Words That Make Thrones - Bill Johnson (Full Sermon) | Bethel Church

good morning [Applause] good morning teacher that's good to see you we had such a wonderful conference this week open heavens conference how many of you were a part of it at all yeah such a great time david wagner was there which is one of my favorite favorites on the planet i have a lot of favorites but he's in he's in the list and he did such a great job michael jessica coolianos were there and it was just good we just we just got wrecked and then re-wrecked and it was worth it it was good it was great fun i will drink you under the table that's what i whispered to my coffee as i hide from morning people that's so dumb this one's even worse jesus can walk on water i can walk on cucumbers cucumbers are 96 water therefore i am 96 like jesus that's really dumb that's really that's that's so bad that's so bad it's funny all right last one if you see me talking to myself please go away i'm self-employed and i'm having a staff meeting open your bibles if you would please to isaiah chapter 60 a very very familiar portion of scripture for us i've taught on so many times but i i'm going there today because i had a very strange night and a very unusual experience uh with the lord in the middle of the night excuse me i'm good i you can't know the brand so this is bethel brand water there we go sparkling but nobody knows what kind um i had a very unusual experience about one o'clock this morning uh i i had this phrase going through my mind and then what seemed to be like a hundred different scriptures i mean it was it was it was a whirlwind of mental activity which is not good for me in the middle of the night i can hurt myself doing that but it i believe it was a it was a god moment to divine moment and i had so many scriptures going through my mind uh concepts ideas things that he was i felt like he was impressing on my heart showing me and um and thankfully i it only lasted about an hour and i was able to go back to sleep till uh until my time to get up but this is this is the phrase i heard and then we're going to unpack it and i'm going to kind of walk you through this little journey i heard this phrase it's kind of strange but i heard this phrase walled walled cities without gates are not completely safe walled cities without gates are not completely safe why don't you say it with me walled cities without gates are not completely safe we'll get to that in a moment isaiah 60 has been such a a monumental portion of scripture for me i had uh what i uh refer to as one of the two most significant encounters i had with the lord in my life this one it was on thursday afternoon in may of 1979 it's affected every day since then because it changed so i thought and it was an encounter with the lord where he showed me his heart in this chapter and it wrecked me um so we see in verse 1 he says arise shine for your light has come the glory of the lord has risen upon you and this tells me then that this chapter at least this portion of the chapter is for the church it's for the church age the reason we know that he said arise take responsibility get up shine why because your light has come in john chapter 1 it says jesus is the light that enlightens every person that comes into the world jesus is the light that enlightens every person the reason i believe that this is for the church age for us right now is because there is not another light coming jesus is the light that came so then that means his coming automatically uh ignites in me a responsibility to carry out the mandate in this chapter arise shine your light has come the glory of the lord is risen upon you it goes on for behold darkness will cover the earth deep darkness the people but the lord will arise over you his glory will be seen upon you it's a wonderful promise that in the time of difficulty is often when the grace of god exceeds the difficulty and the light shines where sin abounds grace there's much more about yes and so we know that the lord will sometimes uh when things look the worst is when he moves on the scene and he and he reverses the effective stuff and uh and and god is then glorified and it's not darkness and light coexisting is that one is defeated openly so we have that part of the of this chapter verse three is a favorite of mine new american standard says nations will come to your light kings to the brightness of your rising the reason that moves me so deeply is that that's only happened one time in history that i know of it was during solomon's reign as king he was so uh famous if you can use that he had such an incredible reputation for wisdom divine wisdom that people would pay any price to leave where they were to sit at his feet to hear and to learn wisdom and as bobby would conor as bobby connor would say it's not about somebody it's not it's about his body this that is about to happen where the nations will literally feed on the solutions of god for the turmoil and difficulty and challenges of life they will come not to a individual but instead they'll come to the people of god that walk in this kind of wisdom so this really moves me but when you get down to verse 18 is was the last part that i remember reading where i really got wrecked in that in that thursday afternoon in 1979 the last part of verse 18 he says you will call your walls salvation and your gates praise you will call your wall salvation in your gates praise salvation is his part praise is mine there's a co-laboring here in this metaphoric wall and gates that god is describing here there is a role that god has he saves me i cannot save myself but my response is a response of praise he says your walls would be called salvation your gates praise interestingly if you follow this theme in isaiah 60 by the time you get to chapter 62 which is only like 15 or 20 verses later he says and your wall that wall of salvation will be like a torch that is burning i i love bible descriptions because they they challenge me so here we're working with walls that have now become fire and i'm reminded of what the lord said in zechariah he said i will be a wall of fire around you and so he the wall of fire around us is our salvation it's a beautiful picture but there's still a personal responsibility and a personal mandate and that is the