Special Message: Bill Johnson | James River Church

[Music] well i'm i'm glad i'm glad i get to be with you let me read something to you first and then we'll open the word 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 never shipped home for five thousand dollars or you can bury her here in the holy land for a hundred and fifty dollars the man thought about it told me he just soon have her shipped home the undertaker asked why would you spend five thousand dollars to ship her home when it would be wonderful to have her buried here and spend only 150 dollars the man replied a man died here 2 000 years ago he was buried here three days later he rose from the dead i just can't take that chance so [Music] sorry all the mother-in-law sorry sorry sorry the holy spirit is in every believer but he's not upon every believer he's in me for my sake but he comes upon me for yours and we were designed to actually host the spirit of god not just as one who dwells in us i'm so thankful for that i never want to under estimate or undervalue that incredible privilege of being a living temple of god but when jesus was baptized in water he came up out of the water and in john's gospel chapter 2 when he came up out of the water the heavens opened interestingly the word in mark talks about the clouds parting the word parting there's actually a violent term it's the same word used to describe the tearing of the veil in the temple at the death of christ and the splitting of the rocks because it's a violent term it actually illustrates to us that there was a spiritual force of darkness influencing that period of time and when jesus came up out of the water there was a violence in heaven to release the spirit of god upon him the bible goes on to say that the holy spirit came upon him in the form of a dove and the key phrase is and remained came upon him in the form of a dove and remained what took place in that passage is actually an answer to isaiah's prayer in isaiah 64 where he says rend the heavens and come down the father did exactly what isaiah had prophesied with intercessory prayer that the father himself would tear the heavens open and the spirit of god would release be released upon jesus i understand jesus is the eternal son of god there's no question but he chose to live with limitations he could have done everything as god i mean if he'd walked on water and perform miracles and did everything that he did as god i'm i'm still impressed but i'm reduced to a spectator no one can follow that but when i find that jesus did everything he did the multiplying of food the raising of the dead the stealing the storm that he did everything he did as a man submitted to god then suddenly i'm no longer satisfied to stay where i'm at i am compelled to pursue the standard that's been said he described himself as the son of men please don't misunderstand eternally god never stopped being god but he chose to live with limitations to give us something that we could actually follow he illustrated something that was doable just two qualifications number one you had to have no sin and the blood of jesus makes that available for every person on planet earth for all who put their faith in christ the atoning work that he did for us it settles the issue and sin is silenced sin is no more wiped away [Music] removed from its ongoing power to destroy a person's life but the second qualification to walk in what jesus walked in is we have to be completely dependent and filled with the holy spirit dependent upon and filled with the holy spirit jesus actually illustrated the normal christian life [Music] i'm not making this up he's the one who said and greater works than these shall you do so jesus modeled something that actually can and must be followed so here he is he comes up out of the water the heavens are torn open as it 64. torn open the spirit of god comes upon him and remains there's something about that story there's something about this illustration that jesus became for all of us that provokes a hunger in me provokes a jealousy i i hope i can use that in a righteous sense a jealousy for what he has made available that is actually possible for us to taste him to live in there's certain stories experiences that jesus had that really they really messed me up in a good way you know they just messed me up i finally figured it out it's all about jesus that's uh when in doubt just it's all about jesus and so what when i look at these shorts and i see jesus walking through town crowds are pressing in all around him you've got to you've got to understand everybody wants to be wants to get a selfie with jesus you know they're all trying to get in close they want to be able to tell their kids their grandkids i was there and every word that comes out of his mouth they are stunned by the miracles that take place everything everything is beyond anything they could have asked for as the crowd is pressing in close they all want to get as close as they can jesus suddenly stops and he said somebody touched me which of course sounded like the funniest thing in the world to the disciples because everybody was touching him but the touch was different a woman touched just the edge of his clothing and she was healed here's here's the thing that that challenges me jesus is walking conversation being bumped about through a crowd crazy you know people trying to get close to him and he was so aware of the presence of god upon him that when a woman made a withdrawal he could tell he wasn't sitting there you know soaking and you know just in a worship time and then realized that