Bill Johnson – The Life of Faith, Barriers and Gateways 5/23/08
“You know, He is so extremely good. God is so extremely good. And the Lord is bringing a transformation, I believe it’s worldwide that has to start in individual lives, it has to start in individual’s process of faith, where things change because of our understanding of His goodness. People have trembled in His presence before, because of His terrifying presence. Not terrifying in the sense that He is evil, I mean terrifying in the sense that He is extreme. He is power, everything is glory, everything about Him is just extreme. And people have trembled at His terrifying presence before but I don’t know if there has ever been a generation that has trembled in the fear of God because of His goodness.
But I believe we are coming into an hour when the Lord is going to overwhelm His people with understanding about His goodness.
Moses saw God on several occasions. He had some encounters lasting up to 40 days. But there was only one time that his face actually radiated with the presence and glory. And it was after the Lord revealed to him His goodness. He said “I want to see Your glory” and He said he hid him in the cleft of the rock and then it says He let all of His goodness pass before his eyes, that was the time. And I believe that in the same way the Lord is going to change the face of the church through a revelation of His goodness. The goodness of the Lord. It is a cornerstone of our theology. He is not mysteriously good in the sense that He occasionally He sneaks in evil just because He has plans to adverse it’s effect.
He is absolutely good. Jesus Christ is perfect theology.
Anything that you think you know about God that you can’t find in the person of Jesus, you have reason to question. It’s theologically immoral to use an Old Testament passage to trump and overtake a clear revelation of the Father through Jesus Christ. Everything before Jesus was “types and shadows.” When Jesus showed up He said, “If you seen me, you have seen the Father.” He is the exact representation of the Father’s nature. Then He said, “It’s better than I go, and I’m going to give you another helper,” the word another means exactly the same. The same as the Father so is the Son, and so is the Spirit.
What the Lord is wanting to release into the earth is a clear revelation of who He is. He’s only been seen in part and often times it’s distorted. Often times it’s perverted. Often times it has been contaminated with. And tampered with us in Human opinion and the soil of our own hands gets on to that what we project to the world that is supposed to represent God.
How many know, Jesus didn’t go through all He went through so we could do church.
He did what He did because He expects a revolution. He anticipates and expects a revolution. How many of you know that He doesn’t led us into praying for something that He is not ready to answer and fulfill. So when He directs us in prayer for the nations, it’s because He actually intends on nations being converted. He doesn’t ask, “Can a nation be saved in a day?” merely to entertain our fantasies or to put off into the millennium things that are too hard to believe for today.
It is irresponsible to take the great promises of scripture and put them off into a period of time for which we have no responsibility of. It’s way too easy to look through scripture and find something extraordinary and say “Oh that’s for the millennium.” But it doesn’t say that. What it says, “That the glory of the Lord will fill the earth.” What it says, “He will pour out his spirit on ALL flesh.” What it says, is that “the Kingdom of God is being preached and EVERYONE is pressing into it.” What it says is that “He is restoring ruined cities.” That is what it says. There wasn’t a time slot mentioned. It’s just a promise. Revealing God’s heart is potential, the potential of His affect in the earth. And He is just looking for someone to adopt a promise and hover over it in prayer and find out just maybe it might unfold in my lifetime.
Sometimes when I write letters I sign, “possessed by promise.” Possessed by promises. Because He is looking for people to get possessed by promise. People who become captured with what is possible. I love coming here, it’s a place where faith is easy. It’s a place where the presence is highly valued. It’s just not work to be here. I don’t mind being places where I have to work, but I love being here where I can jump into the flow with people who just love God. I expect something to happen. I expect King Jesus to be glorified. I expect His works to take place. I expect His people to be strengthened and encouraged. I expect there to be impact on the world among us. I expect culture to be formed and shaped in that which creates momentum for every move of God. Is a culture that will sustain a movement. Those are the things I look for and I’m hungry for. I’m hungry for a breakthrough here with you. There isn’t any room for lack in the equation. He already took care of everything on the cross, there wasn’t anything He left out. He already dealt with it all. So because of all that I think we should have a pretty good time. I think we should have just a real good time
Did you know Jesus didn’t come to show us what God can do. God is omnipresent, He can be everywhere at once. He came to show us what one man could do who was rightly related with God. He already told us in His word, He says “The son of man can do nothing of himself.” and I looked it up; that word nothing actually means nothing. He had no capacity, no capability to perform miracles in and of Himself. Because He had so restricted Himself. He had so set aside divinity, His God-ness (He is eternally God, He is not a created being). He so set that aside and learned how to live as a man, in a right relationship with the Father. He was demonstrating what could be possible for anyone who had no sin, and was completely empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit. You see if He did everything He did as God I’m still impressed but I’m not compelled to follow; I’m compelled to applaud. But when I find out that He did it as a man with the same restrictions that I have, and then He provides the blood to cleanse me from sin and the Spirit given to me without measure, I am completely dissatisfied with where I am at. Jesus really intended to raise up people that looked just like Him. Different giftings, different expressions, different personalities, all that stuff, but people who could make impact on the world around them.
