War-Like Prayers - Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

thank you nice to see you man somebody was long-winded over at twin view i don't know who it was but uh anyway man i got here just in time i don't know what happened if you're late i guess you guys just have to fake it chris gets up and he'll do yodling he has a yodeling album he's gonna do so he keeps threatening oh by so good so wonderful to be together i i'm so thankful that uh we're in the midst of breakthrough and many many blessings to our online family and community as well so thankful for you guys i i get to meet so many when travel i just got back from florida this week uh late friday night and uh cool thing is we saw a lot of people healed of the effects of covid people who had lost their smell their taste the bible says all foods are to be enjoyed that's the bible that's the i didn't make that up that's not like my thoughts that's the will of god all foods are to be enjoyed if you can't taste it they're not enjoyed i'm i'm i'm giving you slow pictures here this is a chance to for you to really say amen so anyway we had a bunch of those we actually had several hundred people healed though this week very very fun but i just have a couple signs and newspaper headlines that i just thought would be fun to read here's a sign toilet out of order please use floor below automatic washing machines please remove all your clothes when the light goes out in a department store in london it says bargain basement upstairs [Laughter] outside of a secondhand shop it says we exchange anything bicycles washing machines etc why not bring your wife along and get a wonderful bargain [Applause] [Laughter] that's wrong that's wrong i rebuke that notice at a health food shop window closed due to illness i love this one notice on a farmer's field it says the farmer allows people to cross the field for free but the bull charges all right let me see here real quick oh man struck by lightning faces battery charge astronaut takes blame for gas in spacecraft here's the last one i'll read the last one now now we're just gonna get serious typhoon rips through cemetery hundreds dead why don't you open to uh book of acts chapter one it'll take me a while to get there so show some patience but turn there put a piece of paper in place or something um i spoke to you a couple weeks ago for those who are either here or online i i spoke about the the design of god in our lives enabling us to hear his voice we were actually designed by god to hear his voice even our senses our physical senses are designed to be able to perceive god it's a hebrews 5 uh passage so i i asked the question how many of you have had a hard time at times have a hard time hearing the voice of the lord but you you could sense his peace so i ask you that now yeah that's his voice recognizing that that's actually the voice of the lord manifesting differently than we are dialed into or ready for it's actually the voice of the lord because he is the word and what happens is the lord ministers to us most of the time at a level that we do not comprehend and we tend to judge our ability to hear god's voice we measure it by our comprehension i doubt that we comprehend 10 of what he says but when he speaks every time he speaks to us he puts us on a track where we're going to get what he just said but a lot of what he said the disciples look through the gospels they didn't understand so many things jesus said until after he died and a certain event happened to go oh and then they remembered that jesus said we're not any different that's why it scares me to have people predict what they think how the end is going to come and how the lord's going to return and nobody before you got it right quit trying just be just be ready when he goes you know just do what he said to do keep busy with what he said to do and be get your heart ready to go when he goes that's you know so that's that's my very deep end time theology so we're designed to hear the voice of the lord but here's what happens as many times the lord sees for example you say you own a business you've got a very difficult decision to make in four weeks but you don't know it in a worship service here he'll deposit the seed of that concept in your heart at that time and over the next several weeks as we worship your own times in your devotion there's a watering of that seed and suddenly you have a decision to make and you're ready to make that decision not because of your brilliance the willingness to obey yes but not because of brilliance it's because the lord set you up and if we could realize how often he speaks to us when we literally are not conscious that it's his voice at this moment i sense presence i don't hear a specific voice but i'm not supposed to does that make sense it's the kind it's the awareness of his presence so that's where we're going to hit today excuse me that's where we're going to leave today and head into something else where we're headed today is that in the same way i am designed and fashioned to be a living instrument that perceives god in the same way i have been designed to influence his heart i heard somebody say recently in the same way in the same way i'm designed to influence his heart there's something about the commission for prayer it's happening right now in the bethel world probably happening all over the world but what i know for sure is what i've been seeing stirring here for weeks on end it actually started over a year ago with uh when olive died there was such there was such a mantle for prayer that fell in the house the pandemic came