Bill Johnson - Fervent Prayer
All right, good morning! Glad you showed up. By the way, Eric and Candace send their love from Orlando, Florida, where they are speaking today and I think tomorrow. We have a Kingdom Culture Conference coming up June 26-28. It’s the most unique conference we do because it is all about sustaining a move of God through Kingdom culture, through learning the reality of that world and how it affects this one. That’s where we turn our own team loose, so if any of you want to be a part of that or if any of those watching online would like to join us for that, it’s been a pretty cool event for several years now.
Um, let’s see. I got a letter this week from the woman who was healed after being afflicted for 38 years, mostly bedridden for the last 10 years. She and her husband sent me a note this past week—they’re in Hawaii for their first real vacation in 34 years, and they are just exploring what life looks like now that she’s been healed. She was bedridden for almost 10 years and was unable to function normally for 38 years due to ongoing pain issues from Lyme’s disease. It was just the coolest thing to see the Holy Spirit fill her body and flush that disease out; that’s exactly how it happened. I saw it happening. Finally, we had four others healed of the same thing within a couple of weeks right after that. So if there’s anybody here with Lyme’s disease or any kind of autoimmune disease, please stand up. If you have a family member with that, please stand up because we’re going to pray.
Yes, the good news is Jesus has a track record of healing these issues, and we want to see that done. Now, church family, I want you to join me and go to someone who is standing and begin to pray for them. Those of you watching on Bethel TV, join us in the same way. If you have this affliction in your own body, we declare divine health over you in Jesus' name. Just stand with us in faith right now. If you can’t reach someone, extend a hand, join your faith with someone standing, and we declare that Jesus heals Lyme’s disease, every autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, and all these different afflictions. We declare this ends today in Jesus' name! Pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; literally pray for His presence to flood their bodies until every trace of affliction is gone. Just pray that over them right now! Flood their bodies until every trace of affliction is gone! Every trace gone in Jesus' name! Thank you, Lord. Amen. Pronounce over them, «The Lord Jesus heals you.» Beautiful! Go ahead and be seated. Please give us reports—we are just going to tap this lightly this morning—but please send us a report as miracles unfold in your body or in your family.
Is there someone here with nerve damage on the right side of your body? Some sort of nerve damage on the right? Oh, there’s a couple! All right, well the Lord Jesus heals! We’re going to pray together again for at least one more issue here in a moment. A number of years ago, I was in Germany, and while praying with the leadership before the gathering, I caught a flash of a picture of someone to my right who had arthritis from head to toe. In this flash picture, it’s hard to describe, I had them stand and pronounced over them, «The Lord Jesus heals you.» That’s not a magic pill; it’s only powerful if He says it first and you repeat what He’s saying. You got it? But that’s what happened! So, when I got up, the first thing I did was ask if anyone here has arthritis from head to toe. A woman stood right over to my right. I said, «The Lord Jesus heals you.» We did not pray for it in the typical manner; she began to tremble under the power of God, turned very red, and began to sweat profusely as the power of God was literally going through her body. In just two or three minutes, I asked, «What happened?» She was weeping, saying, «It’s impossible! It’s impossible!» because she was completely healed through the declared word.
I believe we will see more of that sort of thing where we find out what He’s saying. Psalm 107:20 says, «He sent His word and healed them,» so it’s a big deal for you and me. Today, I want to touch on this subject a bit: really hearing what He’s saying and then joining our voice with His and making that decree. I want to pray for those with nerve damage. Is there anyone here with cancer or any other kind of terminal disease? Put a hand up; you can stand in for them. All right. I want those with nerve damage and cancer or any other terminal disease to stand. If you have a family member, please stand in place for them. Oh, there’s someone who broke their right ankle and it didn’t heal properly—who is that? Is that you? All right. I broke mine in this area here, and it just didn’t heal correctly. The Lord is healing that right now!