there was there was a demand on the anointing that he carried it wasn't that it was it was the craziness of city life of people hustling and bustling about trying to get close and it was in that chaos that he realized something he was carrying somebody put a demand on there was a withdrawal not a withdrawal in the sense that he was lacking because he had the spirit without measure so there wasn't something missing but he was aware of can i say a flow an impartation a presence that went forth from him power went forth from him and he turned and he said somebody touched me of course the woman is as embarrassed as can be she's not supposed to be in public and she was healed there are so many of these stories you know when jesus said greater works than these shall you do that's kind of what paul checked into when they took articles of clothing and sent it somewhere else for jesus they came and touched him but for paul he was able to send clothing somewhere else from his own person and they were healed and set free so here's peter walking to a prayer meeting you know you gotta try to imagine that people are putting their sick relatives in the street so that his shadow will touch them how did that how did that happen i mean you know peter didn't put up a sign you know watch my shadow today you know it was it wasn't that sort of thing it was it was somehow people realized that when they got close to him they got well now your shadow will always release whatever overshadows you giving place to a person is why we're on the planet it's not just that he i'm thankful he's in me he convicts me he guides me he teaches me he empowers me all that important stuff is a huge part of my life but he longs to rest upon me to make shadows sing again [Music] there's something about this thing where they put the sick people along the road and the shadow touches them and they get well and you just got to figure out somewhere along the line people just noticed they got well when they got close to them and so there's this ongoing narrative that was never never talked but always implied that he's come to rest upon you being the person that he rests upon is is for me is is life itself i remember we used to live in this little community and and there was a wonderful health food store and that's where we like to shop and but it was like it was not the seventh day kind of health food store it was the kind that held all the gurus and all the other things going on you know a lot of spiritual activity in the room and uh and that's that's where we like to go and i remember i would the the store was right across my office so i would walk uh to the post office um it's where we had to get our mail we didn't have home delivery in that little community so i would walk over and get the mail and i'd come back and i would go through that store but what i'd do is i'd walk to the back of the store back door and i just stopped for a moment until i became conscious of the holy spirit upon me see wherever you set your affections he'll come as i just take that moment just to turn my affection toward him as soon as i had that awareness of the presence of god and and don't think that's not practical don't think that is some abstract no that's the normal christian life it's why he said if you abide in me and my word abides in if you abide in me there's that felt reality of presence i'm not talking about emotions that go up and down i'm talking about the fact that god the almighty god is actually right here my friend larry rand i'll put it best he says if god is as big as he says he is he shouldn't be that hard to find so so here just take this moment until i could just sense the presence and then i would walk and of course i wanted the cheese and whatever over there but i'd walk up and down all the aisles you know i've kind of felt like i was one of those rain bird sprinklers you know just trying to soak the entire atmosphere with with the presence of the lord and i know now that one sounds weird but that's how that's that's how i function one day the owner called me said bill come here i walked in the store and took me over to the vegetable section and he said bill when you walk in the store something's different now i was not the only believer but i might have been the only one that stopped to give him place to rest see your shadow will always release whatever overshadows you if i'm filled with anger resentment if i am filled with fear um that will always no matter what kind of smile i paste on my face my my my presence will actually create an anxiety in the room because that's what overshadows me learning to give place to the affection of christ paul said you're restricted by your affections he's such a lover that just turning my heart towards him anytime we do as we did tonight in worship we just turn our heart towards him he just comes he's so he's so attracted to your love the angels stand in awe they don't understand the redemptive work that's taken place and when they watch you and me give place to this person of the holy spirit some something something happens see when you give place to the holy spirit to rest on you more good things happen by accident than ever used to happen on purpose you know we we've seen the uh shadows heal it wasn't by groaning extra hard it was just by being in love wow that's so good it's not great bold acts of faith i believe in those but sometimes sometimes we need to use our faith just to explore him just to anchor into him he's a person that longs for a relationship fear will always attract whatever information is needed to legitimize its