we had to take it to our homes but now we're able to meet in this tent out here and it's it's like it picked up where it left off and there's a there's a passion it's not it's it's not um it's not a brilliant strategy i think he has a strategy it's just the willingness to come into worship and to pray and there's something so profound happening in that environment that i don't ever want to forget it i don't ever want to lose it but it's unto something the lord invites us into the inner chambers if you will of the king of all kings of the lord of all lords of the great i am to converse with him so that out of the conversation certain events would be changed certain things would be affected on the earth because of our conversation from the beginning it starts in genesis chapter one and it goes to the end of the book that god's primary design for us is to be a co-laborer he didn't create us as robots and program us to do specific things we are living entities who through surrender yield our will to his purposes and we find that he shapes our heart and our mind our thinking until we become recalibrated in what his dream is for the planet he said to pray for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven can you imagine him saying now pray this prayer it's not going to happen but it'll keep you busy it'll keep you busy keep you positive while nothing happens and that's my design for you is nothing happens it's silly we would never give an assignment like that in our own areas of responsibility and the lord gave us a specific assignment because of his dream praying his prayer links me to his dream links me to his process links me to engage with the one who can actually make these things happen that i cannot possibly make on my own so we have an assignment to pray on earth as it is in heaven we have this assignment through our engagement our interaction with him to actually have him fulfill the cries the dreams of our heart and that's part of the revelation of him as a father is that the things that are prayed for actually happen john 16 has this a very important verse there's four times in three chapters john 14 15 and 16. there's four times in those three chapters where the lord says ask for whatever you want and it'll be done for you we know that's not an invitation to become arrogant and independent and selfish and build your own empire what it is it's an invitation to die until you can represent his heart and see a continuous flow of answers to prayer that keep you filled with joy god designed us if if look at it this way he designed us with a capacity for overflowing joy but he said the way you enter into the fulfillment of that capacity is through answers to prayer so in in john 16 it says whatever you ask for will be done for you that your joy may be full that your joy may be full so here here's the here's the process engage with this pray till something happens and the result of that is you're gonna have absolute overflowing fullness of joy it's the design you're designed for joy you're designed to pray and make a difference and those two things working together keep you fulfilled in proverbs it says proverbs 12 says hope deferred makes the heart sick the second part is as important desire realized is a tree of life desire realized is this life-giving fruit fulfilled desires how are they fulfilled in the believer's life through prayer it's the automatic implication that you engage with god and things happen because you met with him and those responses from god the fulfilled answers and dreams that is the tree of life for you so we were designed to live with ongoing answers to prayer and the problem is if i'm not getting answers to prayer see we tend to pray enough to ease our conscience but not enough to make a difference we have a lot of relief valves in our lives when the lord is moving us to pray for government we tend to relieve the pressure by criticizing government it eases the conscience just enough to remove the pressure when actually the pressure was supposed to be a divine invitation to enter into the courts of god and make a difference through prayer to stand before the lord and to accuse people is a misuse of my authority and he'll defend the person i'm accusing because he will not bless the curses of one of his priests if you will because we're not giving that assignment so if i am designed to live with overflowing joy because of answers to prayer and i'm not getting answers to prayer then i have to get my joy from the discipline of prayer if i get my joy from the discipline of prayer then i'm training my heart to celebrate form and not impact what is religion form without power it's the beginning of the end when there's no answers to prayer and we have to find our joy in the fact i prayed when we're actually designed by the lord to see things happen around us you are here as an ambassador of another world an ambassador if you're an ambassador in the natural from the united states your income is according to the income of an official in the united states not the country you go to let's say that you go to extremely poor country the food you eat is from your country it's not the country that you're sent to unless you want to in other words everything everything that you experience as an ambassador is that embassy is actually considered the united states when you're on that land you're considered in this country translate that now to our life as believers we're ambassadors of another world and we are to dedicate our homes our apartments our properties to the lord so that this land actually becomes healed the