gates of praise when you get to revelation chapter 21 you guys still breathing everybody's still alive all right hopefully this will make sense here soon when you get to uh revelation chapter 21 verse 21 it says the twelve gates were twelve pearls and each individual gate was of one pearl and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass is a very strange city it's a very strange wall where you've got you've got streets that are gold but it's transparent you have a wall of fire of the wall of salvation and you have gates that are made out of each gate is one pearl i don't know how big is that gate like the size of the building or something it's very strange but there's a picture here that's profound and important for us to catch pearls are developed through irritation gates of praise are built by responding to difficulty and glorifying god anybody can give him praise when you got to raise at work and we should we must anybody can give him praise when our favorite team wins the nba championship or world series or whatever all of us know how to celebrate in those moments the challenge comes when i have faced the a challenge to my faith i have suffered loss i don't know why it happened i don't know how it happened i didn't do anything wrong you know this crisis happened this tragedy happened in those moments to apprehend our moment and to give him praise in the middle of those that's where the gate is built and i i tell you it's hard for me to communicate well what i i had a sense of uh uh in the middle of the night last night because i don't want to be alarming it wasn't a warning in a sense of oh no uh be careful what's happening it wasn't that it was in fact my wife actually uh sent me a text earlier today uh helping me with language for something it's because of what's coming we have to make sure that we got we we've got this area taken care of because of what's on the way we have to make sure that this mouth gate does not have salt water and spr and sweet water coming out of the same fountain out of the same spring this is a biblical analogy salt water the bitter water the sweet water cannot come out of the same mouth excuse me come out all right i'm better if god psalms 22 3 says god is enthroned upon the praises of his people right he's enthroned upon the praises of his people so who is enthroned on our complaining if god is enthroned upon the praises of his people who then becomes enthroned can i use the word empowered through my criticism the bible reveals protocol it's not ritual it's not routine without purpose it's it's biblical protocol psalms 100 i will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart i enter his courts with praise i enter his presence with praise whose presence do i enter with complaining what gates open to me when i criticize it's not a light matter it's not a light matter james 5 verse 9. says don't complain or grumble moan against one another brethren so this is to the church brethren is the word in there all right and then he follows it because the judge is standing at the door and so it's like it's like we know instinctive we know biblically we know life and death is in the power of the tongue but it's a it's a time when when i i get nervous uh thankfully i i'm telling i'm being very transparent here i don't hear the kind of stuff in this room that i hear elsewhere i i become afraid for for the people of god i become afraid i sometimes will listen to somebody who will accuse of the most accuse me or us or somebody i know of the most horrible things that i know for a fact or not true and i become fascinated with how long can they talk without realizing the holy spirit is not on what they're saying maybe they've never had the the moment in life where they they were in partnership co-laboring with the lord where they could tell something was happening something was happening that was so significant they took couldn't take credit for it it was god working in them and through them maybe they've never had that moment because what they're saying right now is as opposite to the nature of christ and i'll sit there and i just i become fascinated i wonder i'll just let them talk because i wonder how long they can do it without realizing god's not involved and it's not to be mentioned among us it's this responsibility that i have for my spring if you will my this fountain called my speech is to be that which edifies and encourages in fact one of my favorite verses on the subject in the whole bible is ephesians 4 i think it's verse 29 it's in that area it's right side of the page about two-thirds of the way down he says let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth only such a word is this good for edification according to the need of the moment that it might give grace to those who hear a friend of mine did a word study on the unwholesome word and he said basically it means rotten fish don't let rotten fish come out of your mouth that's that was his conclusion it means rotten fish so anytime you have something that's smelly coming out just shut your mouth just shut up just don't let rotten fish come out of your mouth just choose words that are timely and edify i i feel like the opportunity that the lord has given us in this season that we're entering uh it's a place of even greater responsibility greater influence greater responsibility um oh jesus put it this way i put these two together all the time jesus said to peter and the guys they had they left everything to follow him and he says i'm gonna add a hundred times as much into your life with persecution so income tax that that's how favor works income tax thankfully he's not a socialist so the income always be more than the tax [Applause] i usually save my obnoxious statements for the one o'clock meeting so i don't know you guys are very special today when my dad died 14 years ago he died at the age of 75. in our family that's extremely young his mom lived in 97 and all of all our family members i mean i the the one who was the sickliest i think died at 86 or something i mean it's just crazy they just all live a long time and he was the healthiest of all and then he just got sick and in six months he was gone he moved here my mom and dad moved here to help us to be a part of what god was doing and i remember you