Jesus gave us guidelines. He gave us guidelines like, “Grieve not the Spirit.” Because it’s all about your relationship with the Holy Spirit. Everything is about that relationship, that connection to the person of the Holy Spirit. That 3rd person of the trinity that raised Jesus from the dead, the very Spirit of resurrection. Jesus assigned Him to live in you when your faith was put into practice. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is in you, and He wants out. He is in us as river to affect the world around us. And He taught us in scripture and Jesus modeled this for us and showed us how to do this kind of a life, and He told us, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” The scriptures tell us, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. We grieve Him when we do things that are wrong. We have wrong agendas. Grieving is a purity issue, it has to do with sin: it has to do with attitudes, agendas, thoughts, ideas, habits, actions. If I lose my temper I grieve Him, or if I have self-will and wrong agendas, I grieve Him. Grieving is all about the purity issue. But the other side of the same coin is “quench not the Holy Spirit.” Quench means to stop the flow. If you have a garden house and the water is on and you want to take the hose from one side of the yard to the other and you don’t want to sprinkle water over everything; you just bend the hose in half, you just crimp it tight the hose. That crimping the hose is a picture of quenching the Spirit. Think about this with me, in 3 ½ years of ministry Jesus did more works than if they were recorded in full detail the scriptures says that the earth couldn’t handle their record. That is the 3 ½ year ministry of one person who is in a right relationship with God not quenching the Holy Spirit. Three and a half years of the Holy Spirit not quenched. I really do believe that before this is over there will not be another person like that, but there will be a generation like that. If it’s not in my lifetime, it will be in my kids, if it’s not in my kid’s it will be in my grandkid’s lifetime. But the whole point is that we are sowing into THAT generation, creating a momentum that cannot be stopped. The gospel is not an inferior message, it is not a political power. We do our best in serving. I think it happens when you serve well is you get promoted and you eventually rule. But when you remember to rule like servants and learn to serve like kings, there we represent Him well.
Luke 16:16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.” The Law and the Prophets were until John, what is the implication? The implication is that they were until John (the Law and the Prophets) The implication is that they are not any more. The Law and the Prophets serve us well in that 1. they lead us to know we are sinners. 2. Pointed to Jesus, Lead us to Jesus. 3. Portrays the coming Kingdom, glimpses and pictures given to us about the Kingdom of God. It is written for our instruction, it is a rich benefit. But it is not to take us under Old Testament mantles to get us new testament results. Now I don’t know anyone (believers) who are trying to get us back sacrifice animals for forgiveness of sin. But I know of many people trying to take us under the mantles of Old Testament prophets that are focused in performance instead of transformation by the Spirit of God. Jesus makes a profound statement here; The Law and the Prophets were until John, the implication is that they are not any more. And it was replaced by what? “The Gospel of the Kingdom now being preached”. And catch the phrase. “EVERYONE is forcing his way into it (the Kingdom). Is it possible that the nature of message determines the size of the harvest.
If Jesus were going to preach most of the sermons that were preached all over America last weekend, if he would have preached those messages He would not have been crucified. Gospel of the Kingdom is a message that requires extraordinary courage. How about getting a message that requires so much courage on our part that God is drawn into a situation to say Amen to the very words that were spoken. (Mark 16:17) And these signs shall follow them that believe; the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. The preaching is not just in pulpits. Everyone of us are preachers we proclaim, we profess, we confess through life, that’s just who we are. But the right words with courage attracts God into a situation to confirm the word with miracles, signs, and wonders. One of the greatest responsibilities we have is to carry the nature of God into society. They need to know how good He is. The insurance company blames natural disasters like hurricanes and floods on God. They are called the acts of God. Where do you think they got their theology? How many storms did Jesus bless? How many times was He in a life-threatening storm did He say, “Go over to that city, wipe them out, it will teach them to pray then they will become more like me.” When many times did Jesus use a calamity to bring about a righteous end, NONE.