land becomes healed excuse me and it becomes an so sorry my throat is dry come out come on no never my the land then becomes the property of the king of kings and the lord of lords and he is able to work his purposes and his will into that which i own as a representative of the kingdom of heaven when we pray we make decisions that mark people with eternal purpose this is our responsibility now i want you to go to are you you're already in acts one so just take a look with me go look at i think three verses maybe yeah i think three uh the the interesting thing about the book of acts is the book of acts talks about prayer or uses the word prayer or quotes prayers more than any other book in the bible with the exception of psalms which is a book of prayer now think through this logically with me the acts of the apostles which could easily be also called the acts of the holy spirit is linked with the predominant subject of prayer from beginning to end of the book of acts you see it in jesus's life i remember a study one day and john the report that john the baptist had died and jesus sought to get alone the crowds followed him he ministered to him he finally sent them away and went to a mountain to pray he got along with the father why because somebody just died because of him i i don't know says that he was tempted in all ways as we are so i'm assuming he had similar emotions and things going on in his heart that we would have in ours if you find that somebody died because of you says he went up to a mountain to pray and then it says when he came down everybody he prayed for was healed might be a correlation see we tend to pray for specific needs pray and fast jesus fasted into a lifestyle acts 1 acts 1 verse 14 says they all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and mary the mother of jesus with his brothers first half of the verse they continued with one accord in prayer and supplication what's the point the great features the great happenings in the book of acts are always linked to prayer we are about to have literally heaven invade earth in the upper room what preceded it ten days of prayer i'd like to put it this way before heaven ever invaded earth earth invaded heaven for 10 days there was this apprehending taking hold of what god had promised which means you're automatically engaging in mystery because it's not a it's not a uh a slot machine you put in a dollar and pull the slot and you get your answer we're invited into a relational journey where there's push and there's pull and there's adjustment and there's repentance and there's declaration there's confession there's all these things that we do in the journey because we were born for these answers to prayer and sometimes we're in a day to a two-day struggle but we pray for a day and blame the absence of an answer on the sovereignty of god chapter 2 is kind of cool this is after the outpouring of the spirit i think this is something i think this is somewhere between two and five years after the day of pentecost verse 42 says and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine fellowship the breaking of bread and prayers it's just pointing out some of the prayer references but what is good to notice here is they had found the secret for sustaining a move of god you know we we read throughout history where a great move of god took place and and it lasted six months it lasted a year lasted five years but it ended why did it end they found out how to continue new american standard says they continually devoted themselves to the apostles doctrine the breaking bread fellowship prayers they they re-upped their own personal investment in these things they didn't complicate it the apostles doctrine for me is whatever the word of the lord is for that particular season and you will find themes throughout all of the body of christ in every season there'll be a similarity we've watched it for years it's not a list of doctrines or it would have been listed amen bill that's a good point breaking of bread sharing meals together fellowship prayers they continually devoted themselves why it's how they got where they were all right go to chapter 12. i'm going to read five verses here beginning with verse 1 acts chapter 12. it says now about that time herod the king stretched out his hand to her ass some from the church then he killed james the brother of john with a sword and because he saw that 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 and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him intending to bring him before the people after the passover peter was therefore kept in prison but constant prayer was offered to god for him by the church the following verses an angel comes and literally guides him out of prison he doesn't even know it's a real experience he thinks it's a vision and after he gets out of the prison he realizes oh this is for real i'm out of prison it's it's a tremendous story but what's the point james was martyred peter wasn't what's the one distinguishing feature was the constant prayers of the church i hear people teach things like you know that martyrdom like this was the will of god well it is if people aren't praying in the absence of prayer the will of god is shaped and changed he can use it he'll use the martyrdom and he did but it says but with peter the church constantly prayed why constant any time we've been summoned into the need for constant prayer it's one of two reasons one is there's a demonic opposition to the answer in place number two is because god is trying to shape something in us to be ready to handle the answer