Bill Johnson - Testimonies Create Culture
I’ll pay you later. Thank you! Very, very nice, and Kelly’s album looks good. I ordered it during the last service; I downloaded it and it’s sitting right down here. Thank you, Jesus, it’s now here! I shall be listening to that on the way home today. Hey, I felt like something I was supposed to do today. It’s like we’re pulling our car into the bay at the repair shop. We’re going to get a little tune-up—something that we have pretty good training in and good exposure to. We’ve been working on the concept of testimony and the prophetic nature of testimony for many years. To do this right, I’ve got to take you on a little bit of a personal journey.
Oh goodness, I don’t know, thirty-eight years ago, I was pastoring in Weaverville. I was in my office, reading and praying in the morning, going through the book of Revelation. I came to this verse in Revelation 19:10. It says, «The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.» When I came to that verse, it was one of those moments you know you have with God’s words. It’s like it’s in neon lights, and something happened here that I can’t explain. I love learning here first because your heart can fit where your head can’t fit. He invites us into things we have a perception of here that we can’t comprehend, and it’s a wonderful way to learn.
So anyway, I sensed life in that verse and actually stopped my reading. I looked at that verse and said, «God, there’s something here I know you want to teach me,» and I asked Him to please show me what this means. I went on with my morning, and it was that afternoon—maybe an hour or two later—I was in my office, just doing some work. One of the guys from church came and stood in the doorway from the sanctuary. My church facility at the time had a door leading into my office. He stood in the doorway, and when he walked in, I said, «Bill, come on in, sit down!» He said, «No, I have to get back to work. I just wanted to tell you about the miracle God did in healing my marriage.»
He stood there in the doorway and gave me a three- or four-minute synopsis of the miracle God had done in his marriage. I thanked him for the report, and when he turned to leave, he got about this far away and turned around. He said, «You can tell this story to anyone you want. You can tell my story to anyone you want.» I knew in that moment that something just happened that was connected to my prayer that morning. I couldn’t have taught on it; I couldn’t have explained it, but I could tell they were related. They had just shared a testimony with me, and he was giving me permission to repeat that story.
So let’s take the verse: «The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.» Let’s say it together: «The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.» Let’s do it again: «The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.»
Alright, number one, the testimony of Jesus is a spoken or written record of anything He’s done. The testimony of Jesus is a spoken or written record of anything that He’s done. The spirit of prophecy is that prophetic anointing, that prophetic mantle. So what is prophecy then? Prophecy is in two realms as I understand—one is to foretell the future. A prophet describes something that’s about to happen on such and such a day. But I think predominantly, prophecy is used not to foretell but to do something else; that is to change present situations.
The prophetic is used to make a decree that actually changes the reality that an individual, a family, a church, a city, or a nation is facing. When the word of the Lord is released, it changes the situation. So think of it this way: The testimony of Jesus carries with the weight of heaven to alter the reality of a problem or situation we’re facing. It carries that—that it’s written into the DNA of a testimony that it has the ability to change reality.
I was in Rochester, Minnesota, with a dear friend at an Assemblies of God church, and I had spoken at a night meeting. I spent some time praying for a young lady who had been in a snowmobile accident. Her ankle was put back together with pins and metal pieces. She had pain and restricted movement; she was dealing with a lot of issues in her ankle. The only way I know to learn in some of these things is to either have a mentor or to experiment. Since I didn’t know anyone who knew anything about the power of the prophetic nature of the testimony of Jesus, we had to experiment.
The safest way to experiment is with people that you know and trust, people with whom you live accountable. So that if you overextend yourself, they can reel you back in and help you clean up your mess. But you have to be willing to experiment if you’re going to touch new things. This gal comes to me the next morning and says, «Bill, you prayed for me last night.» I said, «Yeah? How is your ankle?» She said, «When I got up this morning, I was getting dressed and my husband looked at my leg and said, 'Hey, that wasn’t there before! '» She looked down and realized she was actually missing a part of her calf muscle because of the accident, and it grew back overnight!
