this word willing because there's there's uh interesting combinations of words used in the new testament the will of god and i was wondering what category this one fell in but it missed both of them and it created a new category of its own it it comes this word uh the spirit is willing this word actually comes from two words the one is uh it would be the word before or ahead of it's it's uh it's aggressively moving ahead that kind of a word and the other word that this word willing comes from is the word passion so the word then can basically be translated the spirit is in eager pursuit it's not just willing in a sense well if it happens i'm good with it you know it's not that kind of willing it's not uh you know i'm willing to ever you know i hear pastors say i'm i'm i you know i want revival i'm willing if god so chooses us he knows my address kenneth it's not that kind of willing we just bought a new house so actually not just a year and a half ago we bought our new house and we've been remodeling and so we left our furniture at the other house that we sold and uh but in that house i had a massage chair that was the will of god for my life i believe in body ministry and that uh that chair just did it i i was sitting there i'd push the buttons and get a whole new release in my prayer language right there and betty would say uh say you want something to eat i'm going in the kitchen i go yeah i'm starving i wasn't starving enough to go into the kitchen myself but as long as you're going in there i'll take cheese banana an apple that'd be great so she comes back with a little plate and the starving person is eating never moving from his body ministry chair absolute will of god and many people are willing to move in the things of the spirit that way if you bring it to me i'm ready but that's not the nature of this one the spirit is willing this is saying your spirit has an appetite and is in pursuit of something but your flesh can shut it down so here's what i was thinking about and i i'm i uh i'm i'm thinking here's what i'm thinking about you're probably wondering what is he thinking about and i'm about to tell you i think there's a measure of prayerfulness that we can learn where we spot a disaster before it happens and can prevent it i don't want to get weird with this i i believe in it very very much i i i nobody could talk me out of it it's too strong in history but there's a there's a prayerfulness let me back up either we learn to pray passionately out of pain or we start learning to pray passionately out of hope something has to replace the the classroom the classroom for us is problems very few people can move into a measure of hope that causes them to burn hope remains a concept an idea oh someday it's going to be better boy i look forward to when our whole city is saved but it's not a burning thing it's a it's it remains a concept it remains a a principle an ideal but when that ideal starts working into the fabric of who we are suddenly we learn to pray from a different place because we've seen what's possible we've seen what's possible and it's in those moments of hope we start picking up his ideals his thoughts his ambitions we start we start seeing ahead of time um strategies of the enemy now i'm not a devil conscious person i just and and i don't people make me nervous that i always talk about the devil just it annoys me to pieces it annoys me to many pieces i i don't like this no it's not healthy for me when i'm around people like that i just i usually just kind of check out you know anything that happens is a is a demon and they measure their success by the attack on their life i don't yeah i just don't i don't like that the devil's real he's there you know i want him in the crosshairs long enough to pull the trigger that's just about it he's not a part of my conversation they don't create theology around him i'm on a journey my my responsibility is not to react to the devil it's to respond to the father and we have we have one of two ways to live there's a false sense of spirituality by learning to react to the devil because you're spiritually minded but you're you know we become devil minded we become reactionary instead of offensive we've got to move from defense to offense having said that when the king is making his plans in his bedroom and god let you hear the conversation it's always so something bad doesn't happen without your action and while i never want to be overly devil devil conscious i i you know paul i apologize it's one of the two and they're both good one of the two said i don't want you to be unaware of the devil's devices and that's uh that's a an important thing to remember i i don't want to make him my study but i don't want to be ignorant of the kinds of things he does and what he does do the lord already knows in advance the devil's predictable he's only got a couple cards in his hand he uses accusation intimidation mockery he's only got he's got only got a couple tools he accuses he intimidates he mocks works to make us introspective he uses a distraction but there's really not a lot of tools in this toolbox and tragically those tools have worked pretty good but the lord i believe through this prayerfulness that i'm talking about watch and pray keep your eyes open just be alert watch and pray so that you don't entertain into temptation prayerfulness being spiritually alert enable you to see the environment you're in to where things that would have caught you off guard won't catch you off guard and things that would have put you on the defense are now null and void because you're on the offense and things that would have appealed to you now are like a third shoe you have no place to put it and when the heart of a person is connected to the heart of god wrong things are not appealing they're not appealing jesus in john 17 said i gave them my glory that they might be one that they might be one unity is not the product of us working hard to have unity i i believe in working hard to have unity but i'm just saying you're not going to get there at the level jesus is talking about by mere human effort he said i gave them my glory that they might be one what is that it's the manifested presence it's hard to be in the glory and be mad at anyone two of our great heroes of the faith actually be three it was john and charles wesley his brothers the theologian and the music writer