So, terminal disease of any kind. You know, we have seen so many miracles by people standing in proxy. We’ve never seen the level of breakthrough that I have seen just in the last six months to a year. If you have a family member dying from cancer, stand in their place; we are going to pray together. Again, I encourage everyone in our Bethel TV family to join us in this moment because this is a miracle moment! Bethel family, you’ve got people standing around you. Go to them and join with them. Find out if it’s them or a family member and begin to pray right now. For those at home, we make this decree: The Lord Jesus heals you! If you can’t reach somebody, please extend your faith. We declare for that family member right now in Jesus' mighty name that healing power would be released into their body. Nerve damage be completely healed and restored now! Broken bones be reset now in Jesus' name! Thank you, God. There’s someone else who has some sort of numbness, especially in the right shoulder, in the back area. Just keep praying. If this applies to you, please stand. There may be nerve damage again but is that right over here? Okay. Somebody lay hands on this gentleman right over here. Resurrection of that shoulder, nerve damage be healed now in Jesus' name! Just declare over them, «This ends today in Jesus' mighty name!» Amen!
All right, you may go and be seated. If we get any more of that throughout the meeting, we will jump on it. Here’s what I want to encourage you: expect miracles during the preaching of the word. I felt the Lord spoke that to me a while back and it just needs to be declared. Expect God to touch you anytime His word is spoken because He sent His word and healed.
All right, I have something extremely important to read to you—maybe not as important as what we just did, but I have to admit there hasn’t been a single bacon recall in 2018. However, there have been several vegetable recalls, just saying! Doctors are saying that each piece of bacon you eat takes nine minutes off of your life. Based on that math, I should have died in 1732!
Here’s one I haven’t read in a while; it’s the hormone guide. I need to update it every once in a while just to help you with your life. There are three categories: Dangerous, Safer, and Safest. Dangerous—what’s for dinner? Safer—can I help you with dinner? Safest—where would you like to go for dinner? Dangerous—what are you so worked up about? I love feeling your pain! Safer—could we be overreacting? Safest—here’s my paycheck. Dangerous—should you be eating that? Safer—you know, there are a lot of apples left; that’s not much safer! Safest—can I get you a piece of chocolate to go with that?
Here’s the last one: Dangerous—what did you do all day? Safer—I hope you didn’t overdo it today! Safest—I’ve always loved you in that robe!
All right, open your Bibles to Acts chapter 12, if you would please. Acts chapter 12. It’s amazing, these friends who were healed. I think I just mentioned the letter I received—they’re on their first real vacation in 34 years! Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the children? I’m guessing they are in their low 30s. Can you imagine being children who have never had a healthy mom? They were there when she got healed, and suddenly she’s able to do everything! They even sent me a video of them running around the pool in Hawaii, having a blast doing things they normally can’t do. It never gets old! How many of you have experienced a miracle in your body? Anyone? Look around the room; isn’t that extraordinary? It’s amazing! Thank you, Lord; do it again and again and again!
All right, Acts chapter 12. We’re going to read a pretty long portion of scripture, so I need you to hang with me. My favorite parts of the Bible are the stories where the lessons are easy to grasp—you know, like David and Goliath. Anyone can get that one! You have the little guy facing the big guy, and he wins; it’s just a good story! Daniel in the lion’s den—it’s all about trusting God. You see these themes throughout the stories. Well, Acts chapter 12 is one of those kinds of stories. The Lord notes something that we had better pay attention to, and it concerns prayer.
I want to talk to you about fervent, fiery, enduring prayer today because I have felt the summons of the Lord over my own life, and corporately I have felt the summons of the Lord to engage in a level of prayer that is new for many people, and certainly at the measure I believe He is calling us into will be new for probably all of us. So let’s go ahead and read the story.
Verse 1 of chapter 12 of Acts: «Now about that time, Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. Now it was during the days of unleavened bread.»
