Bill Johnson - The Needle in the Haystack - Part 1
Beautiful. Thank you. I feel like I, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, I found the needle in the haystack. I found something that I never knew if it existed. I had hoped that it did. I had believed that it could. But I couldn’t ever remember finding a place in scripture and possibly even in church history where a particular thing happened. It’s gonna seem oversimplified to you, perhaps, but let me mention it. It’s to see the church endure persecution, go into increase, endure persecution, go into increase, until they come into a place of blessing, and then, in the place of blessing, experience a greater increase. It’s the rarest thing in the world to find, because, once blessing comes, complacency many people wouldn’t have a prayer life if they had no problems.
The motivation to pray is the devil’s work, the devil’s attack, conflict, situations that involve their personal life. Personal pain becomes the single motivator for a prayer life. When that happens, we actually choose our motivation for prayer. We actually give place to the kind of circumstances that prompt us and motivate us to seek the Lord. In the Book of Acts is where we’re gonna go. I’d like for you to turn to Acts 2. I’m gonna take you through just a series of scriptures, maybe four or five, we’ll see how we do. And then, I wanna take you to the one verse and I wanna talk to you about this one verse that shows me it’s possible.
I don’t know if it encourages you, but I’ve been looking at the church the last, well, I’ve been in pastoral-type ministry for 40-plus years. But, I’ve been here for, it’s 22 years this next month. And I’ve been watching the outpouring of the spirit. I’ve been watching the increase. I’ve been watching the increase of pressure, the criticism, the people leaving, the people coming, all the stuff that just goes on when there’s a move of God. I’ve seen the increase of miracles. I’ve seen people prosper that never prospered before. I’ve seen marriages get healed that were a mess. I’ve seen people’s bodies. I’ve seen people dying, no hope to live, get healed and come into a palace of blessing and peace and increase.
And what you do in your moment of blessing actually determines how significant your next season will become. I don’t mean that as any kind of a threat. I don’t mean that as: if we don’t respond correctly, then God punishes us. It’s not that at all. It’s just simply the Lord is constantly testing us to see what measure of glory, of weight we can live under. The glory of the Lord resting upon an unsanctified life will crush it. The glory of the Lord resting upon a sanctified life will establish it. So, he’s constantly looking for the stability of heart. It’s not this self-willed maturity. It’s this maturity that comes from surrender. It’s this maturity that comes from yielding. It’s this maturity that comes simply from allowing the Spirit of God within us to do his work, to make us into the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
And he is constantly performing in Ephesians 3, one of my favorite passages says: «Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all», it’s like how many more words can he put in there? «Exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that we ask or think». «Ask» is our prayer life: «Think» is our imagination. And so, he’s made a covenant with us to work beyond the reach of my prayer life on my and he’s covenanted to work in my life, beyond my reach, on my day of greatest imagination. But there’s a clause. There’s cause and effect. There’s contingent, or there’s something connected to this promise. He says: now unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we could ask or think, listen to the phrase, according to the power that works within us.
So, his commitment to go beyond our reach in prayer and imagination is parallel to the liberty we give him to work deep within us. The deeper he goes within me, farther he can go beyond my prayer life. The deeper I allow him to work in me, the farther he goes beyond my imagination. Why? It’s not punishment. It’s not manipulation, of course. It’s not control. It’s simply the Lord continuously testing us, not to find wrong, but continually testing us to see what weight of glory can we live under. Because we are being restored to the original purpose and the scripture says: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Sin means to miss the goal or the target.
So, if I were an archer and I were shooting an arrow at that water bottle, sin says the arrow didn’t even reach the target. But what was the target in God’s creation of you and me? It was for humanity to live in the glory of God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory. Glory was the original design that you and I would live in the manifest presence of king Jesus. When you were born again, you were reinstated to divine purpose. And when Jesus, in John 15, talks about the privilege of abiding in Christ, he is reconnecting us to our original design of dwelling and living there’s a cycle that takes place in the Book of Acts. And it’s almost like a road map. Someday, I’m gonna try to chart, I’m not a chart person, but, who knows? I may be inspired one day to step outside of my limitation, here.
But there’s this thing that happens. If you can just follow this, Acts 2, we’ll read a verse in a moment, there’s this outpouring of the spirit. There’s dramatic increase and there’s dramatic opposition. Outpouring. Blessing. Increase. Disciples are added daily. Persecution. They make it through the persecution, without becoming bitter: they become more refined in their focus: they become more bold in their witness, in the midst of persecution. Which does what? It brings greater increase, greater persecution, greater opposition.
Again, they refine their focus. They don’t become complacent, withdraw. They don’t decide to stay home now because they may be criticized by their friends. They refine their focus. They give themselves more completely to the work of the gospel, which brings greater increase, again, which results in, again, greater persecution to the point where we now have a guy in charge of the ministry of persecution. He holds the garments of his workers who stone Stephen to death. Jesus is recorded in scripture as being seated at the right hand of the father. But Stephen, the first martyr of the church, when he dies, the scripture records Jesus is standing in honor of the death of the first one to lose his life for the cause of the gospel.
As Stephen enters that heavenly realm, Jesus himself is standing to welcome him. Saul leads this movement in which the entire church is terrified of one name. And it’s this name Saul. They don’t know where he’s gonna show up next. They don’t know how big his military, his group is going to be that capture and kidnap and torture and eventually try to kill these believers. They don’t know when and where it’s gonna happen. Everybody is terrified. And Paul, or Saul, excuse me, is on a mission. And on this mission, Jesus shows up. Saul would be the Osama Bin Laden of that day. And Jesus shows up, knocks him off his donkey.