existence [Music] and if ever there was a season we needed to remember that fear will always attract whatever information is necessary to legitimize its existence wow that's good we guard our hearts simply by being in fellowship we were talking today at such a wonderful time of fellowship my wife and i did on the flight over here and it was just it was just wonderful wonderful just to share the love of god together but i i i've seen so many things happen through the years you know as all of us have but i've seen people shake under the power of god i'm seeing them shake under the power of demons and i've seen them shake because they wanted attention and they all look the same [Music] so if the way you grade something is by an acceptable list of manifestations you're going to have a problem because you'll get it right sometimes and you'll get it wrong sometimes but when you get to know a person there's a fragrance there's a sense of presence when he comes and you may not even understand what he's doing but you know enough to cooperate you know enough not to interfere i'm so thankful for this church i i sat over there or stood over there tonight in worship just i just wanted to say thank you thank you for giving place to the holy spirit to do what he wants to do thank you thank you thank you as a church body as a family thank you for doing that i want you to look at a couple verses with me if you would turn the gospel of john and go to chapter 20 and i'm going to read a verse for you out of genesis while you're going there do you remember in matthew chapter 10 jesus talks to his disciples and he says he said go and tell people the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick cast out devils cleanse lepers raise the dead freely you have received freely give i can't prove it but i have a feeling the disciples were clueless of what he was talking about you know first of all how do you go into a house well i'm sorry later he explains and he goes on and he says that when you walk into a house let your peace remain on that house luke's gospel just confuses me all the more he says you go into a house you release your peace on the house and if they don't receive it take it back i'm sure the disciples are going first of all how do you get the piece out and then if you're sensitive enough to recognize when people don't receive it how do you get it back but see that was that was practical cooperation of the holy spirit that was that was holy spirit 101 for jesus this is what you do so the disciples are in this in this quandary trying to figure out how to do what jesus said to do and another amazing thing is jesus said heal the sick he didn't say pray for the sick that crazy yeah but bill we're not the healers i know it bothers me too it's like i'm supposed to take ownership of my assignment so deeply that i embrace it as there were something i could choose to do see the lord's already created this momentum it's just the people who stand in the momentum to see things happen it's the cooperation with his declared will his revealed will so are you in john 20. 10 of you that's awesome i've worked with les so it's all right it's all right let me just read this to you he sent out from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot she returned into the ark to him for the waters were on the face of the whole earth so he put out his hand he took her and drew her into the ark to himself he waited yet another seven days and he sent the dove out from the ark and then the dove came to him in the evening and behold a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth and noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth what's the international symbol of peace is that is that olive branch in the dove and this is where it's rooted in so he waited yet another seven days and he sent out the dove which did not return to him anymore jesus said when you go into a home that your peace remained on that home when we realize what and who is released in our obedience this makes unders this makes sense but from a distance it's one of the most abstract impractical bits of instruction jesus ever gave but when you understand jesus for example in john chapter 1 verse 14 he identifies himself as or he is identified as the word of god made flesh but on john in john 6 63 he says the word of god is made spirit jesus only says that's a good point bill by the way that was excellent point there just keep it up jesus only says what he hears his father say he only does what he sees his father do we know that right so now jesus has just talked to a crowd he's told him they've got to eat his flesh drink his blood there they're grossed out they all leave him he's left with the 12 and he turns to the disciples and he says um he said my words to you are spirit and they are alive and then he asked pete are you going to go with the rest of the crowd he asks his disciples peter says where are we going to go you have the words of eternal life you know what i think peter was saying jesus we don't understand what you just taught any more than the crowd that left but what we do know is that whenever you talk we come alive inside see your heart can receive things your mind is not yet ready for that's why we miss it often when we think our hearing is proven by our comprehension how many of you have times where you just can't hear the voice of the lord but you sense his peace nobody raised their hand so you guys don't do that here i'm just teasing you that was his voice that presence that's his voice he is the word of god when he comes in presence he is there