Bill Johnson - Worship and Miracles - Part 2
It’s so extraordinary to see how miracles affect people. What I wanted to talk to you, tonight, about was the biblical mandate for miracles. There’s a distortion in the reading of scripture, and I’ll just give you one example here, if you’ll just open to Matthew 7. I’ll just give you one example. I was gonna read two portions of scripture that are actually used by the critics of the healing movement.
Now, if you’ve been here any length of time at all, you know that I just don’t bother with trying to it’s just, it’s a full-time job and I don’t have the time. But on one occasion, I addressed more than I would normally. Because, in this case, reporting that had been done could really infect and affect young believers. And so, I went beyond what I would normally do. And, in this case, tonight, I want us to have a clear understanding of what the Lord looks for from us. This is an in-your-face kind of verse. And I’m not reading this because I have any sense of rebuke or correction for anyone. Instead, I’d like to use it as an invitation and as a challenge. And, it’s a verse that is used.
If I give a testimony on Facebook, which I actually don’t do anymore, but, I don’t know, I think that, you know, I was gonna say I think the devil subscribes to Facebook. But, maybe, if I ever give a testimony of a miracle, I’ll get an email or a Facebook note or something. And, people will quote this passage to me. «Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name»? And I’m sure they’re just trying to encourage me. So, because there’s so much confusion over this verse, I wanna talk about it. And we’ll just do this tonight. So. You ready? Yes, we’re ready, bill. Look at it in your Bible. If you don’t have yours, look over somebody next to you.
«'Not everyone who says to me, „Lord, Lord,“ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, „Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name“? And then I will declare to them, „I never knew you: depart from me, you who practice lawlessness"'». This verse is the one that is, sent to me as a word of encouragement, and my response is, you’ll notice that the people who are doing these wonders don’t have a personal relationship with God. And so, my response is that if people without a relationship with God can do wonders in Jesus' name, then those who are in a relationship with God are without excuse.
Of course, I share that just to encourage. But let’s take a look at this real quickly. Verse 21 and verse 22 are addressing two different groups of people. If you don’t catch that, you miss the point. Verse 21 addresses those who don’t do the will of God. Verse 22 is those who do the will of God, but outside yes, bill, that’s exactly right. Verse 21: «'not everyone who says to me, „Lord, Lord“ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven'“. Stop right there. He is saying those who confess Jesus as Lord, but they don’t obey, they don’t get it. Jesus said, „If you love me, obey my commandments“. You cannot separate obedience from a relationship. And so, in this passage, he says: just because you call me Lord doesn’t mean I’m your Lord. You gotta do what I say to do.
So, what does he command us to do? Well, there’s a number of things. But a good example is two chapters later, three he says: go. Tell people the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal their sick. Raise their dead. Cast out devils. Cleanse lepers. Elsewhere, he says preach the gospel to the the poor. So, he’s giving very specific mandates as to what his will is. We know that the best definition of the will of God, I think, anyway is found in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, in which he said, „Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven“.
So, what’s the will of God? It’s on earth, as it is in heaven. It means that what’s happening here that’s not happening there that needs to change. It means that what’s happening there should be happening here. That’s the will of God. That’s why healing is the will of God. There’s no sickness there. That’s why torment, confusion, poverty, interestingly, Eric was talking brilliantly, a wonderful message this morning. But he talked about that word „Evil“. And that word „Evil“ is also used in the Lord’s prayer, the disciples' prayer, I should call it, in which he says, „Deliver us from evil“. And that word „Evil“ comes from a word that means pain, which comes from a root word that means poor.
What does salvation deal with? Salvation deals with sin, sickness, and torment. Right? I’m makin' this too long. I can feel it. The Kingdom of God is not meat or drink. It’s righteousness, peace, joy. Righteousness is what? It deals with the sin issue. Peace deals with the torment issue. Joy deals with the sickness issue. Laughter is as medicine. Joy is connected to health. Prosperity of soul is a divine connection to health. They’ve proven medically the I was talking to John Arnett on the phone when I was having my issues earlier this year. And he said, „Watch some funny movies“. I mean, honestly, it’s a divine prescription. It’s really easy in a move of God to get too introspective and too intense in our focus and lose the joy through labor. And it almost invites affliction. It almost invites disease.
So, this whole thing the sin issue, the health issue, and the torment, the poverty issue. It’s all in that word. So, here he says: those of you who call me „Lord,“ but you don’t do my will, you know nothing about the kingdom. And then, he changes, he goes to the second group. And he says: many of you are gonna say to me, „Lord, didn’t we cast out demons? Didn’t we do great wonders? Didn’t we do all these things for you, in your name“? And he’s gonna say: I never knew you. I never knew you. There wasn’t the relationship. I don’t know if this has ever occurred to you, but, in John 4 is a great, I think the greatest Revelation in the Bible on the subject of worship.
And it’s with the woman at the well. And Jesus turns to them and says: the father looks for worshipers. He doesn’t look for worship. He look for worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth. In spirit is in partnership with the Holy Spirit himself. But „In truth“ means nothing hidden. truth means nothing hidden. So, what does it mean? It means, in worship, we’re not putting up a façade. We come as we are, completely honest, completely bare. Our successes, failures, difficulties, confusions, questions, all of it, it’s all an open book, as we worship.