I thought, «Well, that’s so cool!» I said, «Tell her, you know, we’ve probably got twenty or thirty people in this meeting—it’s a morning meeting.» I said, «Tell them the story.» So she tells her testimony about the accident and the missing muscle, and how it grew back overnight. As soon as she starts going back to her seat, there’s a gal sitting on the front row from Toronto who was a friend of the house. She was visiting, and she walked right up to me after the gal leaves. She said, «If God did that for her, certainly He would do that for me.»
She had a brilliant understanding of the kingdom: that number one, God is no respecter of persons, and what He’s done for one He’ll do for another. He doesn’t categorize people where some get special things and others get the crumbs; it’s not how He works. Number two, she understood that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, if He’s done something at another time, He’ll do it again.
She said, «If God did that for her, certainly He would do that for me.» So I called the girl who just got healed back. I said, «Come back here!» Then the pastor’s wife came up, and they prayed for her. The woman had been in an accident and had to go through therapy to learn how to walk again because she was missing part of the muscle in her leg. That’s why she wanted prayer.
So the pastor’s wife and this young lady come up, they lay hands on her, and they watch as the muscle forms and is recreated. It’s a creative miracle at that moment—instantaneously! That’s amazing! Two other women came up; it was like an epidemic of calf muscle problems! How do you get that many people in such a small crowd who all have something similar with their leg muscle?
So, two other gals came up—one had been kicked by a horse and had destroyed a portion of her muscle. She had a growth in its place. The other one, I don’t remember the details. But they prayed, and they watched the growth, the tumor, disappear, just like the fourth one. We celebrated the kindness of the Lord in doing such unusual things in such a small group of people!
I flew from there to another city in Tennessee, and I don’t remember the name of the town; it wasn’t Nashville, not a place I normally go to. I was with a good friend, and I shared the stories of these healings, these four leg muscle miracles, and a medical doctor was there. He had broken his leg a year earlier; the muscles had atrophied, he had restricted movement, and a lot of pain.
He wanted prayer, so he came up. I had a bunch of students with me, and they prayed for him. He came to me sometime later in the evening and wanted to give me a report. I asked, «What’s going on with your leg?» He said, «The pain is all gone! I’ve got all the movement back!» But I was curious about the muscle issue, you know, because we had a roll going here with muscles just healing, and I asked, «How’s the atrophied muscles in your leg?» He said, «I can feel the skin stretching.»
I flew home and shared those five stories here on a Sunday morning. There was a gal here; I think it was two weeks later, we were in a small meeting. We used to take some time to pray over some folks. In a separate private meeting with maybe fifteen or twenty of them, she said, «I need to tell you a story.» She said, «Two weeks ago, do you remember when you gave the testimonies of the healing of the leg muscles?» I said, «Yeah, I do.»
She said, «I broke my leg a year earlier; the muscles had atrophied, I had restricted movement, and pain. While you were giving the testimonies, my leg turned hot!» We had since learned that hot is good! Her leg turned hot, and she was completely healed without anybody praying!
So, what happened is I started stewarding these stories. I would experiment. I would give a story, and then we would find out what God was doing. How many of you have heard testimonies before in church—deliverance from drugs, healing of bodies, whatever it might be? The stories I grew up hearing were always so encouraging and exciting, but I don’t remember a single time in all my years of growing up where a testimony was given, and a miracle followed as a direct result of the story. Yet, it is in God’s plan; it’s in His DNA.
Adjusting how we think actually puts us in line for how He moves—adjusting how we think, adjusting what we expect. I was on the coast with our students, and we had a meeting. It ended up being the only meeting in my life where I lost complete control. I’m not a control freak; I just like to direct traffic. I like to make sure this person gets healed and this person gives a testimony.