the wesleys and then george whitefield and they were they were both uh great leaders and great men of god in the in the great awakening and i think it was charles wesley that wrote a letter to john they were they were opposite theologically uh they their their emphasis was was so different one was very calvinistic one was very armenian and they just they were in opposition theologically and they were both used in the same move of god it's crazy because throughout history people would have a certain belief exercise it with great confidence and there would be people saved and to them that confirmed they were right and then the person on the opposite end of the spectrum used their theology which is the opposite and would preach the gospel people would be saved and that would confirm to them they were right it's supposed to just confirm the power of the gospel and charles wesley wrote a letter to um i believe it was charles who wrote a letter to george whitefield and he said we had more love when we knew less and that's a sobering statement we had more love when we knew less thankfully that's not that's not a predetermined outcome it's not like there's no other option but when your knowledge doesn't lead to encounter it trains you to argue with those who differ and knowledge from the scriptures to take us to the person and if it doesn't we're just getting more calloused to to assert our correct our correctness over those who differ back to the main subject i'm sorry i'm all over the map gets back to praying just pray okay just pray and pray passionately you know i i know probably for most people in this room the thought of praying for two or three hours is is quite foreign just do it every once in a while you know once a month once every six months i don't care just do it sometime just create something in your day where you just go alone and you pray and don't wait for great inspiration just obey lift your voice and pray strong prayers well i don't feel like it yeah the flesh is strong so get that rascal to submit and pray according to your spirit not your flesh the flesh will make you very appealing to humanity the spirit will make you stand up it's not about putting on a show it's getting alone with god but the point is you take time and you bear your soul every one of us need these moments with god where we truly bear our soul and and we just pour everything out i've had times walking through the woods i'm just i'm weeping before the lord i've got such consternation of soul i've got such difficulty that i'm facing i've got to have a miracle i've got to have a breakthrough and i just walk where the mountain chapel is now up in weaverville um that property i started walking we were in a little uh sanctuary seated i don't remember 80 people or something uh and we were we were busting at the seams and multiple services and so i started walking on this piece of property thinking this would be a great place to build and uh and i didn't know it was actually two lots not one and it was owned by two different owners but i just started walking on it and all of a sudden out of nowhere they both came up for sale and so i i went to the board i said man i fee we gotta we gotta build we need to build and and this property up here is for sale a couple of guys were real estate so they began to research it and came back and we were just not in a place financially to do it and then somebody prophesied that morning sunday morning we were going to have a meeting that sunday afternoon when you prophesied sunday morning that if you wait for all the conditions to be right you'll never plant a crop and so as a team we heard that word went all right let's do it conditions aren't right but god is and we felt it was you know it wasn't a careless random decision it was a prayed into decision that we lacked the courage to pursue aggressively in other words we prayed for an open door he opened the door and now we're going if this be your will you know one of those things i need another sign you know i i i chuckled george mueller was was the ultimate man of great prayer he had over 10 000 recorded prayers and answers in his lifetime he was asked by a reporter towards the end of his life have you ever had a prayer that when it wasn't answered and he said he said no and he said well one it's not answered yet but it will be how can it be any other way i'm still praying how can it be any other way i'm still praying and then he said it's for the salvation of of the son of a dear friend of mine and they that young man was converted at george mueller's funeral the final check on his list of prayers he was in prayer one day and he caught this picture of a building he was to build he built and ran this orphanage and he they just did everything by prayer he didn't do anything by human promotions stuff like that just everything prayer so he caught this picture of a building he was to build and as he's walking from the prayer room across the playground a child comes up to him and gives him the equivalent of a penny and says here this is for the new building mueller took it lifted it up to heaven and said thank you for the confirmation i prefer checks of about a hundred thousand dollars to confirm thanks for me i i i need a little extra confirmation this is a fun journey we're on and the way you get more answers to prayer is to pray more it's the fact that nothing's off limits it's that i pray without ceasing and it's that connection to his heart that keeps my heart in a right place and what he's looking for i i've said this before and it sounds it's just another level of heresy but it sounds it sounds it sounds wrong so give me a moment the lord disciplines us so that his blessings don't kill us but here's the one that sounds worse the lord disciplines us so that our will will be done now let me just let me just say i'm not interested in talking god into anything i'm not trying to demand my way i i i like for him to tell me what to do i love his will i'd just rather him talk to me but what i found out is he wants my interaction and he's the one who invited four times in john uh 14 15 and 16 four times in three chapters he invited us ask for whatever you want and it'll be done so how does that happen it's not by being robots or a parrot that repeats scripted prayers it's by interacting with him so deeply that he trusts our heart and it's out of that