when it comes he molds us in the perseverance brings answers to prayer but enduring faith brings answers with character he's trying to create the context for an answer to be stewarded well constant prayer why because we're dealing with a governmental power that had partnered with the demonic in a level of principality influence over this nation i don't live conscious of the devil i don't chase him around i hardly ever talk about him but i'm going to today there are individuals that have made covenants whether they know it or not with principalities and powers and through their position of authority have released darkness over the land it's true in our country it's true in other nations they have so deeply entrenched their hearts their souls to a demonic agenda they that they actually personify that principalities purposes and plans they are not the enemy i cannot i cannot relieve my burden that i have in prayer and release it through being critical at this leader of that leader it doesn't bring about any change and it's a misuse of authority but the enemy has fooled the church to think these issues are political issues and we don't need to be involved it's absolute stupidity we're we are moral agents that help to keep clarity not through control and manipulation but through literally through heaven's atmosphere of what is right what is true what is wrong it's crazy but in this our demons are starting to look a lot like people the yes on behalf of certain leaders have so illustrated things that only five years ago would have been considered insanity you know this i'm preaching to the choir but i'm just trying to i'm just trying to say listen we have a responsibility it's a responsibility to engage with god to make a difference it says the church had constant prayer it wasn't a now he lay me down to sleep prayer it wasn't a prayer before a meal it was an engaging with god until something changed constant prayer is digging the heels in because something is going on there has been a partnership made in this case herod where a spirit of has come upon a a leader and he's governed by watch this you'll see this all through scripture where a political leader is governed by the fear of man he sees it pleases the jews so he will commit yet another crime to please this particular group the group that illustrates the spirit of murder he will adopt the spirit of murder to gain their favor and that's how the political system works and we pray not to throw stones at people in leadership because we've got some wonderful people in leadership and we have some that are wonderful they just don't know it they're thinking stupid i'm not going to give names but the responsibility is still to pray to sit back and say well god's sovereignty he can turn this abortion thing around anytime he wants oh don't be stupid maybe 62 million babies is enough maybe it's enough maybe it's enough where we actually draw a line we say no no this is not okay this is not okay yes we vote yes we we do do what we're supposed to do but don't fall for that trap that these life and death issues for a nation are political issues they are not constant prayer why because there was an opposition i loved the story about jesus the devil met jesus in the wilderness tempted him and he tempted him and tempted him again and then it says finally the devil left him the devil has been severed from his source of strength you have an eternal source of strength your yes to god wears him out your yes to god can outlast the enemy's attempts to dissuade you constant prayer agreement in prayer is is is profound it's not just an intellectual agreement although i'm not opposed to that it's not just that we agree on an idea you know we can say let's pray together about abortion being uh god healing forgiving our land and healing our nation and and we would be in agreement together but it's more than that it's a burning of the soul it's the joining of hearts that says this is something we must lay hold of and there's that unity in prayer there's this exponential increase that happens and i the way i like to illustrate is if i take a fishing line which it's only right fishing is more acceptable than hunting so i can use fishing line in my illustration today and spare all the non-hunters not in this room of course none here but maybe out there somewhere the youtube world if you take a fishing line that breaks with two pounds a two pound weight on the bottom two pounds of pressure you tie two pound weight it breaks you take two of those and you wrap them together you would think it would be it would hold up to four pounds of weight because it's two plus two but it multiplies it has this effect it's like six or eight pounds now to break two two pound test lines you take a third one and wrap it around you've got three rep together now you've got something like 15 pound test line out of three two pound it's exponential growth and in the natural it prophesies to us about the power of agreement in prayer i believe in praying on our own i we have 12 acres and i walk my property that's what i like i walk when you walk and pray you don't sleep and pray now every night i try to sleep and pray i get in bed and i begin to pray until i go to sleep and i like that but if i if i sit down and pray it'll be nap time soon i will sleep in the arms of jesus he's never mad but i would like to pray for something so i like to i like to walk i like to walk and pray and to bring things before the lord that's generally what i do i come here early in the morning sundays and i just i walk for an hour i just walk non-stop for an hour