Stop right there just because I want to draw your attention to something. Please notice that Herod was motivated by what pleased the Jews. What’s important to understand is that both the religious spirit and the political spirit are governed by the fear of man. Both are manipulated by corporate public opinion, and it’s why, as we pray, as we elect officials, and we pray for our leaders, we must pray for courage: that they’ll make decisions based on the values of God, not public opinion. It’s vital!
But also church leaders. You’ll notice in Jesus’s day, the Pharisees would have discussions saying, «Well, if we answer this, the crowd will say this. If we answer that, this will happen.» They made their decisions based on public opinion, and we need courageous leaders in both the church and the public sector who know how to make decisions based on what God values, based on what’s right and wrong.
So, my speech is over. Let’s move on. Verse 4: «So when they arrested him, they put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.»
Verse 5: «Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.» Please take note of this! Constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. There’s no record of any prayer for James. I’m not saying there wasn’t prayer, but the Lord took note of the fervency, the consistency, and the enduring nature of the prayers of the saints for Peter.
Verse 6: «When Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers. The guards before the door were keeping the prison.»
Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him; a light shone in the prison. He struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, «Arise quickly!» His chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, «Gird yourself and tie on your sandals.» And so he did. The angel said to him, «Put on your garment and follow me.»
When he went out and followed him, he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and second guard post, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them on its own accord. They went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter had come to himself, he said, «Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from the expectation of the Jewish people.»
Stop right there for just a moment. How many of you have read Brother Yun’s book, «The Heavenly Man»? In his book, he was imprisoned in China; they had crushed his legs so severely he was not able to walk. He was in solitary confinement, and an angel came in, touched him, he was instantly healed, raised him up, and led him through a series of doors out of prison into a waiting cab where he got into the cab, and the angel departed. He was led to safety. The Lord still sets people free from prison! I don’t know what the prison guards did after they saw that Brother Yun was gone, but let’s just say he was a wanted man. He has such a wonderful story. One of the most humble men, we’ve had him here a number of times. What a gracious, gracious man! His story is so similar to Peter’s.
Let’s read on in this story because I want you to see what else happened. Verse 12: «When he considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.»
As Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer. When she recognized Peter’s voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate. It’s interesting: the angel opened one gate, but it took a little girl to open the next one!
So they said to her, «You are beside yourself!» She kept insisting that it was so. They said, «It is his angel.» Peter continued knocking. When they opened the door, it was him! They were astonished, but motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. He said, «Go tell these things to James and the brethren.» He departed and went to another place.
This is such a great story to me; it’s kind of humorous. I can relate to all the human parts of the Bible—Peter’s misgivings, all that stuff—I completely understand! But Peter comes and knocks on the gate while they’re praying for him to be released from prison. So when he knocks, they think, «It can’t be Peter because he’s in prison!» Our job is to pray for revival, not just have one! Some people become so locked into what they’re praying for that they never become open enough to receive the very thing that God is releasing. That was the case here.
And so, Peter comes in and, of course, is the good news! But here’s the part of the story that I want us to feast on a bit this morning. My biggest concern, and I bump up against this wall quite frequently—this theological barrier—is that there are many who just assume that whatever happens is the will of God, and they say, «Well, it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for a reason.»
Don’t misunderstand me: God can use anything, but it doesn’t mean He orchestrates everything. He’s big enough to reverse the effect of martyrdom. We know that martyrdom throughout church history, that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church—there’s no question. There are several hundred thousand martyrs a year to the gospel of Jesus Christ in places around the world. It’s astronomical how many people are killed for their faith every year. There’s no question that, while that causes the gospel not to retract, it actually increases the focus and intensity.
We know from our friends, the bishop of Baghdad, that how many people when they come to Christ and they get baptized in water, will be martyred within just a few weeks of their baptism. It’s just a crazy world we live in!