Saul cannot see for three days. He was blinded by the glory. I’m not sure that if the church had not made it through those levels of increasing pressure with refined focus, with a greater resolve for preaching the purity of the gospel, for living a life worthy of the gospel, I’m not sure there would have been that measure of glory to turn the heart of this one man, who had given his life for the destruction of the church. And yet, Jesus showed up and the glory blinded him. He was blinded for three days, until a servant of the Lord laid hands on him.
Now, remember, it’s hard to find a servant of the Lord that’s willing to pray for the devil. Saul’s not the devil, but, they thought he was. He is so much in opposition to what God’s doing in the church. And when the Lord called this man, Ananias, to come and lay hands on him, scales fell off Saul’s eyes and he became this vibrant minister of the gospel. It was so dramatic and so overnight that the church did not believe it. They heard reports and they thought: no. No way. He’s just using a new tactic. He just wants to get into the secret meetings so he can find out who we are and where we meet. I’ve been in Rome, in the catacombs, underground, where they had cubbyholes dug out of the wall where they would put the bodies as the believers would die. And they would meet in these underground catacombs. You have to imagine the stench. And they would meet, hidden away in these places, because of the intense opposition and persecution.
And now, the head guy of the persecution is quote, unquote «Saved» and the church is not buying it. And there was a guy named Barnabas. His name means «Son of encouragement». It took an encourager. It took somebody who believed the best about others, who was always looking for the gold, who lived to make others stronger. It took a Barnabas to go find this Saul of Tarsus and actually verify: it’s true. He’s actually saved. He’s truly born again. The story of Saul, or Barnabas and Saul, as dramatic and glorious, is for another day. But I want you to look at just a couple verses because I wanna take you to the needle in the haystack for me. Are you ready? Don’t ever exchange the favor of man for the favor of God.
Acts 2. There’s a good chance this is two, three, maybe four years after the day of verse 42: «And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers». I love that the scripture gives us an outline of what was important. They found these were the essential things. And, it says they continued. They re-devoted, it’s like a husband telling his wife that he loves her, every day of their marriage, not just on their anniversary, every day renewing the vows of devotion and commitment. And these believers, now, a couple years in, after this invasion of heaven, it reveals what helped them to «And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine».
What is the apostles' doctrine? I’m glad it doesn’t list a list of doctrines. I personally believe, when it says «Apostles' doctrine,» it is referring to the present word that God is releasing into the church for each specific season. So, they are all paying attention to the present word. You don’t get a present word unless you’re part of a corporate family. Amen, bill. That was so good. That was so good. «And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship». Fellowship is not just hanging out over coffee, talking about going hunting as much as I love that. And that is fellowship for me. This is referring to something that’s much more profound and deeper. It’s the exchange of life, one member to another. «Fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers».
Breaking of bread could be meals together. It could also be implying the communion service. I think it’s probably talking about meals and the fact that they took personal time to make sure they shared with other believers. So, they did these four things. Verse 43: «Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles». Now, let me, the apostolic ministry helps to release the signs and wonders ministry into the church. But it was never meant to be something that they alone were known for. It was always supposed to be the equipping of the saints so that the saints could do this work of service. Here, it is recorded, as initially initiated by the apostles, where they were known for miracle, signs, and wonders.
Verse 43, again: «Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions, divided them among all, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house», there’s the corporate. There’s the smaller gathering, «With gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily». In Acts 3, there’s a miracle through, Peter and John, at the gate. There’s a lame man who’s healed. They are quickly arrested. They are threatened. They are, uh, told to never do that again.
Peter asked the question, whether «We obey God or obey you, you figure it out,» which was a question they couldn’t answer. When they were released, they went to a prayer meeting, which is fun to see. Soon as you get out of prison, just go to a prayer meeting. And he says, in verse 29: «'now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word, by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus'. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken: and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness».
Listen to me carefully, Peter and John, if you read chapter 3, they were arrested because of a miracle, but, also, it specifically says because of what does Peter pray for when he gets out of prison? More boldness. Now, let’s be honest, the church, right now, wanting to be at peace with everybody, and not taking a stand for anything, don’t ever exchange the favor of man for the favor of God. Let the favor of God bring about the favor with man, not the other way around. 'Cause you won’t get it. I have friends who mirror the world around them to gain favor for the cause of Christ. Any favor you gain through mirroring their culture you’ll have to sustain by becoming like them, which means you’ve lost your witness. They prayed for greater boldness.
What’s happening here? We’ve got arrest, persecution, threats, and the prayer for what brought on the persecution and the threats. So, what happened? We’ve got an intensity, a refining the focus. See, something that happens in persecution is you don’t have people attending church it’d be good for my business if I’m just seen with other Christians. That disappears as an option when you have the possibility of losing your life. Nobody wants to have a good business by losing their life. And you start losing some of those things. But what do you gain? You gain a refined focus. You get the favor of God, the favor of heaven, leaning and looking our way to bring about the most significant breakthrough.
I believe the Lord is fully intent on answering the prayer that we pray, «On earth as it is in heaven». But it’s not an overnight deal. He’s looking to see who can and he will test it in favor, he will test it with money, he will test it with anointing. What do you do when cancer disappears under your hand? How do you tell the story? Again, he’s not looking for areas to punish. He’s looking: how much can I trust them with? Can I give them more? The last time I used them to do, to break that impossibility, there was more of them in their testimony than there was in the experience. Are you traveling with me, here, on this journey? All right.