Bill Johnson - The Impact of Giving All
Thank you, thank you. There you are! Ah, thank you, thanks, thanks, thanks! Wow, wow, good morning! Yep, still morning—I’ve lost track. Good morning! Um, Eric and Candace send their love. They are in Franklin, Tennessee, which is near Nashville, and uh, they’re at a great church. They’re good friends of ours, a great center, and uh, just having a wonderful time as always. But they wanted me to make sure to tell you how much they love you and miss you.
One announcement we forgot to mention is that Randy Clark is with us this week, and it’s always an upgrade for us in revival and in the anointing for healing. I just want to encourage you to prioritize it. The conference itself is sold out, but the evenings are open to the public, and uh, we just encourage you to come, come ready for a miracle, come ready to uh, get a personal upgrade. Is anybody else ready for just an upgrade in how you do life and how you do ministry, uh, seeing breakthroughs with people? Man, I just am so excited!
All right, open your Bibles to the book of Malachi, and we will try to move on from where we were a week ago. Malachi. Now, I can’t say it right—Malachi. I think it’s probably 30 or 35 years ago that I first heard somebody introduce Malachi as «Malachi the Italian prophet.» That gem has stayed with me all these years, so I wanted to create somewhat of a context. If every one of you were here last week, I would still create this context just as a reminder so that we can build on it for today, but also knowing that many are just transitioning.
The book of Malachi is a book of correction and a book of promise. What’s important for us in studying the Old Testament is that we need to learn prophetic language, so to speak. We need to learn how meaningful Old Testament scripture is to the New Testament church. I remind you that the early church had only the Old Testament until letters and epistles were written to them, but what they had was the Old Testament. Romans 15 says these things, referring to the Old Testament, were written for our instruction. It’s actually New Testament material, but you must know how to translate or interpret what’s being said because of so much prophetic language, which we’ll take a stab at this morning.
One of the things that becomes clear in the book of Malachi is he’s addressing sacrifices. Let me clarify something: We have parts of the Old Testament that ended at the cross; we have some parts of the Old Testament that made it through the cross but in a changed form; and then we have parts of the Old Testament that passed through the cross completely unchanged. It’s wise to recognize the difference, and I’ll illustrate it.
What ended at the cross? Animal sacrifices. Once Jesus came, the Lamb of God, and was sacrificed for our sin, there is no longer any need for sacrifice, so that ended at the cross. What was changed by the cross? Well, one of the things changed is the Year of Jubilee. In the Old Testament, the Year of Jubilee occurred every 50 years when slaves were released and people were freed from debt. When Jesus came, he announced that this was the favorable year of the Lord. He was declaring that this is the Year of Jubilee, which means the cross changed every 50-year period into an everyday period for the New Testament believer. It was supercharged through the cross.
What made it through the cross unchanged? Davidic worship, for one. The worship that David experienced—I personally believe the Lord gave him a glimpse into New Testament experience and allowed him to model it in an Old Testament context. It was where people had direct access to priests and direct access to the presence of the Lord. They would minister to Him in song with thanksgiving and praise, offering themselves in worship. Amos chapter 9 prophesied that old Testament worship—called the tabernacle of David—would become a New Testament reality. Acts 15 quoted that passage, saying, «This is it.»
So the point I’m making is that kind of worship, coming before the presence of the Lord to minister to Him, was an Old Testament experience that is unchanged in the New. Wisdom is looking at these Old Testament scriptures. I love the Old Testament. Whenever I’m reading through the minor prophets and I get to Malachi, just to be honest, my heart leaps because it speaks to me so much. I mentioned to you last week that I like some scriptures that are kind of confrontational, you know? I like my Mexican food extremely hot; I want it to growl at me when I bring the fork up to my mouth. I like my coffee extremely strong, to the point where you can walk on it without faith. That’s how I like it. I want the scripture to growl at me as I open the book. I want it to confront stuff in me that needs to change. Honestly, I don’t shy away from those.