sometimes hour and a half just walking and praying for what's supposed to happen on that day the point is is that we engage with god to make a difference we don't engage with god to check the box and say we we finished our assignment the engagement in prayer is to make a difference and it's the only way i can access the reality of joy on a kingdom level that is overflowing because things have happened due to this partnership we've been called into a co-laboring role a co-laboring partnership so here we have constant prayer was offered up now i want you to go to john chapter 15 and let me talk to you to john 15. verse one we're gonna excuse me we're gonna read eight verses verse one i am the true vine my father is the vine dresser jesus is giving a lesson a metaphor an illustration of an extremely profound reality let me tell you where we're headed before we get there so that you'll be able to picture it as we read it if you take a a vine a grape vine a vine that grows grapes the branch connects to the vine but the fibers of the branch and the fibers of the vine are so intertwined that you can't separate them you can cut the branch off but that's there is actually a growth into itself and that is the actual picture in scripture of abiding in christ is that you can't tell where he ends and where you start there's this intertwining of hearts of minds of will there's this yieldedness to the heart and purposes of god so deeply that that i can't tell where he starts and where i am that that sort of thing that's the work that god is doing in us and that's the purpose of this illustration verse two every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit god rewards all growth with pruning how many of you want to grow yeah he rewards all growth with pruning verse three you are already clean because of the word which i have spoken to you the word clean there is the same word as the word prune you're pruned i pruned you and then he says but you guys are already pruned because of the word i spoke to you what does it tell us the discipline of god comes from his voice the circumstances are just to get our attention oh the whale swallowed jonah and that was the discipline of the lord no i just got his attention it just got his attention so the next time god spoke he was actually listening he actually prunes us with his word it's called a sword for a reason it was that was better than your response but it's all right verse 4 abide in me i in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me boy isn't that the truth there's nothing of the eternal i can produce through my own efforts but everything is available if i yield to them i am the vine you are the branches he abides in me i in him bears much fruit without me you can do nothing if anyone does not abide in me he is cast out as a branch and is withered they gather them throw them into the fire they are burned verse 7 if you abide in me and my words abide in you you will ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you please listen carefully this is a verse i like to bring up our team brings up fairly often these verses out of john 14 15 and 16. in three chapters jesus repeats one thought four times four times in three chapters and the thought is this whatever you ask for will be done four times he does it whatever you ask for will be done in this particular verse he creates the context for the absolute the um he creates he creates the definition or the uh he illustrates how is it i can live in such a way that i live with the overflowing fullness of god's joy through answers to prayer it's according to verse 7 abide in me let my words abide in you and you will ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you i i don't like i don't like the i don't like the teaching that that basically says if you pray for what god tells you to pray he'll answer your prayer i know there's truth there but god makes himself vulnerable to the desires of his people this isn't licensed to control or manipulate god but it is an invitation for a relationship where you actually have input in interaction into the outcome of things the the the effort in consistent prayer is not to persuade god it's to deal with the powers that are entrenched in the area that we are pushing into and the process transforms us so that we become responsible stewards of what we've just prayed into see israel if they would have walked into the promised land in a 11-day journey it was supposed to take they would have wandered right out they didn't didn't have the parameters for the how to do life they were careless in their worship of golden calf and all these other stupid things they wouldn't have had the maturity to maintain the inheritance and so the lord puts us in situations where we push to build a strength so that once the answer is released we have the maturity to use it for his glory there's this overriding theme that if i if i can maybe if i could communicate one one thing today it would be this when it becomes my passion for his will to be done on earth and for him to be glorified as a result that's two sides of the same coin when it becomes my passion to see the will of god done on earth i don't mean the parts that benefit me i'm talking about the absolute demonstration of the lordship of jesus when that becomes demonstrated and god is glorified in all the earth in first service today i read this first of the passion translation now one of the psalms and it said there's a day coming when all the kings of the earth are going to give him thanks because they've heard his voice all the kings of the earth will