know anytime you have loss even if they die at 97 you know there's there's pain and there's loss especially a well-loved family members as my dad was real noble a real noble uh man great great man anytime he has lost his pain but when there's what would seem to be at least a 20-year premature loss like that and to see that happen in front of our eyes as a family we stayed around him around his bed for for i think i think we're there basically non-stop for three days 72 hours just being there with him and the little kids everybody and um i remember when he breathed his last you have a decision to make and i know you've got pain i've got pain i've got all of a sudden i've got loss i've got the greatest encouragement in my life it's now gone um i've got the the the pain pain of loss i've got the disappointment we prayed we did this we tried that didn't work we didn't get breakthrough you've got the questions uh we've seen others healed of this kind of disease and uh but my dad wasn't you've got the guilt uh could we have prayed differently should we have done this should we have called a fast shall we whatever just go through the list we've got all this stuff going on i have a decision to make i can either let these things infect me or what i can do is let the fire in my soul for god bring these things the disappointment the loss the confusion the pain all this stuff bring it close to the fire so that as i give god my offering i can give him an offering with a flavor i'll never be able to give him in eternity because in heaven there's no pain there's no loss no disappointment there's no confusion none of that junk is there it's only here so i've got a once and an eternity chance to give him that costly of an offering and it's in pain so i take all these ingredients ingredients of loss and pain all this stuff hold it close so that as i honor him for always being the healer the generous promise giver the one who is perfectly faithful and true i can do it in the context of pain see the gates are made out of pearls persia pearls are developed in irritation they're developed in conflict i'm thinking this i burn with this there's a conflict and so i'm going to yield my thoughts to what the word of god declares and i'm going to give him an offering why because the gate is something he comes through i don't think it's a mixed metaphor here um to use it in this manner psalms 24 says lift up your heads o ye gates that the king of glory may come in there's something welcoming about this this i trust in you god regardless of circumstances i trust in you regardless of my dis my own disappointment in the turnout of this situation i trust you bottom line is you are good i trust you and i'm going to celebrate way ahead of any breakthrough i could possibly have in my future i'm going to give you that praise right now and there's this there's this moment of celebration of god and declaring his greatness in the middle of pain and loss and all the junk why i read a passage this morning that was quite quite important to me psalms 50. it was in the passion translation there's this one verse that says honor me by trusting in me in your day of trouble ah man that mess that messed me up but i saw that this morning honor me by trusting in me in your day of trouble we love to honor him in song we love to honor him with dance or whatever shout whatever you know the stuff that we do but he's saying you know if i put it in my ter my words let that praise you give me be in the context that you actually trust me in your in your day of pain in your day of difficulty in that moment determined with the focus of an of a soldier with the focus of a disciplined soldier with the focus the intentionality of a navy seal that says salt water is not coming out of this mouth salt water is not coming out i am not going to misuse my moment but instead i'm going to declare the greatness of god as much as it may be in conflict with my fears my ambitions my disappointments all the stuff i'm going to yield all of this to the sovereignty of god and i'm going to declare his greatness and the darker the cloud that i feel over my head the more exuberant i will be in my declaration of praise the other thing i felt the lord spoke to me last night again you have to understand i was i was in a swirl very hard to describe i've only had this kind of thing happen maybe three times in my life four times at the most and and yet this one was the most bizarre in the sense that so many scriptures were coming at me usually it's one thought and i just i can't shake it all night but this was different it was all these verses all these statements all these phrases i'm trying to have you feel my pain that's all i'm trying to do just just kidding in that in that swirl i've i found myself with this conviction that i believe was the word of the lord the key to mental health is giving thanks in every situation i heard a psychiatrist or psychologist i forget which now is years ago say he felt i think it was like 95 of all mental illness was traced back to trying to avoid pain giving thanks to god is not denial giving thanks is letting faith rise above what you can't understand comprehend or control and choose to give him glory in the middle of it so the key to mental health is giving thanks in everything the key to emotional health is rejoicing always and the key to heart health remember blessed are the pure in heart they shall see god proverbs 4 23 watch over your heart with all diligence from it flow the issues of life the key to heart health is to pray without ceasing so we have this passage in thessalonians first thessalonians 5 where he says rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything give thanks he actually gave us keys of heaven if you will droplets of heavenly reality to get planted deeply in our soul to keep us in a place of continuous emotional mental and heart health the purity of heart is not a challenge for us why because we stay just connected to the spirit of god there's no off button to my prayer life there's no off button everything is worth talking about to him everything so i want you to stand feel it please don't worry you're not getting out that early i will give you all my worship i will give you all my praise you alone i long to worship you alone are worthy of