The point I want to make is, although God can use such a loss as the death of James, when the church bound together in fervent prayer, Peter’s life was spared. I would like to suggest that oftentimes what we are missing in the realm of breakthrough is because of the absence of fervent prayer. I’m glad that the Lord answers simple prayers—short prayers, brief prayers. I’ve told you stories before about how I’ve had a passing thought, a desire that I thought wasn’t even worthy of being mentioned in prayer, and in moments, He answers it. I’m so moved by His heart as a Father that He does that for me!
Years ago, I took on the challenge to study both Nehemiah and Ephesians because both of them are known for one-sentence prayers. I thought it was fascinating that Nehemiah could pray a one-sentence prayer in life that would affect the course of history over multiple nations—extraordinary! I love that you can pray from a place of pain, and God hears. I love that you can be angry and cry out to God, and He hears. You can even be wrong and bitter and cry out to God; just don’t stay there. Whatever condition you find yourself in, that’s a good place to start praying, but pray until you come into a place where you can sense and taste the heart of God because that’s where breakthroughs begin.
So many people use prayer as a complaint session. I met with a bunch of intercessors once, and I said, «How many of you have battled depression?» Almost all of them raised their hands. I said, «Well, you’re the ones that don’t pray then!» Your intercession needs to be prayer, not just a complaint! True prayer is where you come in and make an exchange. If you’re praying and there’s no change in you, then you weren’t praying; you were complaining!
He said to come to Him, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and He would give you rest. What is He saying? Bring me the heavy; I’ll give you the light. Let’s make the exchange! Prayer is supposed to be the exchange moment where we taste and touch the heart of God.
All right, let’s move on! So here’s a story where an answer came because of united prayer. First of all, united prayer is very difficult. At the level of intensity we’re talking about here, it is very challenging, and I’ll tell you why. Let’s say I have ten people here for a prayer meeting. We’ve got somebody over here—Tom, who’s working with the youth—and we’ve got Kathy, who’s working in the School of Ministry. We have Jay, who’s working in counseling. We’ve got all these different people: people in children’s ministry, those who work with the homeless, and people working over here in outreach. Typically, what will happen in a prayer meeting is each person will pray for their area of concern and burden—is that right? Absolutely!
But here’s the problem: when we only pray what we brought to the table, we don’t recognize when the favor of God is released over a specific prayer. Why is that important? Because we can be praying for God to provide for a youth camp, and we’ve got kids who want to come but just can’t afford it. Then the next person prays, «Lord, we need greater breakthrough with the homeless on the streets,» and in that moment, someone starts praying for drug addiction in our county. Suddenly, there’s faith in the room!
Every prayer prayed is valuable, but when we learn to pray in unity, it’s because we’re learning to pray what He’s breathing on, what He’s adding favor on. In that moment, you don’t repeat a prayer; you just find another angle to pray and lay another layer on it. Does that make sense?
If I repeat the same prayer, it does nothing. But if I’m praying and I can sense the heart of God for this addiction issue, I might say, «God, I ask that you would close up the supply of drugs, that you would cause people who bring drugs into the area to be caught, that this whole procedure would be stopped.» Then someone else prays, «God, we pray even for those who are dealing drugs, that if they have a Christian background, they would come to a place of conviction for what they know is wrong, and that you would deal with their hearts, leading them to repentance.»
What are we doing? Line after line, precept upon precept, layer after layer of prayer consistent with what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing. That is a key to united prayer, and it’s very difficult because we bring our own stuff to the table. In united prayer, everyone lays their agenda down to find out what He’s breathing on.
That’s the term I use; it’s where you can tell when He’s extending His favor on a specific prayer. It doesn’t mean it’s the only thing we pray about; it just means we pray until there’s breakthrough. I remember many years ago, my little brother was once actually little. He was about 11 months old or so and came very close to death. I remember that our whole family was concerned; he was in intensive care at the hospital.
I remember the home we lived in; I can give you the address but I won’t. I’ll just say it was on Flamingo Way, but I know the number. I even remember my phone number! I don’t remember what my number is now, but I remember my number then!