But to read it in a New Testament context: when the Lord brings judgment on the people of God, it’s not a judgment of condemnation. If you don’t understand that, you’ll misread the entire Old Testament. The judgment of God on the people of God is always discipline. Let’s take one concept from Peter. He says, I think it’s in Peter; I didn’t look it up. He says that the judgment of God must begin with the household of faith. Why? Because if God’s judgment starts with the world, with the unbeliever, it results in damnation. If it starts with the church, it brings us into purity, where Jesus is more accurately represented, which becomes the invitation for the nations to come to Christ.
There’s cause and effect: when His discipline in my life helps me to represent Jesus more accurately, then there’s a domino effect on the impact on nations. The word of correction that was brought to the Malachi readers was to correct them for their complacency in their offerings. Let’s say you have 100 sheep, and this is Old Testament times. You have 100 sheep and one is hobbled, crippled, and blind in one eye, and could die any moment. They would give that as an offering to the Lord. And God says, «Try giving that to a political leader you’re trying to impress; see what happens.»
Sometimes what happens in the church is we give enough to ease our conscience but not enough to transform our life. Sacrifice positions us for personal transformation and is meant to be the ongoing standard for how we do life. They gave out of complacency; they gave out of routine. They had lost the reason for what they were doing, and they were giving God substandard offerings. Now, this isn’t just about money, although money is a part of it. This is about your life; it’s the entirety of who I am. It’s my time, my gifts, my callings; it’s everything I have. It’s the money in my bank; it’s anything. It’s all of me as a continuous, ongoing offering that He would be glorified—that’s the whole point.
If this were put into a New Testament context, there would no doubt be the reference to Revelation 2: «You have left your first love.» The way they returned to their first love was to repeat the works they used to do. There’s something about reactivating acts of devotion that rekindles the fire in the soul. Last week, I brought up a passage from Proverbs 18:9. It’s a very sobering verse for me; it has been for a number of years. The verse says, «The slothful in his work is brother to him who destroys.» The slothful are related to the destroyer of the work.
So let’s create three groups of people here: the passionate, faithful worker; the lazy or slothful worker; and the opponent to the work. Of those three, the two groups that are most alike are the slothful, complacent, and the opponent. Let’s translate this: we have the passionate, first-love believer maintaining first-love devotion to Jesus regardless of seasons. Seasons don’t determine how my heart burns for Him; circumstances don’t have the authority to temper the fire in my soul for Him. In fact, I’d probably say more people have lost the fire for God in blessing than they ever did in trial. So here we have the passionate believer in first love, the complacent believer, and the opponent to the gospel.
It’s my personal conviction that the complacent believer legitimizes the opponent to the gospel. The complacent believer legitimizes—or can I say fuels—the work of the person who is opposed to the gospel. Routine is not a negative or bad thing; disciplines are important in our life. But I don’t like losing the reason why I do something. Sometimes my obedience has no emotion; it’s literally just raw. I offer myself to you; I’m going to do what you said to do.
Both faith and obedience are measured by activity. It’s the reason Jesus said to the church at Ephesus to return to your first love, «Do the works you did at first.» There’s something about demonstrations of obedience, but we never have to lose the reason why we keep in front of us that the offering, whether it’s a money gift or helping somebody in front of the grocery store who has no food, the point is that whatever we’re doing, we never lose the reason why. We’re not trying to ease our conscience; we’re positioning ourselves to cause the offering to release power to transform the world. Fire always falls on sacrifice. You can’t give Him something that He won’t bless.
So here’s what I want you to see: we’re going to skip about five or six verses; we’ll read randomly, and I want you to follow along in your Bibles. How many of you have your Bibles? Let me see them. Say this with me: «I love my Bible.» Oh man, I do!
All right, Malachi chapter one; let’s just go right to verse five. What you’re going to see over these five or six verses is a theme. All right, verse five: «Your eyes shall see, and you shall say, 'The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel.'» The Lord is magnified beyond the border of Israel. Go to verse eleven: «For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.» That’s unbelievers. «In every place, incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering—for my name shall be great among the nations.» So His name is great among the unbelievers, is great among the nations.