my praise i will give you are my worship [Music] i will give you all my praise you alone i [Music] i will give you [Music] i'll give you all my [Music] praise [Music] i want you to take whatever came to your mind when i was talking about giving thanks in the middle of difficulty i want you to put it in front of you my dear friend dick mills who is home with the lord now but he would he would sometimes have a problem that was just overwhelming he'd go into a room he'd take two chairs and he put him facing to each each other he'd sit in one and he'd say devil satan sit down i'm gonna worship god and you're gonna watch me i i i kind of i kind of like that approach to life so i want you to take honestly take whatever situation is the most challenging for you and put it in front of you and right now i want us to lift up praises to the lord i don't need anyone shouting or yelling but i'm also going to ask don't do this in the quiet of your heart you were designed to reveal who you are through passion before the lord so i'm going to ask you to passionately pray exalting him giving him praise let me ask you do with the understanding i love praying in tongues singing in tongues all the above but on this one i'm going to ask you to use your mind and think through give him an offering that causes the most dangerous thing for us right now is familiarity with the blessing of the anointing of god it's the greatest challenge we have because what happens is yesterday's sacrifice is today's norm and i can just maintain now because i'm familiar it's the scariest moment to be in so i'm going to ask you let's together lift our voices i'm going to ask everyone in the room just join with me and give him giving him honor give him a sacrifice of praise facing that challenge that difficulty let's do it together lift your voices lift your voices don't do it quietly with the understanding lift an offering [Music] declare his greatness be very specific god you are so faithful you are so honorable every word you say is true we celebrate you god you never lie you're the promised giver the promise fulfiller we bless and honor your name god you're the god of abundance extreme kindness wonderful wonderful god wonderful father wonderful father don't don't stop don't stop don't stop stir up your own faith and declare who god is withhold nothing don't stop please please do not stop we bless your great name we honor your great name wonderful wonderful god wonderful god now just grab a hand the person next if you would please that person you're only hands with really needed to hear this today they need your help right now i want to ask you to pray for them i want you to out i want you to pray i want you to pray that god would give them such a great grace over the gate of their mouth that only sweet water would come out of that spring that that the carelessness would not be found in us again ever again so i'm going to ask you pray for them pray for the one on your right left just pray for him god give them the grace needed give him the grace needed great purity of heart purity of let our mind be used to build to give place for the presence of god to rest do that great work in us god do that great work in us here lord now pray for yourself pray for yourself the same way just honestly put it make covenant with the lord god i have purposed in my heart to only let sweet water come out of this spring to really honor you with what i say put it on your lips don't just think happy thoughts put it on your lips wonderful lord jesus wonderful lord god oh come let us adore him oh come that uh [Music] [Music] the lord oh come let us adore him oh come let us [Music] [Music] you alone are worthy [Music] we give you all the glory [Music] we cry just left up a spiritual song [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] know lord father i do ask that you'd give us a real unusual grace for this next season thank you so much for the increased favor we even thank you for the tax we thank you that we we get to demonstrate our love for you regardless of circumstances we thank you for the privilege i thank you for the privilege of standing with thousands and i thank you for the privilege of standing alone i do sincerely honor you for that and i ask that you put a grace upon us as a church family to build gates that you'd come through the gates of pearl developed in irritation conflict help us to grab our moments and to give you an offering that you're worthy of amen i want to uh give one opportunity before we wrap this up actually we'll do two we'll have teams up front in a moment for you to receive your miracle but anytime we have this many people in the room i know the chances are high you have people here that don't know the lord and it's the most important miracle of the day is that you would realize god arranged for you to be here please let's not have any moving around if i could have you protect this moment i really really would appreciate it please don't move around please thank you um what's most important to me is that anyone here who would not have a personal relationship with jesus not know what it is to be forgiven not know what it is to turn from everything to follow him and him alone would not be distracted by anything else but here simply the opportunity that jesus died for you he actually took on himself what i deserved so that i could receive what he earned i deserved death he died in my place it's the same truth for everybody in this room and if there's anyone here that would say bill i don't want to leave the building until i know i'm at peace with god so i know what it is to be forgiven i know what it is to be a true disciple of jesus if that's you let's put a hand up where you are we're going to pray i'll wait just a moment i don't wait long but if that's you i want you to respond quickly all right okay i will assume then that you're all in welcome to the family all right um i'm gonna have ministry team come on up if you would ministry team come up quickly and then if you hold your places for just a moment tell them what to do tell them what they've won

Channel: Bill Johnson Teaching (Official)

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Id: 7VO0aa_2AG0

Length: 38min 24sec (2304 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 08 2021