So I’m kidding! I remember my grandfather, my mom’s dad; he went into the living room and knelt by the couch. I was about 11 years old, and for my prayer life at that point, it was just «Jesus, heal Bobby, amen.» That was the extent of my prayer life!
My grandfather went into the living room. The family was down here; he was there for quite a while. I’ll never forget it! He got up and announced to the family, «Bobby will be okay!» Why? Because he prayed until there was a breakthrough!
I don’t remember how long—I think it was a couple of hours—but he was praying, and when he could tell there was a breakthrough, he got up and made that announcement to the family. He literally came within hours—about 8 to 12 hours—of death, and my parents went to the hospital. The doctor said, «Something happened at about 2 o’clock this afternoon,» which was when Grandpa got up off his knees. Something happened and changed, and he would be fine. They just helped in the recovery process.
It’s that relentless prayer that has confidence because we know the heart of God. See, when you pray as a servant, you beg for the master’s invasion. But when you pray as a son or daughter, you’re joining in a co-laboring role to see His heart manifest and demonstrated in a specific way.
I remember how many of you are old enough to remember when President Reagan was shot? Remember that day? I remember the day—obviously for that reason, but for another reason as well. That particular morning, I was sitting at my piano, singing a little chorus: «I just want to see Your face.» I just want to see your face—"So King of Glory, enter in; I lift up the gate of praise!»
While I was singing that phrase, I looked at the picture of my grandparents, my dad’s mom and dad. As I came to that phrase, «I just want to see Your face,» I looked at that picture and the Lord spoke clearly to me. He said, «That’s your grandpa’s desire. I’m bringing him home today.» It shocked me! I stopped playing the piano!
I thought, «It shouldn’t take too long to see if that was from the Lord or if it was from pizza or something else.» So I continued to play. A little bit later, my mom called and said, «We just received the news that Grandpa went home to be with Jesus today.» So it happened that day, that moment.
I told her the story of what I had just heard and experienced about the Lord taking Grandpa home. It was just a little while later we got the phone call that President Reagan had been shot! So of course, you don’t want that to happen to anybody.
We began to pray for him, turned the news on, and watched the reports. I remember I would watch for a bit, then I’d go back into my bedroom, kneel next to my chair, and pray, interceding for God to spare his life. But something happened during this time—I would pray for President Reagan, and every time I would go to pray for him, my heart turned to pray for James Brady, the press secretary.
I couldn’t figure out why; I would pray for President Reagan like I was supposed to, but I would keep being pulled into praying for James Brady. So I prayed for him a bit. I’d come back out, didn’t hear much news about him but I’d hear about Reagan, and I’d go back to pray, but my heart was still turned toward Brady.
So I did throughout that day; that was my routine. We eventually got the news that President Reagan was going to be fine. Fast forward several years—I don’t remember how long. A few years later, Dick Mills, who was a wonderful friend of ours, now home with Jesus, came to service frequently in Weaverville and did the same here in Redding. He came to the church in Weaverville and told us a story.
He knew someone, I think it was a friend of his, who was in the emergency room when Reagan and Brady were brought in. Brady had been covered with a sheet because he was gone; there was no hope for him. They put him to the side and worked on the president. Someone looked over, saw some sort of movement, and were able to resuscitate him. Life came back to him!
I don’t know the extent; I just know they had given up! The point was, the Holy Spirit sees what’s going on and knows how to lead us into prayers that make history and bring about significance. I have no doubt that thousands, if not millions of people around the world, were interceding and praying for just that kind of miracle to happen—to restore life to this man who had been shot, who was Reagan’s press secretary.
The point is, I may have my opinion on how to pray, but when I get into the presence, I tap into His opinion on how to pray. That’s the whole deal: learning how to pray from the One who is directing traffic, from the One who knows the ins and outs and the real issues! You may be praying, for example, «Someone has an obvious problem"—let’s take drug addiction again—and you start praying. Every time you begin to pray for them, you end up praying for them to be healed in relation to their father!