in voice but what he's doing is he's ministering deeply to our spirit man depositing things that we don't need today but will we will need in days to come as a friend of mine once said god is willing to offend your mind to reveal your heart so here we are in the story it's a brilliant story of noah he releases the dove finally the dove is released and doesn't come back anymore i'd just like to suggest that the lord is looking for people that will truly host him that there can be not just an impartation of gifts not just an impartation of encouragement and strength but actually the privilege of releasing presence into a place jesus said it my words to you are spirit and that spirit gives life i want you to you're already open to john 20 so i better catch up john chapter 20 is a wonderful wonderful part uh part of this story storyline and um i want to go right to verse 19 the same day and evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the jews jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them peace be with you i don't know about you the way i figure it anytime jesus says peace be with you it's because i have a really good reason to be afraid gee jesus these guys are are afraid they're going to die i mean let's be honest they're afraid that they're next they just saw jesus crucified they're hiding because they're afraid of the jews and when someone walks through the wall it doesn't help your fear issues it doesn't it doesn't solve any of that anxiety stuff you got going on you know and so if you look at this he says peace to you what did he tell them to do in in when they walk into a home release your peace on the home so this is what jesus did peace be to you when he said this he showed them his hands in his side then the disciples were glad when they saw the worth i loved it he showed him the hands inside then they were glad in other words when he first walked through the wall they weren't glad they were not glad he said peace to you they said we're not having it you can just imagine the dove flying around the room going man there's no place to land here and so jesus jesus shows him the hands and his side he shows them that he's the crucified one he's their lord and then they were glad that it was him it's so amazing to me that he choose to show up different and he still does it he still shows up different than what we're accustomed to everybody wants him to do a new thing just as long as he does it the way he's always done it because he chooses to work in such a way that we actually can only recognize it by presence amen bill good keep it up don't quit you say well it's got to be according to the word that's true absolutely absolutely everything has to have its root in the word but you remember when paul tried to go to asia on a mission strip what is the commission of the lord going to all the world is asia a part of all the world yes when he tried to go the holy spirit said no see just because you found something that is biblical doesn't mean it's in the heart of god for you for right now and the only way we know that is by voice we only know that by by the relationship with the person i love the fact that paul was ready to go anywhere he's functioning out of the principle of go into all the world but he was also sensitive to the presence of god to show him when and where and he could tell i'm not to go there so he backed off and it wasn't until he had a dream where the man from macedonia had this call the macedonian call we call it where he knew where he was supposed to go and there's this there's this um there's this need in us to maintain this awareness of presence this awareness of a person who sometimes gives us overt commands and other times it's so subtle you actually it's like somebody with a real soft voice you have to actually lean in their direction to hear what they're actually saying and the lord requires us to do the adjustment to hear well now when you're first saved he will just talk to you right up front but as you become more and more mature he hides his voice so that you'll grow to find it it's it's absolutely true he says in proverbs 25 verse 2 he says it's the glory of god to conceal a matter is the glory of kings to search out of matter it's the glory of god to conceal but he doesn't hide from us he hides for us that was another good one bill come on he doesn't hide from us he hides it's too late it's too late he hides he doesn't hide from us he hides for us it's kind of like i don't know you guys may be more spiritual and don't do easter egg hunts but we have grandkids we love hiding eggs you know i've got one grandson he's we hide cash in plastic eggs and he's a cash only uh kid he picks up the egg he shakes it if there's no rattle it's not for him it's not the will of god that he picks up an egg egg he wants the cash so but you know we don't hide the eggs and then go in the house you know we're outside hide eggs all over now we turn the kids loose we have 11 grandkids we don't turn them loose and go in the house why because our delight is in their discovery and they've got a dual delight they love the discovery but they also like looking back at me or grandma or whoever uh was involved in hiding eggs to look back to see the approval the delight of the parent the caregiver in their discovery he's the same only better he hides stuff for us do you know why he taught him parables it wasn't to reveal truth it was to hide truth from those who are unwilling to obey what they would hear he would hide truth in a story so that only the hungry could get it why because he's a god of love if he