Bill Johnson - Choose Your War
I miss being together so much. I feel like running up and hugging everyone I see in a grocery store, gas station, or wherever. Yeah, I guess you can’t do that either. I don’t always remember that some of you have been attacked by me in various locations, and I apologize in advance if I see you somewhere and start moving toward you, and you don’t want to hug. Just kind of wave your hand, and I’ll keep my distance. But really, there are a couple of things I want to say as we get started. First, the generosity and faithfulness of this church family. If you had told me a year ago that we would have like eight months of not being together and that you would be as faithful as you are in supporting this ministry, I would have said that’s impossible. First of all, I would have thought it impossible for us to survive this kind of nonsense. Secondly, to receive that kind of support from this church family has been one of the most encouraging things I have ever seen, and that is absolutely true. When we meet together as a team and the board, we check on how things are going, and your faithfulness is extraordinary. I sincerely pray that God would return to you a hundred times over every small measure of sacrifice or large that you have ever made, that He would return it to you. So I’m very thankful, so grateful for you. Also, this week is election week. We’ve already talked about that, so let’s not forget to vote. Just vote. Don’t be stupid. Vote smart. I saw someone say this week that we have the lesser of two evils. If you think that way, then you’re not hearing from God. Don’t cancel out your capacity to hear from Him because His sheep hear His voice, and He is not mixed up in His opinion about what’s happening. Just be bold, confident, and courageous, and let’s vote our values into our nation. Let’s pray as we do it because every act of obedience we have as believers does not just live on its own. It’s not like if I take food to a neighbor, it’s wonderful, but it doesn’t exist solely as a kind act. It prophesies the nature of God into a situation. There is angelic participation in all that we do. They render service for those who inherit salvation. So every time we make a bold decision to do something, we may not even be clear on what to do, but we are acting in obedience, and the Lord lends His hand, His voice, His breath to that action. I want to encourage you to take advantage of your moment to believe in what God is doing in this nation, and pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, and then be courageous and vote.
So, Father, I just pray for that. I pray there would be an awakening all across this land to take charge and take responsibility, which You have offered to us as a gift. Many don’t have it, but You have given it to us. We pray that it be with insight, clarity of heart and mind, and conviction, and let there be righteous values restored to our nation. We thank You for what has happened in recent days, and we just say, more Lord, more Lord, more Lord, amen, amen, amen.
All right, so I want to talk to you out of the book of James, which is scary in itself. Anytime someone opens James, it’s with fear and trembling. If you would, open to James chapter four. I am actually going to read a verse or two out of chapter three, and we’re going to read a little longer portion than I normally do just because I need to do it to get where I feel we should go. What we will talk about today is the battle over the heart. We often talk about the battleground of the mind. We know that the enemy works hard to bring confusion, distraction, wrong values, and all kinds of crazy things. The battleground is over our thought life; we’ve said that for many years, and it is absolutely true. But I believe what the enemy is targeting is not just my thought life; he’s actually targeting my heart.
I had a friend 48 years ago, and I think it might even be 48 years this month. 48 years ago this month, he shared a verse with me. You don’t always remember when a friend shares a verse with you 48 years later, but this one, in a good way, just punched me upside the head, and God deposited something in me that has been one of my life verses for the last 48 years. I would say it is a primary verse. I have three, but this would be the primary one, and it’s out of Proverbs 4:23 where it says, «Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life.»
Let me put it into the context of how Jesus dealt with the subject. Jesus, on one hand, said adulteries, murders, jealousies—all these things come from the heart. On the other extreme, He said, «Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.» So we have the capacity for either. I heard a statement from Richard Roberts a long time ago, maybe 30 years ago. He made this statement: «God will not change your mind. You cannot change your heart, but if you change your thoughts, God will change your heart.» It’s an interesting thought that the thinking process we have in our lives actually contributes to the condition of our hearts, and that’s the whole point.