But I lost control of everything. I finally quit and just got into the fray with people. We had an empty wheelchair being passed up over people’s heads to the front, and a gal with permanent nerve damage down one side of her body was completely healed. A blind eye was opened, deafness was healed—just all kinds of stuff. The students came to me and said, «We just prayed for this little boy with club feet, and God healed him!» I said, «Bring him to me! I want to see him!»
They went and got this little guy; he was three years old, and his feet were twisted. He had scabs on the tops of his feet because they were on the bottom of his feet where he would drag them. So, a little guy named Chris is bending over, playing with the scabs because they were out of view before, and now he sees them. One of his little friends—a little girl—comes up to him and says, «Run, Chris, run!» He takes off in a twenty-foot circle and comes running back to this little girl, saying, «I can run! I can run!» His eyes are lit up with joy; oh man, it’s enough to wreck you!
He comes back, exclaiming, «I can run!» So, we bring the story home, of course, and I share the story here. We had someone visiting us from out of state. They had three children, if I remember right, and one of them was a little girl, almost two years old. Her feet were turned in so severely that she would trip over her own feet when she tried to run in her child care.
So, I taught on the concept of the testimony and then gave the testimony of the club feet. She hears the concept that God intends to duplicate miracles. Did I mention this? The Hebrew word, the Old Testament word for testimony, comes from a word that means «to do again.» The nature of keeping a testimony—keeping a record of what God wants to duplicate—is meant to be a present tense reality that releases the activity of God into the present situation.
So, I taught on that briefly, and she said in her heart, «I’ll take that for my little girl.» When the meeting was over, she went over to get her little girl, and her little girl’s feet were already straight! Nobody prayed for it! Nobody paid for it! Come on! Wow, that hurts! A friend of mine would say, «If that doesn’t light your fire, your wood is wet!» That’s amazing!
I take those two stories, and I was with Mahesh and Bonnie Shah. How many of you know the Shahs in North Carolina? Wonderful people, dear friends of ours! We ministered there every year with them, and they’ve been here many times. I was there discussing a series of testimonies, and after the meeting, we spent a little time with Mahesh and Bonnie, and we had a driver who took us from the hotel to the meeting and back. He was from Brazil, and he said, «I just got a phone call from—» I don’t remember now if it was his sister-in-law or his sister. He said, «I just got a phone call; my sister was watching tonight’s meeting online, and she has a little girl, about ten or eleven years old; her feet are deformed.» She’s a beautiful young lady, but not only is there the inconvenience of a foot problem, but people just stare at her feet.
So, the mother is watching online. She hears the series of stories, and at the end of the meeting, she calls out to her daughter, who was down at the other end of the house. She calls her name, and the little girl comes into the hallway. Her mother says, «Take your shoes off.» She removes her shoes, and the mother says, «Come here.» As she walks toward her mother, God completely heals her feet!
It’s not a tool we use to manipulate; it’s the privilege to broadcast the nature of God. Every testimony reveals the nature of God and His covenant with man. I was in Modesto, and I had a wonderful Assemblies of God church there, which is my history, so I have a special fondness for Assemblies. I was there, and it ended up being another healing meeting—great stuff was happening. But this gal came up to me toward the end. Her first words out of her mouth were, «The voices stopped.»
I went, «Alright. Help me understand; give me some context here.» She said, «The voices stopped.» I said, «Okay. Tell me what was happening.» At that point, her father walked up, who was a retired surgeon, and he begins to explain to me that she has bipolar disorder. She’s on medication, and her particular issue was that she was constantly hearing voices. Now, nobody prayed for this; it was during worship. The voices stopped, and she’s trying to figure out what to do because she has lived with this for many years—probably about thirteen years of medication and treatments.
So, now both the dad and daughter are talking to me, wanting to know what to do. I tried to give them advice on how to navigate this, that God is doing something amazing. I believe it was a Thursday night, and not the next Sunday but a week later, I was standing back here when this gentleman walks up to me and says, «Do you remember me? I was in Modesto, and you talked to me about my daughter.» His words to me were, «I have my daughter back! I have my daughter back!» Absolutely no effects, no medication—nothing! She is completely restored in every possible way! It was during worship, and it happened during worship!