Jesus Christ is perfect theology. Every idea, everything He did He got from the Father so there’s not a divided house. It’s not Jesus the merciful one, and the Father the angry one. Most people that preach and believe that God is an angry father do so in equal proportion to their inability to demonstrate His power. In attempt to compensate with what’s missing. It is much easier for a preacher to blame you for not having faith and preach harshly to you. To know truth is different than living truth. See what the Lord requires of us, is you can read a book, get information, spout it off and you’ll inspire people but you won’t transform people. There’s no power for transformation because the truth wasn’t processed through your own experience. But when truth becomes flesh in you, then when you talk you are giving away who you have become and you are giving away bread that has become part of your own life which makes it possible that gives the participants to experience transforming power because they received truth that has became flesh. It’s easy to blame people when you minister to them and things don’t happen. I don’t want to pretend that things like “little faith or no faith” don’t matter because they do. Jesus addressed them over and over again. But did you ever notice that he still provided the miracles for those people. There were the heroes that say ‘just say the word’ and Jesus was stunned by the faith of those who just wanted to touch his clothing. There were a few others who said ‘if you are willing’ which isn’t great faith but at least he knows where to go. But the worst level of faith was “if you are able”, barely on the faith scale. Jesus says if You are able, all things are possible for those who believe. He still healed him. He healed his son to give him access to the greater faith. We have a responsibility in private to touch God and then take THAT out, and give it away. You don’t find Jesus praying for the sick, ever, there is no record of it. I’m not saying he didn’t. I’m just saying that there’s no record of it. It’s because He prayed all night “before the meeting started.” It says “when He MET the leper, or the blind man.” He was ready. The disciples tried to bring deliverance to a child and they couldn’t, one record of a mess up. And Jesus said this kind only comes out with praying and fasting. Then He didn’t pray or fast, He just got the kid free. That’s because we think of praying and fasting for a specific breakthrough, Jesus was already praying and fasting in a lifestyle.
The gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
There is a difference between the gospel of salvation and the gospel of the Kingdom. The gospel of salvation is apart of the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of salvation is focused on getting people to heaven, But the gospel of the Kingdom is focused on bring heaven down to earth. One is my destiny, one is my assignment. I cannot afford to confuse my destiny with my assignment. I’m going to heaven, my responsibility is to bring heaven. The gospel of the kingdom makes that reality present. Jesus said my words to you are spirit and they are made life. My words become spirit, Jesus said. Jesus is the word of God made flesh, and now when He talks, His words become spirit. That’s why there was an atmospheric shift over every crowd he talked to because when He talked the Spirit of God was released over the crowd. When the Spirit of God is released over people it changes their reasoning. People who had no hunger for God suddenly become hungry for God by God’s touch. Why? When the Spirit of God comes and clears the air of all wrong influences over people they have a chance for a clear shot at truth. That is why it is vital to learn the presence of the Spirit of God. Learn to recognize what He is saying and doing, because when you say what He is doing and say what He is saying, your words become spirit and life. Spirit changed the atmosphere in the room. John is the one who started, the kingdom of God is at hand. The Law and the Prophets had an appetite for everyone that wasn’t the savior that would never be able to go out forever. Except for one thing. Jesus stepped into that to be the perfect satisfaction and cried out It Is Finished. He satisfied the requirements of the Law and the Prophets, there is a new message that when you speak it, it becomes manifested. What you speak out determines the reality that the people around you will enjoy.
People just go around shopping not with a great amount of faith, they were just shopping. And they run into people and just talk with them and tell them stories of God’s goodness, suddenly what becomes available to them is options they did not have 5 minutes ago. We cannot replace the need for the proclamation, confession of the word for people. God is drawn to courageous words of declarations and proclamations of testimonies He will show up. The dominion of God is within reach, If it matters to you, it Matter to Him. You can say that with confidence to people in public. Someone had the courage to say something and to give them options of what they saw God do. He is the desire of the nations, they have already been wired to want Him. They have been desired to crave and want Him, They have been created that all fulfillment in life comes with intimacy with God. We are just people, We need to take that message in word form and declare it, then be ready to serve, be ready to pray, sometimes it’s a miracle, sometimes it’s encouragement, sometimes it’s an embrace. The point is that this time it is different than last time, than it’s ever been. Jesus expects us to know the richness of the Kingdom of God is the different situations. “Kingdom is now, but not yet” I used to like that phrase, but now people only use that phrase to tell me what I can’t have. Or they want to set a boundary that is not in scripture. Jesus had no problem speaking about time and eternity in the same breath. It’s closer than you think. I don’t take any warnings or listen to anyone if I see they are satisfied with lack. They want me to be like them so they can be comfortable with where they are. I’m not going to lower the scripture to the standard of my living. I don’t want to be affirmed with where I’m at. I’m not going to create a doctrine that explains why not everyone gets healed when I pray for them, I’m just going to keep going for it. Show me in Jesus’ life, What about Lazarus he didn’t pray for him when he was sick? Okay, so He raised the dead. – So you don’t have to pray for a sick person when you promise to raise him from the dead! Go out and do this.