Go down to verse fourteen: «Cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male and takes a vow but sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King,» says the Lord of hosts, «and my name is to be feared among the nations.» If you’re not getting it by now, how we give ourselves to the Lord with absolute reckless abandon affects what nations see of the reality of Jesus.
When I made a statement that the complacent legitimizes the opponent, it’s true. Any half-hearted attempt to walk with Jesus actually does more to undermine the concept of His nature, the revelation of His nature, than it supports. Why? Because He’s a great King, and a great King like this—All good gifts come from Him. All of life flows from Him. He sustains everything through the word of His power. He is the source of everything that is right and good in the world. To walk into a grocery store and see vegetables and fruit fill the bins and to not think of the blessing coming from His hand is an injustice.
It’s an injustice to get a promotion at work, to breathe without fighting for air, to walk down a street where it’s safe. All these are simple blessings of the Lord. To live in a world that is so filled and abundant with His blessing and for Him to go unnoticed is a great and severe injustice, and the offering of lame offerings is a confrontation to that. It has crept into the hearts of God’s people that they could try to just do routine and not truly put themselves on the altar as a continuous offering.
The outcome of this? Well, let me read a couple more verses, then I’ll give you the outcome. All right, verse fourteen says, «My name is to be feared among the nations.» Go to verse twelve of chapter three. Verse twelve of chapter three says, «All nations will call you blessed; you will be a delightful land,» says the Lord of hosts.
So here’s the journey: it concludes with all the nations calling you blessed. What is this a part of? The Lord is describing what it is for us to go through the discipline of the Lord. Now, the discipline of the Lord is His refining process that goes on in your life and mine all the time. The word of God—do you read your Bibles? It’s a sword; it cuts off wrong things. It’s discipline. You may have felt wonderful while it was happening, but that doesn’t mean you stand in a corner with your nose on the wall or something. It’s not a punishment-oriented activity; it’s a refining process, which is what we’ve asked for—to represent Jesus well.
The end game of the journey of becoming more and more like Jesus is that this is the thing that touches nations and affects their destiny. So when he says in Peter that judgment begins with the household of faith, it’s because in that process we more accurately represent Jesus—in purity, power, and passion. It’s by accident there are three P’s, but it works for the message: purity, power, and passion. So we more accurately represent who He is. What does that mean? His grace is irresistible to anybody who sees it.
We are actually invited into this journey of becoming more like Christ that awakens in the nations their appetite for God. They look at you and they say, «Man, you’re blessed of the Lord!» They recognize the hand of God, the favor of God, the blessing of the Lord on your life. All right, let’s go to the end of chapter three and let’s study a couple verses here together.
Verse sixteen of chapter three is a very interesting verse. It says, «Those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.» Look at it again: «Those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name.»
Again, biblical prophetic language. The Lord often speaks in a language that helps us to connect with a part of His nature. When He talks about a book of remembrance, it does not mean that God forgets things. It doesn’t mean a book is written because He just has a bad memory and needs help. He’s talking to us in a way that we understand. He says, «Listen, what you’re doing matters so much to Me that I have engraved something in the heavenlies that speaks to Me about your faithfulness.»
What is it that the Lord has acknowledged here? It’s interesting because right before this, the Lord talks to the priests and the people. He says, «You come to Me with offerings, tears in your eyes, giving these sacrifices to Me, and yet you treat your wife badly, so your sacrifice means nothing to Me. I can kneel before Him, bow, shout, dance, sing, cry; if I treat my wife badly, none of it means anything.»
The point is, relationships are the context that make our offerings significant. An offering, whether it’s a financial gift to the rising build or to the guy down at the grocery store that has no food—regardless of what it is—the financial gift becomes supernaturally empowered when it’s in the context of me doing everything I know to do to make sure my relationships are healthy and right. They are the context in which I give myself to God.