I stood up here and shared this testimony that we had this case of bipolar being healed. There were two men in the room at that time, both of whom had bipolar disorder for over twenty years each, and the moment it came out of my mouth, they were instantly healed! Sometimes this is a process, but in this situation, it was instantaneous. We quit counting bipolar healings about ten or twelve years ago, but for a season, we kept counting them, and there were something like sixty or sixty-five of them.
Only three or four were actually prayed for; the rest were healed either in worship or through a testimony—just hearing the report of the Lord. Now, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The Old Testament testimony comes from a word that means «to do again.» In the New Testament, it’s the prophetic nature of the work of God. I want to read a quote to you. How many of you know Charles Spurgeon was one of the great, great heroes of the faith? An amazing pastor from England made this comment on July 17, 1859—no, I was not there, but it was recorded.
Here’s what he said: He preached a message called «The Story of God’s Mighty Acts,» and here’s the statement he made: «When people hear about what God used to do, one of the things they say is, 'Oh, that was a very long while ago.' I thought it was God that did it! Has God changed? Is He not an immutable God, the same yesterday, today, and forever? Does that not furnish an argument to prove that what God has done at one time, He can do at another? Nay, I think I shall push it a little further and say what He has done once is a prophecy of what He intends to do again. Whatever God has done is to be looked upon as a precedent. Let us, with earnestness, seek what God would restore to us in the faith of these old men, that we may richly enjoy grace as in the days of old.»
So here in 1859, the body of Christ had an opportunity to step into a reality that I don’t think was very common. I’ve never read one other person write or talk about this reality, and yet it’s as plain as can be in Scripture—the nature of testimony and the spirit of prophecy. Yet Spurgeon makes this announcement with incredible influence, and I don’t know what happened, but it appears to me that it just got reduced to a good sermon instead of an invitation to explore what might be possible if we treasured the record of what God has done.
Now, fast forward—The book of Deuteronomy is the book that, from what I understand, young Jewish men need to learn and memorize. It’s kind of the cultural book of the books of law. I love it; I used to read it and reread it because in it were the instructions to train your children, to raise them up in specific ways, which is a huge part of my life.
I was reading through it, and it says in Deuteronomy 6, «Keep the commandments, keep the statutes, and keep the testimony.» Keep the commandments, keep the statutes, and keep the testimony. We know what it means to keep a commandment; He says, «You worship on this day. You worship on this day.» He would give them specific commandments: «You offer this kind of an offering, this kind of a sacrifice; just do what He says.»
So, keeping a commandment is to obey God. What is keeping the statutes? Keeping the statutes of God is where He teaches us His value system. In a commandment, He tells you what to think; in a statute, He’s telling you how to think. That was better than your response! In a commandment, He’s telling you what to think; in the statutes, He’s teaching you how to think. He’s actually showing you His perception of reality and how He wants us to navigate life.
So, He says, «Keep the commandments, keep the statutes, and then keep the testimony.» How do you keep a testimony? It’s not like doing something; it’s not like sacrificing an ox or something. You’re supposed to hold on to something. My conclusion, through studying especially in the Gospel of Mark and the lifestyle of Jesus, is that keeping the testimony basically means this to me: I hold the record of God’s interventions among people so close to me that they become the lenses through which I see present problems or challenges. In other words, I interpret them through a history with God.
A prescribed history with God has now given me lenses through which to see possibility in a problem instead of just the problem—the nature of God in a situation. How is God going to become triumphant now in this situation? Oh, it’s amazing! But we have the ability to steward the record of God’s supernatural interventions so well that they become how we see, the place from which we think, the place from which we see, the place from which we act, the place from which we pray.
Testimony is not just an exciting, encouraging moment in a service or in our lives. It’s much more than that! It’s like Elijah standing in front of you prophesying. That’s what a testimony is: It is prophesying, declaring the heart of God, the nature of God, the covenant of God, and it is available to you.