So what we’re going to talk about today—we’re going to read in chapter four—but let me return to verses 14 and 15 of chapter three because I need to set the context. James is writing in this sequence of thoughts where he’s trying to address the possible corruption of the human heart, the possible corruption of believers in relation to the character of Christ. Interestingly, when a believer chooses characteristics that are not godly, they are actually evil. They seldom do it because it is founded on a lie; it’s usually because it’s founded on misapplied truth. To discern the tactics of the enemy, if he can’t keep you from truth, he’ll get you to overuse truth or misapply it. It’s like when the ephod was used; they began to worship this item God provided for them. They took something God gave them and put it above its intended position, and that’s really where idolatry takes place. It starts in those small decisions where we carry the thoughts and principles of God and apply them according to our own wisdom, our own insight, and not in conjunction with the working of the Holy Spirit. That’s the beginning of the breakdown and the real building of wrong character in a believer.
This is negative, but I’m not mad; I just want to point out a few things and say, «Hey, watch out for that.» Everybody’s happy? Yes, we’re happy!
Verse 14 of chapter three says, «If you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your heart, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above but is earthly, sensual, and demonic.» Just stop right there. This wisdom—this is what fascinates me about this verse—gives us a huge key on how we can protect ourselves from things like jealousy and self-promotion. He says jealousy and selfish ambition exist, and there’s every evil thing. Then he says this wisdom doesn’t come from above. What is he saying? He says it’s wisdom; it’s just inferior wisdom. What does that help us with? It helps us to understand that jealousy and self-promotion come out of human reasoning, the unrenewed mind. In other words, it’s going to appeal to the logic of the unrenewed mind. It is reasonable, which means it is justifiable. I’ve never met a jealous person who thought they were jealous. Suspicion veils itself in what’s often called discernment.
Let me throw in another thing that will help us as we get into chapter four: entitlement. The spirit of entitlement often hides in the need for justice. Entitlement is where I have a right to something, and misapplied passion for justice is often where entitlement is established in a believer’s life. Entitlement is a birthplace for so many things, including jealousy. «You have something that I should have had.» «You have an opportunity that was supposed to be mine.» «You were raised in a certain kind of family. I was not. It’s not right; it’s not fair.» When you have the pursuit of misapplied kingdom principles, misapplied truth, which is justice, it gives birth to so many other things—jealousy, covetousness, and ultimately, according to chapter four, it’s war.
And here we are, having a nice, easy little conversation.
He says wisdom is not from above; it’s from below, but it is called wisdom. That means it has an appeal to the intellect, and the need for justice and right things is just as important. Absolutely! The foundation of God’s throne is righteousness and justice. Oftentimes, as a church, especially in circles like ours, we fight for righteousness, but we don’t fight as hard for justice. Justice is vital; it’s critical. But don’t tell me you have a passion for justice if you don’t speak for the unborn—the ones with the least voice in our nation who are plundered, stolen, and killed daily by the millions. It’s not okay. You cannot create a reason where that’s okay. If that doesn’t stand out to you, then I don’t know any other way to put it—it is not okay. It is not okay that it doesn’t matter. It must provoke us. If we can look at that and it doesn’t provoke us to outrage for righteous justice, then we are missing it.
I don’t mean we destroy the lives of those who vote for it; I’m just saying we have to right something that is wrong. You cannot tell me you value justice if you don’t speak up because what justice does is speak for those who have little to no voice, and there is no one with less of a voice than the unborn. There are many other parts of our country where the poor, for example, have very little voice. They need to be protected and spoken for. I read in Proverbs this week where a righteous king has the fear of God; he protects the rights of the poor or the afflicted. That has to be part of our pursuit of righteous governmental expression; we sacrificially speak on behalf of those who don’t have as much influence as we do. That’s what authority is—the proper use of God’s favor on your life to work for someone else, specifically for those who have little to no voice.
Back to my start here—it’s a little tangent, but I feel better for it. Speaking on behalf of those who have no voice, there are none with less voice than the unborn, and it must matter.
I believe votes, natural things like writing letters, voting—those kinds of things are important, but the BIG thing we must do is second Chronicles 7:14: «If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, I’ll hear from heaven; I will forgive their sin and heal their land.» We need our land healed; it has been raped and plundered out of injustice for too long, affecting many different people groups.
So, all right, let’s see if we can actually get into the message. We’re spinning off the word jealousies and inferior wisdom, and we’re now going to flow into chapter four. There are warnings here, so I’m going to read 11 verses at once, which I hardly ever do because the attention span is challenging. But I’m going to challenge you: listen to me, look in your Bible, and let’s read these verses.