just randomly throws out revelation that he increases their responsibility and their accountability and if they don't have a heart to follow what he says he's not going to increase their responsibility in his mercy he hides things so here we are in this i think it's just such a beautiful story he said when he said this verse 20 again he said he showed them his hands in his side then the disciples were glad when they saw the lord so jesus said to them again peace to you as the father has sent me i send you peace to you the first time he released presents there was no place to land you know which really should tell us something about what anxiety and fear does you say well he comes to comfort us it's true it's true but this abiding presence that we host and carry um i said earlier i said he's in me for my sake but he comes upon me for yours what does that mean when he rests upon us we change the atmosphere of any room we walk into we actually become contributors to a holy atmosphere of god in a room you've had this happen where maybe uh maybe there's been a loss of a loved one or there's a emergency at the hospital or whatever and everybody's all anxious and one person walks in and makes one statement that just seems to clear the air and it's not because it's not because it was a doctor that says there's no problem it's because there was presence involved in speech jesus said my words to you are spirit and they are life so what did he say here he said peace be to you and then he says as the father sent me i send you in the very next verse he breathed on them and he said receive the holy spirit i'd like to suggest that our number one assignment is to host and to release the spirit of god let him find where to land that's his job but what we do is become a people through deep affection absolute heart of romance for god give him a place to rest so that when we walk into difficult situations i don't always know what to do i rarely know what to do but i know one who does know what to do and there's something happens in that presence where people unconsciously draw from what they see they'll call it a good vibe we have we have a particular there are businessmen in our area that want to hire people from our church and they and their reasoning is um is they change the atmosphere of their store so what is that they don't know but they're being discipled in valuing the presence they don't know that but they've been they've been an appetite is being created in them a hunger for god himself they don't they don't know what to call it they call it a good vibe they call it peace they call it any number of things but what they know what they know for sure is that when i'm with this guy i feel better about life what is that it's a it's it's mentoring it's mentoring in the public place in the marketplace it's mentoring people to have a value for things do you know that just because you live next door to an unbeliever the moment you moved in their options changed what i mean by that is they have a financial crisis maybe a year earlier they never would have thought of praying but because you're now in their life you're now host presence you have you have changed the options that they draw from and they still may not choose righteously but something comes to mind that never came to mind before and that is there may be a god who actually cares about our finances it's the person this wonderful holy spirit is constantly bringing hope one of our women years ago came out of a prayer time and told us this and our whole team now none of us can claim it because she said it first but a lot of us would like to she came around this prayer time she said the lord spoke to her and said the person with the most hope will always have the most influence let me try this side of the room the person with the most hope will always have the most influence [Applause] i sense a little insincerity there but it's all right so the person see both hope and hopelessness are contagious what do you want to see the clouds of your community your workplace your school what do you want to see the clouds with because there's not one thing that's going on in the earth that god is worried about every single problem it may be a relational problem in this room it may be an ecological economic problem it may have to do with nations it may have to do with war and military could be any any size of a problem every single problem he has an answer for it in his mind at this moment and what did the scripture say proverbs 25 says it's the glory of god to conceal a matter but it's the glory of kings to search out a matter if we ever discover our royalty and that we actually have legal access to the mysteries of god and we are welcome to pursue them by invitation then maybe we will seek him for solutions not so that we become the know-it-alls but so that we become people equipped to serve humanity well so jesus illustrates what i think the disciples missed personally in matthew 10 let your peace go on the house they don't take it take it back i can just see you know how to get rid and then what's even harder is how do you get it back but jesus releases the presence literally the presence of god his words see his words were spirit so when he said peace to you he was actually releasing something of substance over their lives they could change everything and their anxiety their fear level was so high that there was no place for the spirit of god to rest yes he can come and heal yes he can come in comfort but that's not what just what they were born for they were just not born to be a comfortable