I want you to look with me at Psalm 68 if you would. I had a guy come up to me once at a conference. He said, «I’m thirty-four years old; twenty-five years ago, when I was nine, I broke my leg. When it healed, it grew past the other one an inch and a half, and I’ve got problems with my back now. I’m a contractor; I’ve got issues with my back because my broken leg, when it healed, just got happy and went past the other one!» That is, he said, «Have you ever seen a leg shrink before?» He wanted to know if there’s a testimony for it.
I figured if we haven’t, there’s always got to be a first time, right? So I paused for a moment and thought, «Yes, I have seen it happen.» I was in an Italian restaurant with a pastor friend of mine in Sacramento. He had been in a snowmobile accident, and when they put him back together, apparently, they had too many parts, because he had a leg that was too long.
So, he’s telling me in the restaurant, and I said, «Just turn your chair to the side.» So in the Italian restaurant—you know, with all the nice linens and everything—I said, «Just give me your leg.» I commanded the long leg to shrink, and it shrank just like that! He went back to the therapist later, and the therapist said, «Everything’s perfect; it’s just right!»
So I told the guy, «Yes, I’ve seen it happen. Get a chair!» Of course, if I’ve never seen it, I get a chair anyway, because there’s got to be a first time. He sits down, and I’m holding his leg. Sure enough, he’s got a leg that is an inch and a half longer than the other one! Sorry, I’m laughing. I’m holding his legs up, and sure enough, one is an inch and a half longer than the other.
I just had this moment where I thought, «Should I shrink the long one, or should we see if God would grow the normal one?» It took me ten seconds to ponder, but I kind of surprised myself by saying, «You know what? Let’s see the normal leg grow.» It’s kind of like the guy who says, «I don’t want to think before I speak; I want to be just as surprised as everyone else!» That’s honestly my question; how do I pray now?
I remembered the word «shalom» in the Bible—it means peace—but it’s one of the fullest, most pregnant words in the Bible. It’s sound mind, it’s prosperity financially, it’s divine health; it’s anything you would ever ask for in life. It’s wrapped up in that word. So, what I’m thinking is that word’s got to cover this! So, I prayed with all the confidence I could: «Jesus, help me. I pray that you release the peace, the shalom of heaven over this man.» It evened out perfectly!
The testimony prophesies! Sometimes you just do dumb things, and the Lord honors it anyway. I was in another city where a gal was completely deaf, and her ear opened up. She had bone cancer, and they replaced that bone with metal. They made her an inch and a half too long because they knew she would grow into it, if she didn’t grow anymore.
So she was having the same kind of issue. She asked for her deaf ear to open, and then prayed for a leg. Having had a recent experience with growing the wrong leg, that whole situation was fresh in my mind. I thought, «I’m not messing with this.» She was laid out on the floor, so I got on the floor and spoke to the leg, and it actually shrank! The metal part came back into line. She came to me the next day and said, «I’m so glad you had the metal leg shrink!»
I asked why, and she said, «Because if you didn’t, the doctors would have said, 'See? We told you you’d grow into it! ' If I go the other way,» so sometimes you look good when you don’t deserve it! That’s my conclusion!
Psalm 78—are you there? We’ve got a few minutes left. I said 68. You know what? Just have a good time in 68 because it’s a great chapter—Let God arise! His enemies be scattered; it’s a great chapter.
But I’ll be reading out of Psalm 78. If you want to join me, join me. «Verse 3 is referring to dark sayings and parables. He says, 'Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.'»
What just happened there? Now think while you’re reading this. They are being exhorted to train their children not only with the report of the law of God, the commandments, but to train them with the report of His wonderful works—which is what? That’s a testimony! Yes!
«He established a testimony in Jacob. He appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children.» What? That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born—that they may arise and declare them to their children!
So if you can see this was a pattern of a value system for the spoken or written record of all that God’s done, to be given to this generation—they would give it to the next generation; they’d give it to the next generation! Now it tells us why, and this is important: «That they may set their hope in God.»