Verse one: «Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.» I like the New American Standard better on that verse; it says, «You ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives.» There’s the heart issue. Now, in communion with God, the heart issue is everything.
Verse four: «Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.» Do you not think that the scripture says in vain the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously? I really don’t like that one. Again, the New American Standard is quite a bit better; it says that He, speaking of the Father, jealously desires the Spirit who lives in us. It shows this relationship between the Holy Spirit being entrusted to us and the Father Himself longing for or being jealous over that Holy Spirit that lives in us.
Verse six: «He gives more grace. Therefore, He says, 'God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.'»
Verse seven: «Therefore, submit yourself to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom.» In other words, don’t let your repentance be a surface-level «Oh yeah, I’m sorry about that.» Go deep! If it’s deeply planted in your personality and nature, then go that deep in your repentance. That’s what he’s dealing with here. He says this thing—the war that’s going on inside of you needs to be dealt with, and you’re not going to deal with it lightly. That’s why, in revivals, you see massive moves of repentance, and it’s never casual. It’s always costly. It’s always costly because when a person comes before the Lord on that level, they know they are yielding everything.
That’s really the word of the Lord.
Verse 10: «Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.»
The first half of verse 11 is all we need for this one: «Do not speak evil of one another, brethren.» He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law.
Let’s start with that last phrase. We’ll go back and work our way through this chapter because, listen to me, the Lord is doing us a favor. Whenever He gives you and me a command, it’s never restrictive in the sense of punishment; it is always an invitation to life. All of His commands lead to life. All of His commands lead away from what destroys and invite us into what sustains us. He does not give commands, you know, like, dig a hole and now fill it back up just because he’s trying to think of things to keep us busy. He gives us commandments because He has this dream over our lives that we would enter into the fullness of joy—the truth will set you free. It’s not just knowing truth; living in experienced truth is where true liberty and freedom come from in every aspect of our life. So the Lord gives us these commands, and in this case, He’s talking to a group of people that have been filled with compromise. James is absolutely going head-to-head with them, confronting them. How many understand that when we are in that kind of error, we need someone who cares enough to stick with us and tell us, «Listen»?
There’s a whole demand, if you will, for repentance. So let’s get back to verse 11.
He says, «Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law.» If I judge somebody, if I pass judgment, if I criticize and pronounce judgment on a person, I am judging the law of God. What is the law of God? The law of Christ is the law of love. If I pass judgment on a person, I am judging the law because I am announcing that it is inferior to my own opinion. Don’t do that!
When you pass judgment on a person, it’s very easy, especially in this political climate, to just point fingers and do all kinds of stuff. In fact, I took some time in the last two weeks—I don’t remember how many times now—just to read over Isaiah 58 over and over again. In there, he says, «If you stop pointing the finger,"—that’s that judgment thing. That’s that accusation, that criticism thing. «If you stop pointing the finger, if you stop trying to nail somebody else and prove they’re wrong and you’re right, if you knock off that nonsense, there’ll be a real restoration of heart and mind, and God will put us back into a place of blessed abundance.»
So that’s really, really big on my heart right now.
Let’s go back to verse one: «Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have because you do not ask.»
I doubt—I’m looking this up—I doubt very much that you’re looking at a group of believers that have a reputation for killing each other. There’s no record of that in church history. You don’t have groups of believers that incite wars. What James is doing is identifying something we need to see—covetousness is at the root of every war. Read history. Wars start because one nation thinks they deserve better agricultural land. Another nation has it, so they go to war because they want what they have. One nation wants better sea routes or trade routes, and they don’t have seaports. So they go to war to take someone else’s seaports for better trade routes. Sometimes it’s about oil fields, or the resource of minerals—there are all these different things.
In other words, «I want what you have.» And what James is doing is doing us a favor. If you allow that thing to reside in you, those are the seeds of war. That’s why there’s so much conflict in our own souls when we get into that mode of operation. If you can imagine, God has blessing in line for every person that responds to His word. I don’t believe that your income shows your spirituality. I don’t like that. But I also don’t like the lack of things proving spirituality either. I think both are horrible misapplications of truth. The whole of scripture testifies that when we obey the Lord, all these things will be added to you. He likes the blessing to be the addition to your life, not the pursuit of your life.