You don’t know why you keep going to that, but you do. Eventually, that reconciliation takes place, and the drug addiction was only a symptom of what was actually happening. The point is, in prayer, He brings us behind the scenes to see what’s really going on.
A good scripture for this is John 15, where Jesus says, «I no longer call you servants; I call you friends,» adding a clarifying phrase: «because servants do not know what the master is doing.»
What’s the point? There is a point in a relationship with God where the Lord lets you go behind the scenes to see His motive, His heart, His thought, His ambition, His dream, His desire—all of these things become exposed.
Now, let’s change it from the friend to the son or daughter. In that position, you start feeling the heart of God for something in a way where you know that there’s an answer that is both available and possible, but it must be pursued with relentless prayer.
I believe the Lord is about to give us a pretty extreme upgrade! I’ve been feeling this for months and have made mention of it here and there, but I feel like there’s an upgrade being released over us as a body of believers in the area of prayer.
Let me be more specific: unrelenting, fervent, fiery prayer that contends for breakthrough, contends for answers until an answer comes! I’m so thankful for the things that happen simply! I don’t like the notion that I have to pray for three weeks to have something happen.
I don’t like that. One of the things I was so thankful for was being exposed to what the Lord has been doing in the area of healing. For example, we’ve had situations where somebody has hepatitis C. They did all the tests and were diagnosed. They told this in a small group, and one of our small group leaders went over, patted him on the shoulder, said, «Well then, be healed!» and walked down. That was it! Then they went back to the doctor, and there was no trace of it anywhere—just gone!
I’m glad that happens. I’m glad sometimes there’s the decree that’s made that’s long-term. Sometimes, in a group like this, we pray for somebody by text and that person is healed!
I’m glad for that! But that is supposed to give us confidence in His nature; it’s not supposed to teach us to be spoiled to only celebrate the quick answers. Because we know His nature and His heart, we’re willing to stick with something until we see the breakthrough!
It’s the revelation of His heart that is to endear us to the process of working until the breakthrough comes. In my thinking, and I’m in process like everybody else, when there isn’t immediate breakthrough in an area, it’s because there are circumstances wrapped around that problem that we don’t know how to dismantle.
The thing about fervent prayer is you never have to completely understand why; you just can’t stop! You don’t stop! It’s not prayer to ease my conscience: «But I said I prayed!» It’s not that kind of prayer! It’s the kind of prayer that lives from the conviction that God’s will must be done.
I remember years ago, a friend of mine was in a court case. He was on a jury, and the Lord spoke to him when he walked into the trial room: «Justice must prevail.» When it was a hung jury—ten said guilty, two said not guilty—the Lord still spoke to him, telling him justice must prevail.
When the judge asked if they could come to an agreement, everyone said, «Nope, we’re hung.» They had been laboring forever, and it was 10 to 2. Yet in his heart, he still had this word: Justice must prevail. So when the judge asked him, he said, «No, I think we can come to a conclusion,» not knowing why he would say that, but still having that word. It meant he couldn’t stop with what he was assigned to do.
When the judge asked them, «Is everyone agreed?» They were all mad at him for wanting to come to a conclusion. He walked out the door. As soon as he did, he looked at the two who said no and said, «You say he’s not guilty because of this sin in your life,» and he identified what was secretly going on.
He turned to the second one and said, «You say he’s not guilty because of this,» and they looked at each other and said, «I’ll change my vote if you change yours!» Moments later, the justice was served.
You carry out the will of the Lord! Stop adding political opinions to what’s going on. Stop adding your own personal flavor. The will of God is what we hunger for; it’s what we have an appetite for!
Jesus put it this way: His food fills me! «My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.» The will of God nourishes and challenges us, but here’s the big prize at the end of the journey, and it’s not at the end of our life; it’s at the end of every day.