There’s something about the testimony that conditions or positions a child or an adult to place hope in God. When a trial comes, their instinctive response is, «I’m going to trust God. He’s the God who works wonders. I don’t understand what He’s going to do; I don’t know how He’s going to do it, but I’m going to trust Him.» Where did that come from? It came from the clouds of their heart, so to speak, being seated with this thought that God is faithful in impossible situations.
Here it says that they may set their hope in God and not forget His works, keeping His commandments. Are you guys still alive? Are you all awake? What I want you to notice is not forgetting the works of God and keeping the commandments. The testimony and the courage to obey are connected.
This is a big deal because what we do for ourselves, what we do for our children, our grandchildren, we set the stage for them to have courage. It takes courage to obey God! It takes courage! We want courageous obedience, radical obedience, out of our lives—that’s what we want!
Here he says we keep the testimony going through multiple generations. Why? So they will put hope in God and that they won’t forget the works of God and will have the courage to obey God. Now he illustrates it in the next three verses.
«That the children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.» They did not keep the covenant of God; they refused to walk in His law. «They forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.»
Okay, let’s walk through these three verses together. The children of Ephraim are armed. In other words, they’re prepared for battle. They’re skilled, they’re trained for battle—they’ve got all the equipment necessary. «The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.»
So why did they turn back in cowardice when there was conflict? Verse 10 tells you because they didn’t keep the covenant of God; they refused to walk in His law. How many know that if you’re not walking in obedience, spiritual warfare is not where you want to be? Because you become very vulnerable.
So, they turned back in a day of battle. Why? Because they had not been walking in obedience. Why weren’t they walking in obedience? Verse 11 tells us: «They forgot His works and the wonders that He had shown them.»
There’s something about the testimony that instinctively breathes into our soul a courage for radical obedience. It’s a part of the process! It’s how you keep strong in your confidence and faith in God. What happens if we decline in sharing testimony? If we see miracles less, we expect them less.
If we expect them less, we talk about them less. If we talk about them less, we see them less. If we see them less, we expect less. There’s this downward spiral down to the point where miracles have become a mere part of our history—sometime ago, God used to do such and such—which is where so much of the church is right now. It was in their history.
It was in Israel’s history; it was in the book of Acts; it was the memory of something that happened back there, but it’s not a current reality. It’s not a present tense experience! The testimony is supposed to become that which invites us into this relational journey where we learn how to take risks to see what God might do! And it’s simply because I’ve been built up by the record of the supernatural interventions of God.
I love it when God gives us a glimpse of what He’s doing, because it’s fun to gain understanding. But oftentimes He moves, and I’m just a clueless observer, frantically trying to learn! I’m not a facilitator in the sense that I made anything happen! I’ve told Him, «God, I just want to be in the room! It doesn’t have to come from me; I just want to be a part!»
There are things He does—the moment in Dallas where I prayed for this individual who, with the lightning of God, literally went through him from head to toe, and he was completely delivered and healed of schizophrenia! He came to me a year later in his right mind—completely healed—because God brought a miracle to him. He ended up going to Africa and ministering. I think he personally was able to bring liberty and freedom to about forty people who were considered insane, mentally gone!
It’s a testimony—it’s like God has given you a priceless gem. How many know if somebody comes to you and says, «I’ll give you a million dollars if you can wear this ring that’s worth ten million dollars—you can’t lose it, but you have to wear it»? How many of you think if you’ve got that ring on your hand, you’re going to be looking at it all day long? You’re going to be wrapping tape around it, doing all kinds of stuff to make sure you don’t lose it! You’re aware of the value of what’s on your hand.
Are you aware of the value of what’s in your mouth? It’s the record; it’s the revelatory testimony of the heart, the nature, the covenant of God that actually invites people into a personal relationship with Jesus. Paul, when he was in trouble, would revert to his personal story, to his own testimony. It’s not just the miracles of healing; the deliverance—salvation is the greatest miracle of all, and everybody in this room has that kind of story.