See, I can know all about you and never know you. God has the hairs of our head numbered. He knows all about us. But he doesn’t know us without invitation and honesty. That’s what confession is. Confession is we are agreeing with what he sees. That’s what confession is. All we’re doing is going, „Yeah, I did say that“. 'Cause that’s what confession is. Just, it’s agreeing. So, it’s a part of the ongoing walking-in-the-light and that’s what wasn’t being done here, in this verse, where he says: depart from me: I never knew you. So this verse that is used to correct or to scold people that pray for the sick or to look for miracles, you know, I understand. You know, people can get all crazy in their pursuit of miracles. I understand that.
I’ll end with this little embarrassing. It’s probably one I’ve shared 20 times before, but it’ll put it in context. Jesus is walking with his disciples and he goes up to a fig tree. And, it’s not the right time of the year for figs. And he walks up to the fig tree to get figs. Now, Jesus is God. He created the fig tree. He knows the laws he created for the fig tree. He’s pretty intelligent, knowing that it’s not the season for figs. But he goes up for figs, anyway. And there’s no figs on it. And so, he curses it. Rather harsh. He curses it. And the disciples are stunned, 'cause they walk by it the next day and it’s completely dead. It wasn’t that they were shocked it died: they were shocked it died so fast.
I mean, if you cut off a branch, it’s not all withered and dried the next day: it takes awhile. But this thing got death all the way through it, quickly. And Jesus cursed it 'cause it didn’t have figs out of season. I’ve heard people say, „You know, Jesus had bad days, you know? He just, he just had bad days“. Which I think is so funny. I’ve heard others that have great teaching on all the fig trees of Israel and all this, you know, has this big prophetic mess. I don’t know. It’s probably all true, I don’t know. The only thing I know for sure is Jesus is the only one who has the right to demand fruit of the impossible. When he puts the spirit of the resurrected Christ in us, he anticipates the impossible. It’s the mandate for miracles.
We can become too preoccupied with us, in the sense of „I don’t have that gift, I don’t have that coin“. Oh, stop it. You’re born again. The spirit of the resurrected Christ is in you. Quit trying to figure out who you are. Just do what he said. It’s easier to figure out your identity in obedience than it is in pondering. That’s just a good word, right there. I feel so good about that. It’s just a lot easier to figure it out when you’re in motion. You know, you’re just doing what he says. I mean, if you actually need to figure it out. I think it’s overrated, but, if you need to figure it out, it’s fine. Here’s common wisdom. Common wisdom is you figure out your calling by your gifts. You look at what you do well and you come to a conclusion: this is what God’s called me to do.
I think that’s backwards. I think you figure out your calling by God’s call. And then, you pursue him for the gifts you need to fulfill your call. That’s why he said pursue earnestly spiritual gifts. Don’t define your ministry by what you do. Define your pursuit by what he’s called you to do. If he’s called you to be an evangelist, you’ll need miracles. Ah, that’s enough. All right, let’s go ahead and stand. We’ll just crash-land it. We’ll just pretend that was a sermon. I am gonna talk to you, someday, about this bigger picture for miracles. You know, the whole point that i-i should have maybe made a little clearer is he’s the one who does the miracles. He’s the one who does the miracles.
So, because that’s true, and we all believe that, we need to create the opportunity for him to do the miracle. That’s what the offer to pray is for. „Well, would you mind if I prayed for you“? That gives him the chance to do the extravagant act that he loves to do. „Well, what if he doesn’t do it“? What if he does? You know, the one thing you can, first of all, I think we’re going to see a time where everybody’s healed. I believe that. Because, it’s a standard, Jesus set. But the one thing you can make certain happens is the person you pray for knows that you love and care for them.
We’ve actually had, I remember one of the older gentlemen that got saved here several years ago, he was prayed for on the the river trail. One of our young folks saw him limpin' around and prayed for him. And, he was so moved for it, he came to the Lord. He didn’t get healed, that’s awesome! He didn’t get healed, but he got saved, which is really the biggest healing, anyway. He came to Christ because of the love shown to him. So, don’t ever say, „Healing is not my gift“. Why? 'Cause you’re a fig tree. Don’t tell him it’s the wrong season.
Slap yourself before those words start to come out of your mouth and just say something that sounds good, like, „With you, all things are possible“. Somethin' like that. Just, you know, I feel like we could probably fix about 90 percent of the problems that we face, if we changed how we talk. I don’t mean this mind-over-matter thing. I mean adjust our conversation, adjust our declaration. See, our conversations are actually prophecies over our own life. And then, we get surprised when things turn out bad. All right, put your hands in front of you. Let me pray over you, then we’ll do somethin' fun. All right.
Bless these fig trees, God. You know, I honestly want to have fruit to give him. You know, that’s what our life is. I honestly wanna come before him with the fruit of my life. I honestly wanna present before him: these are the things that were impossible for me, but they were possible for you. And all I did was do what you said and this is what happened. So, father, we set our hearts on this, once again. We thank you for the people that came to Christ tonight. We thank you for the reality of heaven that invaded this room during the worship tonight. We just thank you for all of this. And we just set our hearts, once again. No excuses. We confess you’re the extravagant one. Use us this week to demonstrate your love and your power in in Jesus' wonderful, wonderful name, amen.