group of people they were designed to carry presence in a life-changing way they're designed i like to put it this way the holy spirit is in you as a river not a lake he wants to flow through you and alter the geography around you [Applause] learning to cooperate [Applause] so this is uh this is kind of a quick class that we get to have together and in a few minutes we're going to pray and here's what i want to pray just to kind of bait you and let you know where i'm headed you guys are already set up i mean what you've experienced here the life of this church what's already what you've already been taught your own history in god is is already so significant the world is aching for what you have and and i i'm not i'm not here to try to encourage people to work harder i'm not here to try to increase the you know whatever the offerings or the fastings or the prayers or oh that's fine but that's not why i'm here why i'm here is to say you're richer than you know you're richer than you know and sometimes sometimes we just need to go to the back of that grocery store and just turn our affection towards him and then go do what we're supposed to do i i didn't go in groaning and travailing and declaring thus saith i went to buy cheese but when he's resting upon you everything changes everything changes it's this is for real this is not pretend this is not christian hype this is reality this is what you were born for do you know that you and i were designed to seamlessly interact with god design everything about you your senses hebrews 5 the mark of a mature teacher in hebrews 5 is their senses are trained to discern good and evil if you go to work at a bank when they want you to learn to spot counterfeit money they only train you with the real thing and having senses trained to discern good and evil means that you activate everything about you in the presence of god as an expression of adoration and we become so exposed to what is real that when the counterfeit shows up we know exactly there's something wrong we know by presence we know we don't know just because we have an acceptable chart or a list of you know acceptable manifestations we know because of presence [Music] i remember one sunday morning i was sitting right down front where i usually sit and a young lady came stood before me and she was doing all kinds of weird things but we have so much weird stuff going on that a lot of you would be very uncomfortable the reason i know is i get uncomfortable you know the sunday we had a guy painted half blue with a sword run across the front of the sanctuary like braveheart you know i i knew that we had another sudden day with a woman in a wedding gown with combat boots so i figured that was that was a good day right there and we you know we you know we have people gathered around the front it's like a mosh pit down front some guy's doing acrobatic flips and here he is he's just running across the front i've never seen this before in worship i thought this is very unusual runs across he's doing this he's doing this whole thing he goes up he goes back three or four times and he looks up at me and i go one more you know i'm afraid somebody's gonna break their neck you know so when i say this was weird you have to put it in context we have a lot of weird but so she's doing this stuff and i i couldn't tell sometimes the lord will shut off your normal ability to hear to force you to learn to hear otherwise and so i actually i was standing there and it felt cold around me and i thought that's strange because it didn't feel that way a minute ago so i walked over here about 10 feet away and it was temperature was fine so i remembered a demonic encounter that my brother experienced long story won't take you into it but the evidence of the enemy's work was actually a temperature change [Music] and so i i went over to our we have a a dance group i went over to a head dancer i said i need you to dance summer we need to break something i didn't tell her who where what anything and she just began to dance before the lord and the moment she did the scale fell as though she were held up by puppet strings and somebody cut them she just collapsed into a ball right in front of us so i leaned over to benny and uh she reached forward and brought a beautiful deliverance to this young lady and gave her a group discount it was really good got rid of all of their all of the aliens on board i have too many birds on her antenna and she got free how senses when i teach stuff like this i know that i'm giving weird people permission to be weirder and you know who you are but at home when we pursue these truths i want you to hear me carefully i know that somebody will miss it and get it wrong but maybe there's 10 people in the room that will get it right and shape the course of history maybe maybe i love my bible so much i love the word of god and i'm in this lifelong journey and i i personally think we're going to be studying and reading this throughout all of eternity i don't think there's any bottom the depth is so rich i i tell people you know people will tell me they'll say i love jesus i just don't love the word and i say oh slap yourself what's the matter with you this is jesus in print they said well i don't remember what i read i go well i i don't remember what i had for breakfast last friday but it still nourished me [Music] but this book opens in relationship it's not something that is open for examination at a distance he will allow a certain amount of that but most of the questions you have can only be discovered in the journey in the relationship what