I believe that God wants to give us an upgrade. This will sound a little strange, but actually, the whole thing’s been rather strange. If you want to change the atmosphere of a room—say, in a restaurant; you go into a restaurant with three or four people—take the first twenty minutes only to share miracle stories.
I don’t mean miracle stories to impress the people around you, but to change the atmosphere! The angelic realm is fascinated by your perspective of Jesus, the Son of God, and they love hearing the stories of what you’ve had happen, what you’ve seen, what you know about Him! They are enthralled with Him! Every story we share gives them another glimpse of what He’s like through the eyes of someone who is redeemed—simply sharing stories.
I feel like the Lord would just give us an upgrade in this area. We’re going to be touching, you know; I’m thankful beyond words for what I’ve seen happen, what we’ve seen happen in this room, what we’ve seen happen in our city. It’s just floor me sometimes.
I get in here early on Sunday mornings, and I walk around. I just remember: «Oh, colon cancer was healed here,» a woman after fifty-some years in a wheelchair gets out right there, after a stroke, she walks right over here. MS—multiple sclerosis—was healed. West Nile—no M.E.—this same person had several conditions and they were healed. Just walk around this room—a guy who was run over by a fourteen-ton truck completely crushed his ankle, and he receives prayer over here. There’s a pop, and it’s completely healed.
Just go through the story—one after the other! The woman who could hardly open her mouth because she broke her jaw ten years earlier had very little movement; it was extremely painful to open her mouth wide. The dentists didn’t have time to give her any kind of Novocain because of the pain she suffered with, and yet, one Sunday morning, just simply praying for those with broken bones—she’s instantly completely healed right back over here! A man with prostate cancer got healed. A woman down here—a tumor in her breast—just simply dissolves! And the stories go on and on and on!
There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them, but none of them are badges of honor. They’re all records of a God who is willing to work in and through very imperfect people! He just looks for people who have a value for His nature and will give Him an opportunity to do what He does best; He works in the impossible.
I’m in the journey, and I believe this fall season, we’ve got some stuff coming up in a couple weeks, three weeks maybe; we’re going to be targeting this even more—not the testimony side, but the miracle realm. Because I believe it’s a season for an upgrade in this season, and it’s honestly for everybody in this room!
You know, Jesus asked the questions of His disciples when they were bewildered by the challenge He had just given them. They were literally beside themselves, bewildered. So, He asked them a series of questions: «Can you see?» And you can tell they’re not answering. So He says, «Can you hear?» They’re still just staring. Then He says, «Can you remember?»
Those questions have helped me incredibly. Because there are times I’m always trying to see—always trying to see what is God doing—I’m always trying to hear what He’s saying. So let’s just say in a moment like this, I’m trying to discern what it is the Lord is doing around the room. He comes to me and says, «Can you see?» and my heartfelt response is: «No, I don’t see anything!»
So He says, «What can you hear?» Well my hearing’s always better than my seeing, but at the moment, I don’t hear anything. Then He says, «Can you remember?» Yes, I can remember! I can remember flying back from New Zealand after having spent some time with a great hero of the faith for me, Winky Pratty. He had a stroke; part of his brain literally just blew up, and he was completely healed, restored in his right mind.
I was on the plane thinking about this miracle of healing with the brain, and I recall to my mind Roland Baker, a wonderful friend of our house. He had x-rays of his brain actually dying, and the Lord completely healed him, raised him up! So I’m thinking on the plane, flying back from New Zealand—these are the two smartest men I have ever met, and God restored their brains!
I bet you God is healing brains! I said, «God, provide the healing!» I said, «Can you see?» I don’t see much! Can you hear? I try sometimes; I hear. «Can you remember?» Yes, I can remember! The better I remember, the better I hear; the more I hear, the better I see!