So here’s this passage: He says a book of remembrance is being written about you. You would think He would be writing down great, noble acts, like «Moses extended his rod over the sea and it parted.» It’s not that—you’d think it would be the noble acts where Peter says, «Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give to you; rise, stand up and walk.» But it’s none of those. The book of remembrance is written about conversations, fellowship, and talking.
Remember, not always looking for the noble things; He’s looking for the simple things that illustrate transformed life. These are my values. Anyone can psych themselves up to give a big gift. Anyone can psych themselves up to have a conversation with someone about Jesus, but it’s the ongoing, daily life that leaks Jesus that moves Him. It’s the ongoing, daily life that says people who feared God got together, and they spoke to each other, so He wrote a book to remind Himself about this.
It reminds me of Hebrews 13. In Hebrews 13, there are three sacrifices mentioned that are New Testament sacrifices. We know there are no animal sacrifices, but in Hebrews 13, there are three sacrifices mentioned in a New Testament context. The first one is praise; it’s the fruit of the lips that gives praise to His name. The first one. The second one is fellowship, and the third one is good works.
Good works: maybe you have a neighbor whose home burns down, and you gather clothing and kitchenware and things of that nature to help them rebuild their lives. That’s good works—those are valuable, applauded by heaven, and they are considered a sacrifice. We’re to push into those areas of good works until it costs us something. But the thing that maybe has escaped our notice the most is the middle one, the second in that list of three: fellowship.
Fellowship is at its purest when it costs me something. It means not running out when the meeting’s over so I can be the first to get lunch at the restaurant. It may honestly mean staying after for five minutes just to connect with a friend, have a conversation. It may mean that busiest day you’ve got, and yet somebody’s on your mind, and you just work to make it work to have lunch with that friend. The point is that there’s conversation.
It doesn’t say what they talked about; it doesn’t describe it as bold, noble things accomplished in this conversation. God was moved because He saw fellowship that cost people, and He wrote about it in a book. You want to move God? There are several things that move Him. Faith moves Him; bold faith, bold decrees move God. But another thing that moves Him is to value another person enough simply to have conversation.
Fellowship is at its finest when it enters the realm of sacrifice—that means it costs me something. That’s a Hebrews 13 concept that’s important for us. Now move on down to chapter four, verse one. You guys all right? You guys still all right? I figure if I keep asking, there will be more of you responding just to get me to be quiet.
Verse one, chapter four: «Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven. All the proud, yes, those who do wickedly will be stubble. The day which is coming shall burn them up,» says the Lord of hosts, «that will leave them neither root nor branch.» This is a word of incredible judgment talking about the day of the Lord, a specific day. Historians and theologians often refer to this particular day as the judgment that came upon Israel in Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, and it doesn’t even matter to me.
What I do know is that the Lord often refers in scripture to a day approaching. That terminology—a day approaching—usually highlights a day of great severity. But don’t just see it negatively; severity brings with it the greatest opportunities for breakthrough. Let me describe it this way: in the intensity of a shift in seasons—which we are in right now—in the intensity of the shift of seasons, the rewards are greater and the costs for ignoring are greater. It’s got the best of both worlds.
The reward of being there in that day of great difficulty, standing in faithfulness and faith, doing what we’re supposed to do, actually brings the greatest reward. It reminds me there’s a theme throughout scripture that reappears in Hebrews 10, where he says, «Don’t neglect the assembling of yourselves together, as is the habit of some, and do so all the more as you see the day approaching.»
So what’s the point? The day—the challenging day, the shift in seasons, the intensity of the hour—is supposed to drive us to community. It’s not supposed to drive us to independence; it drives us into fellowship, not to doing our own thing and making sure we survive. The intensity of the hour is supposed to strengthen the resolve of the people of God being together. Honestly, sometimes it’s two or three over coffee; it’s not just corporate gatherings, although I believe in that so much.