As long as I’m seeking His face first, as long as I’m giving myself completely—"Anything you want, God, You’ve got all of it,» then He can trust me. So I told His own disciples who left everything to follow Him—He said in Mark 10, «And I will give you a hundred times as much of what you left back into your life, with persecution.» In other words, because you left it for me, I can trust you with it. But the persecution will keep you honest.
If you don’t understand that level of…well, a friend of mine calls it persecution—he calls it an income tax. I said, «What do you mean, income tax?» He says, «The more income, the more tax.» And that’s just the way it works in life.
So Jesus promised His own disciples a hundred times as much. He wasn’t talking about mansions; He was truly talking about what Paul would later testify of, saying, «I have learned how to abound, and I have learned how to be abased. I have learned what it’s like to have too much.»
The last thing I wanted to do today is make this about money, but it kind of comes down to that in this sense. Sometimes a believer will look at another believer and want their position, favor, title, gift, or blessing. It is legal to use the breakthroughs of other Christians to inspire you to seek the Lord, but if I want what Chris has and I begin to lust or covet it, I have broken the cycle of blessing and moved into the spirit of war to obtain it out of divine sequence.
See, when God provides for us, Proverbs makes it clear: when the Lord blesses you, there are no sorrows to it. But when we fight for it on our own, it always comes with a balloon payment of sorrow. There are many leaders in our country—let’s just take businesses—there are many business leaders who have all the money and more than they ever wanted, but they lost their families in the journey. They were willing to sacrifice relationships and personal integrity. They may have started with great values, but they sacrificed them in order to get personal gain, and they have great sorrow in their life every day because they have to shove down this conscience that knows they violated their design to obtain something.
That is the nature of war, and that’s the warning of James. These things wage war within your body, and it doesn’t matter to me if it’s wanting somebody else’s house, car, title, or if you’re just jealous over the fact that they have favor and you don’t, or they are recognized and you aren’t. It doesn’t matter to me where you put it; it is all the same thing. It is the spirit of war. Right now in this nation, we have the spirit of war robbing the souls of many people—many people on both sides of the aisle. It’s not a political matter; it is a moral issue, a righteous issue of what we will let feed and fuel our hearts. To allow ourselves to be careless in a time where we point fingers, accuse, or desire a plot or do any of the stupid stuff we’ve known to do actually fuels that spirit of war.
Covetousness makes me take outside of divine sequence. God has a sequence. Faithfulness in small things; I learn to steward great things. There’s a sequence. When it’s His turn to release something in my life, it comes without sorrow. But if I take it out of course, I’m actually in war, and I’m fighting as a thief to take something that’s not mine.
It does not mean that it’s not in the heart of God. See, God is interested in process; I’m interested in outcome. I like—"You know, I fasted for three days, I prayed this and that, I cried out to God, I got up in the middle of the night, I walked my living room and cried out to the Lord for this breakthrough.» I like the breakthrough; He likes the process. He liked the fact that you actually skipped food and talked to Him. He actually likes the fact that you didn’t lay there in bed just tossing and turning; you actually made a decision to get up and pray. That’s what He likes.
This verse out of John 15 has become increasingly important for me in my own personal walk. It’s a verse I’ve taught many times, and I love it so much, but it’s become haunting me in a right way. It’s the passage out of John 15:7 where He says, «Abide in Me, and My word abides in you. You will ask whatever you desire, and it shall be done for you.» What is He wanting? He’s not wanting me to be a self-willed believer. He’s wanting me to be a co-laborer who, in prayer, implements His purposes on the earth.
That has to happen for His purposes to be manifest. I have to have a co-laboring role; you have to have a co-laboring role. But the goal is that the prayers make a difference. He didn’t start there; He said, «Abide in Me.» So there’s this acknowledged, manifested presence of the Spirit of God that my heart is in full acknowledgment of and engaged with. Abiding—the illustration of context is a branch in a vine. You can’t tell where the branch begins and where it ends. Where the vine begins, it’s not a flat surface. It is the intertwining of fibers so deeply and profoundly that it was the best illustration for abiding in Christ. You can’t tell where I end and where Jesus begins because it intertwines so deeply.