So, we came in here on a Sunday, and I called out: «God is healing brains!» Right back here—remember this, Kevin? You were right back here praying for this young lady—we have the testimony on video. She was dying! She was dying from terminal systemic lupus of the brain. Chris had a word of knowledge that somebody had a blow to the head.
She was right back there. When she would get up in the morning, sometimes she’d pass out and be unconscious for thirty days—thirty days—she was dying of that illness. Chris has this word of knowledge: «God is healing brains.» And what happens? She’s completely healed! Her mother looks at her the next morning and says, «You look like you did before the accident!»
She came to the School of Ministry; I think she’s in Oxford right now—she’s in some smart school because she’s a smartie! So God healed a young kid over here! He had a head that was misshapen because of abuse; he was two years old, I think he was two, and his head was misshapen. He was very disconnected. He didn’t associate with people.
He’d wake up in the morning, and he was very disconnected. Some of our students prayed for him after this announcement: «God is healing brains,» and they prayed for this child. The next morning he comes to his mother—which is a miracle! —comes to his mother and says, «I had a dream last night; I’m okay now!»
They examined him, and his head was restored to normal shape! God is healing brains! Why don’t you stand? Can you see? I’m not seeing much! Can you hear? I try sometimes; I hear! Can you remember? Yes, I can remember!
Folks, listen to me: You have a responsibility! This is not a pastoral issue; this is not a ministry team issue; this is a people of God issue. What have you seen God do? Here’s the great news: you may say, «I’ve hardly ever seen anything happen. My own testimony is a great miracle, but I’ve never seen healing or deliverance or any of those things,» and that’s totally fine!
I had a long season in my life where I’d never seen anything! But there’s a verse in Psalms 119, verse 111, and it makes this statement: «The testimony of the Lord is your inheritance forever.» Think about it! The testimony of the Lord is His uninheritance forever!
What is the testimony of the Lord? It’s the full record of anything He has ever done on planet Earth! He did it with Moses. He did it with Elijah, with David, with Paul, with whoever! It’s your story; it’s your testimony!
No, you didn’t get it! The full record of God’s activity with people is your inheritance! Why is that important? Because the Scripture says they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb—there’s the legal basis—and the word of your testimony!
So now the word of my testimony is not just what I’ve experienced in my life, but it includes what you’ve experienced! So I hear your story; that’s a part of my weaponry! That’s a part of the tools that I use to ensure I walk in victory in this present situation.
So Father, I pray for a fresh grace! That you would inspire us from the inside out to treasure the record, the reports of the miracles, and the interventions of God that we’ve seen and that we’re about to see! That we would never treat them carelessly or casually, but we could together again stand in awe and celebrate You for Your kindness, Your mercy, that would do such extraordinary things with such simple, simple people as we are! I ask this, that the name of Jesus would be exalted!
Now, before anyone else moves, I’m going to ask this. Anytime we’re in a room this size, there’s always a chance, a crowd this size, that there are people here that have never made a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. It means you turn from your way of life to follow this one who forgives us and truly gives us eternal life starting now.
If there’s anybody in this room that would make that confession with me to say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave this building until I know I have found peace with God, that I know what it is to be forgiven by God,» if that’s you, put a hand up real quick right where you are. Right over here is one—beautiful! There’s another one—thank you! Right here, anyone else? Put your hand up real quick. There’s another one back here—thank you! Another one right there—beautiful!
Anyone else, real quick? I saw the one over here. Unless there’s another one? Alright, here’s what I’m going to ask! We’re going to pray together; we’re going to wrap this up, and I need to let you all go. But I’m going to ask the ministry team to come to the front.
And I want the three or four people that put their hands up or any others that I may not have seen come right over here. We’ve got a team of trusted people that I want to pray with you, because I believe the greatest miracle of your life is about to happen in these next moments!
So I’m going to ask as the ministry team comes to the front, please leave your seat, come right down over here. The folks who had their hands up, they are their trusted friends to pray with you to talk with you. Church, why don’t you bless them as they come forward?