It’s the fact that we do life together with people, and I prioritize that. The more intense the day seems to be, the more I make sure that becomes a priority in my life. Why? There’s safety in numbers, and there’s wisdom in the counsel of many. It’s just an environment where health remains. Health remains simply because we’re together.
So here is verse one—a day of great dealings of God. Verse two: «But to you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings, and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.» That should just—don’t ever say that to your spouse, by the way. Don’t ever say, «Honey, you’re just a stall-fed calf.» Don’t do that; just don’t.
«To you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings. You will go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.» Honestly, Old Testament language—what is He talking about here? You will grow fat. Fat is the sign of abundance; it’s the mark of blessing.
So what do we have in verse one? We have a very challenging day, great difficulty. What do we have in verse two? Jesus shows up with healing in His wings. There’s a redemptive purpose in the difficult season, and the end result is you grow fat. Let me make it more appealing to you—your anointing increases. The abundance of God, the presence, the anointing, the wisdom, the insight—all the things that we pursue and long for in our walk with Jesus is wrapped up in that. You will grow fat like stall-fed calves!
Look at the result of being a fat calf. I know you want to see it. It’s verse three: «You will trample the wicked; there will be ashes underneath the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,» says the Lord. Again, Old Testament to New. Old Testament wars were fought against people, against nations. Paul switched the focus in Ephesians 6 when he said, «We don’t fight against flesh and blood.»
Our fight is not against people. It’s not the boss that treated you wrong. It’s not the neighbor that has a barking dog. It’s the reality of the demonic realm that has sought to kill, steal, and destroy in our lives. Our life gets together; we come into a place of safety. We then have the responsibility to extend the boundaries of our own life of safety to encompass the life of another person, another, another.
Where people begin to live under that blessing and the favor of God comes out of verse two that says, «The Son of Righteousness rises with healing in His wings.» I don’t know if you know this, but when it says the Son of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, «wings» can actually be translated «hem of a garment.»
Jesus came, the Son of Righteousness, and introduced Himself as the light of the world. Remember, this is figurative language. It’s the same way that the sun rises and casts its healing rays all over the planet. In the same way, the people of God would rise in this hour because of what Christ has done to represent Him well.
There’s actually—we, on His behalf, if you will, trample on powers of darkness. This passage here in Malachi 3 verse 3—trampling the wicked—is spoken of by Jesus in different language in Luke 10 verse 19. He says, «I give you the authority to trample on serpents, scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will by any means hurt you.» That is the New Testament translation of what was stated in Malachi chapter 4.
Here’s the deal: all the dealings of God in our lives are always unto something—always with purpose. «Make me more like Jesus.» Why? Because there are nations waiting to be brought into the kingdom. It’s about the nations! It’s about the nations! He works on me to see what measure of blessing I can survive under without it fracturing or ruining my own walk with the Lord. Some people can’t handle that, you know?
I’ve asked you the question before: how much money is too much for a person? There’s not an amount because it’s whatever amount replaces trust—that’s how much is too much for one person. They no longer pray. They have a thousand dollars in the bank, and their prayer life ended because they’re not in crisis anymore. For another person, it may be a hundred million dollars. The point is it’s not an amount; the issue is always the heart, and it’s always an issue of trust and abandonment to the Lordship of Jesus. That’s the focus of this entire journey. The end result is nations being brought into the kingdom.
The last verse we’ll read is verse five and six: «Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of fathers to the children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.»
I will send you Elijah the prophet. Jesus pointed to John the Baptist and said he is the Elijah to come. These things that are described have happened. The Son of Righteousness came. The Elijah to come has come. But the impact of their coming has not been fully realized yet. Number one: grow fat like stall-fed calves, trampling powers of darkness. The momentum of that word continues to this day.
This other part is the prophetic; with John the Baptist, the end result of the prophetic ministry in verse five is the turning of the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents. What’s the point? True New Testament prophetic ministry is about reconciliation of relationships and restoration of families. Everybody in this room, whether you realize it or not, carries a blueprint that will impact a city. The blueprint for a transformed city is in a healthy family.