By acknowledging His presence, the Spirit of God upon me, the engagement of heart to heart is so intertwined that I am abiding in Him, and His word is all that matters to me. What does God say about it? I have laid down my right to an opinion. What does God say about it? That thing just courses through my heart as I bring it up in biblical meditation. God gave me insight from this, and it’s in that posture of absolute surrender that He says, «All right, ask whatever you desire, and I’ll do it.»
That’s what He wants! He wants a family of co-laboring believers that are so yielded and surrendered to His manifest presence that He can trust them with any prayer, and it will be done—just like He did with Solomon. Solomon was the only one that got his one wish, except for the church. The church gets it countless times every day, and we often spoil the opportunity to ask for whatever we want because we’ve got to learn abiding. We’ve got to learn the indwelling word, and in that position, something moves us, knowing it will move Him. If it doesn’t move me, it doesn’t move Him.
Verse 10 is where we’ll end: «Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.»
In fact, I just released a book here recently called «Born for Significance,» and the whole reason for that book was we don’t know how to handle blessing well. You know, it either leads people to corruption or selfishness, or I mean—it’s crazy, old and new testament alike. The same thing happens, and it’s the proper stewardship of blessing that equips and enables us to impact the world around us culturally through managing resource, blessing well. It doesn’t matter if it’s money, favor, position, or title. It doesn’t matter to me what it is.
And this verse here illustrates a point: «Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God; He’ll exalt you at the right time.» We love it when people humble themselves under the mighty hand of God; we’re not always as happy when God exalts them. We don’t know what to do with an exalted person. I mean, let’s be honest; we don’t know what to do.
Why? Because we don’t have a theology for that. There’s a passage that says you pray in secret, and He rewards you in public. We seek Him in secret; He rewards us in public. We see people rewarded in public and become suspicious about how they got there, not realizing that God is the one who called the shots because He saw them in the quiet time.
The quiet place of their lives—we don’t have a theology that allows for someone to be openly, extravagantly blessed before our eyes because of jealousy and covetousness. This is at the heart of what God is going after in this hour. We love it when people seek first the kingdom of God. We don’t always like it when He adds everything back into their lives, and so this is a moment where we learn to monitor the pastor, if you will, the attitudes of our hearts.
Little things creep up like, we start thinking, «Oh, if only that were mine,» or maybe it’s a sharp word toward somebody—impatience, criticism, the pointing finger. Those little moments—when those things begin to surface, God has sent up a flare. He’s given us a warning saying, «This is not who you are designed to be. You can forsake that way of life now. You can forsake that as an approach to your life now. You can cleanse your hands from that influence now.»
He invites us into this lifestyle where, «God, there’s nothing apart from the heart of God that I want in my life.»
I remember when my kids were small and obviously at home. I would speak impatiently and then get the family together. I would say, «You guys know all I want with my life is to honor Jesus. That’s all I want. Will you pray for me?» They would put their little hands on me. When they got older, they were still doing it, praying for me. I would tell Ben, «Listen honey, all I want to do is honor Jesus. If you see an attitude forming in me that I’ve not yet recognized, please do me a favor. I’m inviting you, I’m begging you, point it out to me.»
Why? We’ve got to stay that accountable to avoid the disaster that James warns about and step into the promise that he prophesied over us: «Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you.»
And when He exalts you, remember Solomon’s word, «God has highly favored you.» Solomon spoke of the Queen of Sheba. «He has highly favored you because He loves the people around you.» The favor on my life has to benefit people around me, or it’s misused favor. If you are watching this and you have never surrendered your life to Jesus, He doesn’t come in just to tickle your fancy and fulfill all your dreams. He comes as God, Lord of all, and He is worthy of being served and loved because He is the source of all life. If that’s you, please just reach out to someone on Bethel TV or YouTube. Just let them know in the message section that you want to receive Jesus, and this will be the beginning of the change and transformation of the rest of your life.
Let’s pray.
Father, let us live with a holy fear of the coming days as well as a holy joy for what You’ve done, what You’re doing, and what You’re about to do. We yield all of this to You, and we just declare it is all for Your glory. Everything is all for Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen, amen.