heart connection that we actually find ourselves praying the things that please him watch us down i think this kind of praying is something that every parent in the room should ask god to teach him because what happens is it it enables you to pray ahead of a problem and i don't want any you know i don't want to create any shame if you know if you're facing a crisis or something you know the shame won't help help us deal with it but i do think some of the times we could avert something we could avoid certain things by just praying ahead of time pray so that you don't enter temptation pray because there are certain situations coming your way that you don't need to face and if you pray you will keep yourself insulated from those things amen amen amen bill that's a very good point amen all right i remember a guy talking years ago um back in the 70s i know most of you weren't born in but i remember a guy talking he lived in the second story of a home and uh and it just when he got up in the morning to shower it just took forever for the hot water to get from the opposite side of the house downstairs up to where his bedroom was so every night before he went to bed he would go to the shower and he would just turn it on barely to where it would just drip hot water all night long now that would be heavily frowned upon today so this pretend you're in the 70s and he kept it so the hot water was just really always available is what it what it meant so when he got up in the morning he turned hot water it was instant when you pray without ceasing a christ crisis comes you've already got fire you've already you've already got the heat to deliver to that situation you don't have to warm up you don't have to you know go off and fast and pray for 10 days you already are boiling with because you're you're birthing answers continuously we don't we don't pray just simply because we feel inspired in the moment we pray because this is our life this is what we do prayer is not something i turn on and i turn off prayer is who i am i am one who communes with god it happens uh brian wrote a song years ago uh my son uh out of uh a song of songs where he says though i sleep yet my heart is awake your spirit man is a continual fellowship with god so learning to shut the flesh up and listen to the spirit means there's this continuous bent towards communion with god all right i've pretty much wore my mouth out so we'll just stop right there let me just pray for you put a hand on somebody's shoulder next to you we're just this warm and fuzzy group we just like to touch each other all the time the poor people who come here that don't like touching anyone i'm sorry make sure you always sit on the end because then you'll only on one of the far ends because then you only have to touch one side we should put out a pamphlet keys to entering bethel things sorry yeah how to do bath bomb yeah when they wave the flag just duck just stop [Laughter] oh i was going to pray yes get back to prayer take a moment and just ask ask the lord to impart a fresh grace for prayer simple easy continuous flow of interaction with the almighty god thank you father increase the grace for prayer the communion with god wake us in the night lord i do pray for that she'd actually wake us with this this um this burning heart for you this affection for you that it would be uh not just during the appropriate song but it actually surprises how often we just find ourselves leaning into who you are leaning into what you've said leaning into your invitation for us to pray and i do pray that this year would be the year of the most extraordinary breakthroughs and answers to prayer and i do ask as well you said we are the sons of the prophets and you have sealed up in our gift mix the ability to hear your voice so i'm asking tonight that you would alert us to things happening before they do so we know how to pray and that we would we would find ourselves hearing the secrets of the enemy king of what he speaks in the bedroom at night that we would hear those words and not live devil conscious but live proactive to bring protection safety to the flock to the people of god i ask this in jesus name amen amen go ahead and drop your hands you know i'm going to turn it over mama's here one one more sorry one more thing there's always a chance with this many people in the room i'm sorry my i got a a frog or maybe a whole a whole tribe of frogs in my in my throat sorry i was i was giving an altar call once gabe where you hear what i did this was a lot of years ago i was giving an altar call once and i burped in the middle of the altar call in i i did i went oh there goes one right there [Laughter] i shouldn't have done that but i still think it was funny so i i just killed the moment here there's always a chance with a crowd this size that there could be people here that don't have a personal relationship with jesus that's the big deal you know all the other stuff it's all add-on but the big deal is why i'm alive what was i born for god created me for his pleasure and for me to learn my absolute perfect delight in life is with him and he is here to forgive of sin and to truly bring into his family the disciples followed him they became followers disciples of jesus and if there's anybody in the room that would just say that's me i i don't want to leave until i know what forgiveness is like i truly want to follow jesus if there's anyone in that category put your hand up because we just want to celebrate what god is doing in your life there's one way back over here yep beautiful is there anyone else anyone else just saying that's me i i want to follow jesus with all of my heart anyone okay i'm going to ask um joel maybe you could help me with this go way back there in the corner and the individual will find you he's coming your way because he's going to bless you and talk with you there he goes get in the aisle bless him

Channel: Bill Johnson Teaching (Official)

Views: 374,326

Rating: 4.8031793 out of 5

Keywords: bill johnson messages, sermon, church, bethel church, bill johnson sermons, bill johnson, supernatural, miracles, christian, bethel, holy spirit, revival, holy ghost, spiritual warfare, 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, presence, sermons, church online

Id: 0nNtA1bXzH4

Length: 69min 44sec (4184 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 15 2021