The scripture tells us that answered prayers give us access to this realm in God called fullness of joy. In God’s economy, there’s a link between answers to prayer, co-laboring with God, seeing history change through your prayers, and access to extreme fullness of joy! It’s in John 16, I think verse 24: «Ask, and it will be given to you, that your joy may be full.»
The fullness of joy is somehow connected to you and me learning who He’s made us to be in that place—not just praying occasional casual prayers, but hearing the heart of God. What’s on His heart? What’s on His mind? What does He have a passion for in this moment?
I join by praying what’s on my heart, but when I begin to sense what He’s breathing on, I cannot let go until there’s breakthrough! Why? Because we’re in the position of shaping history, and we shape it through prayer. Peter’s life was spared because of constant, fervent prayer.
Father, I ask You to release a mantle—like that garment that Elijah carried—over this body of believers. Extend a grace over this family of believers, over our Bethel TV family for prayer; help us taste joy through answers, through breakthroughs at a level we’ve never known before. Show us what it is to partner with You, to co-labor with You, to join our hearts with Yours and see Your will done on earth as it is in heaven!
This is our cry! We pray this in Jesus' wonderful name! Amen!
All right, are you still with me? Seven minutes! Don’t go anywhere according to the clock. I’m just going by the clock!
I really do believe the Lord is calling us. I can feel it in my life, so I don’t always try to pass on to everybody else what He’s doing with me, but in this case, I feel a very strong mandate that He’s going to give us access to some things in Him that are new for us!
Is anyone else ready to learn some new things and make adjustments in prayer? I pray for that! It means change is in order. You can’t come into that kind of breakthrough without making some changes!
Just the fact that we have said «yes» means we’re willing to make whatever adjustments and changes are necessary. So amen to that!
Now before we dismiss, I want to give the opportunity for anyone here who would say, «Bill, I don’t know what it is to be born again. I want to be forgiven of sin. I want to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be adopted and brought into His family! I want to know what it is to be changed from the inside out! I want to know what that looks like. I really desire to have peace with God.»
If there’s anybody in the room who would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know I’m at peace with God,» I want you to put a hand up right where you are. We’re just going to make a quick agreement with you. Put your hand up if that’s you. Don’t pass a moment where you can know what it is to be forgiven of sin. Real quick!
Is there someone where—sorry, is there a hand raised right over here? Okay! All right! Is there anyone else? Put your hand up if that’s you real quick.
Okay, I want you to go ahead and stand. I just—I don’t ever want to have a meeting where we don’t provide the opportunity for people to come to know Jesus. So for anyone who raised their hands, we have a ministry team over here that we know and trust, and I’m going to ask our ministry team to come up to the front.
Tom, are you taking this down? Ministry team, please come up to the front. We really want to agree with you and believe for miracles right now! So if that’s you, in just a moment Tom will release you. You still owe me four minutes and 48 seconds! Does that mean I have four minutes to say whatever I want?
I’m just kidding; I’m not going to do that! Just kidding!
I was sitting there reminded of two weeks ago when Bill spoke on a Sunday night. He talked about an invitation for fervent prayer and breakthrough, specifically for the next three months—for just the biggest breakthrough we’ve ever seen—but it’s connected to fervent prayer. So I just wanted to release that!
He released that just two weeks ago. How many of you need breakthrough and things aren’t moving in the areas you need breakthrough? So Lord, we declare right now the spirit of God for fervent prayer and those things that we would just turn our hearts and affections toward You, that the fire of God would just burn!
Just fire it up with the person next to you and say the word «fire!» Fire of God!
Amen! Amen!
Well, if you need prayer for a miracle in your body or agreement for something for breakthrough, our ministry team wants to be here to serve you. So go ahead and begin to make your way forward, and we will get to you as soon as we can!
God bless you guys! Have a great day! Enjoy the weather! We’ll see you tonight!