i have found the thing that attracts the voice of the lord into my life and into people around me attracts the voice of the lord the clearest the best the most profound is when we say yes before he gives a command try to set up here there's something that attracts the voice of the lord i i heard real recently there's something that attracts the voice of the lord into our lives profoundly so and that is our yes before he speaks [Music] all right you're even now you're even all right i i didn't want to end the evening unfair you know on balance here we got both sides but seriously think about this for a moment now we're going to pray the absolute abandonment to the purposes of god the will of god literally draws and attracts the voice of the lord it's the willingness to obey it's the signing the contract before the contract is filled up it's signing my name to the bottom and then i say here write what you wish i feel like there's this there's this commissioning to host a person in a way that will be new for all of us so why don't you stand we're going to take some time to pray together over this this issue you know we love so much uh the miracles that take place and uh i i will never get tired of it never get tired of it i'm so thin i grew up not seeing him just reading in the bible and so i've i've gone without and i've had with and and i like having them better so i've decided to hold to that standard and it's the normal part of the christian life it's actually normal do you know what's normal in the presence of the lord for tumors to dissolve do you know what's normal we actually we we've actually experienced we don't have time tonight but we we've experimented it's the only way i know to learn so that may be offensive but but we experiment we experiment to see what he might be willing to do in a giving given situation [Music] and you guys have already um you know you you've already got out way out of grade school into into college in this area of of hosting a person being willing to give place to the holy spirit to do whatever he wants to do a soul woman standing right back here in our gathering has esophagus cancer and she begins to worship she feels this fire come on her hands and she turns to her husband she said i just been healed i don't know how she thought fire on her hands would heal an esophagus but she actually she said that she said i've just been healed she told her doctor the doctor said this kind doesn't go away when he examined her he said not only do you not have cancer you have a brand new esophagus the stories the stories like that are honestly without end they're ongoing and continuous and so what i'm what i'm wanting to do is i'm wanting to see the cloud so to speak that when you come into this place as this amazing church family of believers anticipate what god might want to do lean in we can't make anything happen but we can cooperate we can't co-op we can't anticipate we can pray specifically we can't say god we are here to see the tormented set free we are here to see those who have fatal diseases in their body to see those things broken up we are here for that reason and i know that that already happens but i feel like for you and for us we are we are at the beginning of a dramatic acceleration a dramatic acceleration of all things good of all things right so i'm just going to ask you just join with me in prayer for a minute i want to just sense how he wants to do this but i want you just to begin to pray with me for the presence of god to truly rest upon you ask him to teach you how to anchor your affections in him my language may not be the best it's what i use it's uh it's it's when i get in bed at night the first thing i do is i turn my affection towards the lord because i want to go to sleep engaged with him see your day begins at night genesis 1 says there was night and there was day which made the first day people would have a better day if they had a better night i feel we're supposed to engage with him let him minister deeply i wake up in the night i turn my affection towards him the whole point is is i i believe he is equipping this house [Music] to accelerate in glory and anointing and breakthrough hey everybody thank you so much for joining james river church on our youtube channel our prayer is that you were encouraged and your faith was strengthened today and we want to let you know that we want to connect with all our online family you can just click the link next to me to connect to us we'd love to meet you and connect with you as well we love if you subscribe to the channel and press the bell for notifications i'll tell you what it's a great thing to do because we're always putting out great sermons new worship content and that helps you stay up to date with everything that's happening we hope you have a great day today and we'd love for you to join us live for our services every sunday and wednesday thank you again for watching and god bless

Channel: James River Church

Views: 84,032

Keywords: bill johnson, pastor bill johnson, bill johnson sermon, james river church, james river church sermons, church online, online church, holy spirit, sermons on the holy spirit, sermon, sermons, bethel, bethel church, preaching, preacher, 2021, best sermons, jesus, healing, sermons on healing, god heals, god healing, healing testimony christian, jesus heals, god, bible, biblical teaching, bill, johnson, john lindell, best, bill johnson sermons, bill johnson bethel, bill johnson 2020, jrc

Id: nNc0N66SVrw

Length: 50min 6sec (3006 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 25 2021