give him thanks because they heard his voice so god has these lofty plans these lofty dreams and i i'm not angry about this but i do get frustrated to hear so many believers say well that's that can't happen until jesus returns that's only because we have greater faith in the return of christ than we do the power of the gospel confidence in the power of the gospel how does it end i don't know how it ends i'm ideas so do you neither of our opinions are worth much unless we got them from him you know but the point is is the power of the gospel can change anything he gave me an assignment not with the intention of ignoring me he didn't say seek for me to be glorified in the earth it's not going to happen i'll come back someday and then it will seek for my will to be done on earth as it is in heaven it'll just keep you positive in your thinking and it'll keep you active until you die he gave us an assignment why because of his personal dream to see something happen on a planet that has been marked by sin he paid a price for the healing of the land and the healing of the people that live there and he wants to see that world mirror the reality of the one he's in complete charge so here he says if you abide in me my words abide in you i've had quite a few times in the last couple months especially where i've been awakened in the night you know i don't know if this happens to you where you're just perfectly sound asleep and then all of a sudden your brain is working 100 miles an hour how did that happen out of nowhere it was a dead start how did it suddenly wake up and i've got a million things going on through my mind and i'm just wide awake and physically tired but wide awake mentally and what i've been doing of late in the past what i've always done is just anchor my affection in him but in recent days i've had to bring another tool into this toolkit of mine and i i will lay there and i won't do this out loud because i don't want to wait benny but i'll lay there and i'll just begin quoting scripture psalms 34. i will bless the lord at all times his praise will continually be in my mouth my soul shall make its boast in the lord the humble will hear it and be glad magnify the lord with me let us exalt his name together i sought the lord and he heard me he delivered me from all my fears taste and see that the lord is good and just lay there and just begin to quote scripture what what's happening the verses may have nothing to do with what's in my mind it doesn't have to it's the living voice of god it's the living voice of god that brings all the random stuff it just starts pruning uh this thought isn't necessary this one won't help you this one's illegal this one starts pruning all these illegitimate thoughts that are competing for my affection and it restores me to this railroad track that already has a predetermined destination and it puts me on this thing i rejoice in the lord always again i say rejoice i had somebody asked me just uh oh just a few weeks ago if you had to live the rest of your life i've never been asked this one before i've had a lot of good questions for the years but this is the first if you had to live the rest of your life off of one verse what it would it be i thought that's easy john 3 16. it's hard to get any higher than that one that's the grand finale of all scripture for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish they'll have everlasting life that's not just an evangelism verse that's a hearer bill stay alive verse get centered into what i'm saying and doing become anchored in my presence once again here this will help you fight off every distraction that is simply there to dilute your affections for christ for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him would not perish he'll have everlasting life something happens in that midnight hour 3 a.m hour where i was so awake suddenly i'm i'm anchored into the person of peace verse 8 says by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so you will be my disciple by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit what is this in that verse by this if god's going to be glorified by it we probably ought to figure out what it is by this my father's glorified at minimum in his answers to prayer a fuller definition would be me abiding in christ until there's answers to prayer but that's the this i want you to picture this you have a concern for a relative and it just wakes you up at night and you walk and you pray the next day you do the same and you pray for several days and then all of a sudden you get this phone call and that relative was spared in an accident or or they they turned their heart to the gospel and received christ whatever it might be you got an answer to prayer what you don't see is the angelic realm that witnessed the interaction between a born-again person created in the image of god who yielded themselves to be a worshiper by choice interacting with the great i am and having an audience with the king of all kings and making a request that actually shaped the course of history the angelic realm celebrates your plan worked your plan worked you created them in your image and even when they fell you restored them and you brought them into a place of co-laboring you brought them into a place of partnership with the almighty god fallen redeemed man partners with the almighty god they pray you act things change your plan worked by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit by this this abiding in this felt reality of the spirit of god the greatest reality in my life is the presence of god to live unaware of it is a waste of time to live unaware of this most precious gift of all that the holy spirit himself would dwell in me and rest upon me to live unconscious of that one thing is to sell myself short of every divine purpose that he has created for me i owe him answers to prayer i owe him answers he decided a long time ago to answer that's why he gave me promises he gave me promises to pull me into a place of relationship with him where together we would affect the course of history it was already written my name was already written in the in the document this is what my son is created to do i can stand away from the river and say well there's no current where i'm at or i can move to that which has been flowing since the beginning of time god created us to co-labor with him to see his purposes in the earth be fruitful multiply subdue the earth he engages humanity engages people with divine purpose because he he could do a military invasion but then it breaks the entire protocol he created if i own a house here in reading and you're renting it from me i can't go into that home anytime i want even though i have the master key i can only go by your invitation even though i own the house and let's say i own it outright the bank doesn't know i'm not making payments i own it i like this conversation this is working well i can't i have the master key i can't go any time i want why because uh you are the legal guardian of that property as long as you're paying your rent right the scripture says the heavens were made for god the earth he made for men we're the renters he comes by invitation he comes by invitation understand in mark chapter 9 there's a powerful story of a dad with a son he wanted his son free he was so tormented he brought his son to the disciples and i remind you they were the most trained people in healing and deliverance of any group of people to ever live up until that time with the exception of jesus himself this was not their first rodeo the dad brought the kid to the disciples they prayed the prayer they had done countless times before they had been sent into cities they had saw dramatic impact so profound was their impact in the cities jesus said i saw satan fall like lightning that was the impact but this one child they couldn't get free in church history we're at that point where the child didn't get free and we generally create theology to explain what just happened we create theology that says well the sovereignty of god he works in mysterious ways perhaps his will for him to be delivered is further down the road but thankfully the father was not happy with the absence of an answer and he took his son to jesus jesus set him free the disciples saw this happen and they took jesus aside and they said how come we couldn't do it jesus said this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting most people leave that story with the key of prayer and fasting for breakthrough which is wonderful but the real key to the story is they weren't happy with the absence of an answer and they took jesus aside see you're not designed for having nothing happen you're not designed for that you're not wired for that you're not wired for nothing happening the key to that story is taking jesus aside finding out why i'm not wired for this god you didn't teach us how to deal with unanswered prayers because you didn't have any help us help us to engage the same way you did teach me i give myself here's this prayer of repentance from dead works faith towards god reconsecrate ourselves i'm telling you the prayer of petition becomes powerful when it follows the prayer of conservation it's god i abandoned my own my own efforts my own dreams everything and i give myself completely to what you're saying what you're doing all i want is your heart in this matter that that abandoning of personal agendas and then praying suddenly we pray with clarity of thought clarity of heart clarity of mind in ways we've never known before father i pray for that kind of clarity to rest upon us as a church body as we enter in this next season this next season of just simple simple prayer meeting with god and praying to make a difference i pray for that to happen in this room in jesus name i've gone over a couple minutes let me just address our online family as well as anybody in the room there's always a chance when as a crowd decides that we'd have people here that don't have a personal relationship with jesus jesus is god he's not one of many ways if that were true then god was so cruel to require jesus to die when you could have gotten there by singing a song and lighting a candle it's not true jesus suffered and died in my place so that i could receive the gift of eternal life that is made available to every one of you that would just say i want to be a disciple of jesus i don't want to follow my own agendas anymore if there's anybody in the room in that case i want you just to put a hand up if you would right where you are because we want to make sure to pray for you anyone at all okay let me speak to the online family we have so many people that come to jesus online it's been wonderful i want to encourage you on bethel tv on youtube just put in a post that you you are surrendering to jesus and somebody will come and pray for you amen sure it was nice to be in the same room together i love you i love you i love you

Channel: Bill Johnson Ministries

Views: 161,471

Rating: 4.869175 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, prayers, christian prayer

Id: jlUGXk-DK5Q

Length: 52min 2sec (3122 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021