All the stuff that could be listed as world-changing moments in this book were pushed aside to talk about a husband and the way he deals with his wife, the believer who has conversation with another believer, the parents who turn their hearts to the children and the children to their parents. It’s all a relational context that says here we are—burning ones—and we have determined to do life together. We have determined that we’re going to continue to press into the healthiest relationships we know how to have because that will be the context in which Jesus, the King of Glory, shows up and summons the nations to their destiny, to their purpose.
The blueprint for a transformed city is in a healthy household—it’s in a healthy family. So, Malachi did us good. Why don’t you stand? We’re going to pray. Delayed answers to prayer gain interest, but they also ensure that we are in a moment of refinement and purity so that the blessing doesn’t injure us but instead establishes us. I believe this to be a year of unusual—and I do mean unusual—breakthrough. It’s not going to come always as we think; some of it will surprise us completely.
We’ll pray for this, and He’ll answer it this way. But I do believe with all of my heart that we are in one of those, uh, first services Chris talked about in prayer time as the difference between chronos and kairos—kairos moment, a divinely orchestrated moment in which everything changes. I can feel in the air! I can feel that what’s happening in the church in recent weeks is really quite extraordinary.
I had kind of a challenging time at first service today just to find my bearings because there was such presence and power functioning in the room. You know when you—let’s just say, the power of God knocks me on the ground, and I’m trembling under His power for two hours—that’s awesome! But the goal isn’t to get that to happen in Starbucks or Costco; the goal is to learn how to translate what happened in that divine moment so that I become the courageous person in a public moment that can serve well and communicate well, unhindered by the opinions and pressures of people.
It’s unto something, and the inability to translate revival has caused revivals to end in the house instead of transforming the city it was born in. I just pray for that. I pray for that wisdom of God. You know, we share this life together as burning ones, and I am moved constantly by your sacrifice, your affection, your love for God, and your love for people. I’m moved continuously by that example. But I feel like there’s a reminder right in front of my face today for me, and I’ve been wading through this in the last several weeks.
I can feel—in all honesty—there are several things I thought would happen personally by now, and they have not. In the last week or so, I’ve been giving thanks that they haven’t, because I can tell He’s refining the heart. If He would have released that to me earlier, it might have caused a greater fracture. I don’t know if that makes sense to anybody, but it makes sense to me. I’m actually doing what He said to do—to give thanks in all things—but sincerely, thank you, God, that you did not answer that the day I asked, because I didn’t have the refined focus that I have in this moment.
This is the moment we’re in. We were born for such a time as this, and God’s created a momentum of faith in this house. Blueprints—it’s the first time I’ve ever said it, but I became convinced this morning that God has put the blueprint for a transformation of a city in the heart of every believer. But it boils down to healthy relationships and a value for people.
So, Father, we pray these things over this house right now. We pray this over everybody in this room, all of our friends that watch on Bethel TV. We pray that there would be such an anointing for breakthrough that we would understand how to prioritize life, that we would truly value the person, the stranger; we would truly value the member of our own household that just needs extra attention; that we truly would give you occasion to write a book of remembrance about us—a book of remembrance based upon the fact that we’ve actually chosen to sacrificially do life together.
I pray for this in the wonderful name of Jesus. Before we leave, there’s always a chance—every time there’s this many people in the room, there’s a chance that there could be someone here who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus. You don’t know what it is to be born again, to be forgiven of sin, and to become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if there’s anyone here who would just say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave until I know I’m at peace with God, until I know what it is to have God as my Father, Jesus as the one that I follow explicitly.» If that’s you, I want you just to acknowledge with an upraised hand, saying, «Bill, that’s me. I don’t want to leave until I know what it is to be forgiven of God.»
Way over here—yes, wonderful. Over here—anybody else? Put your hand up; wave it at me if I don’t see you. Wave it at me if I don’t see you. That’s wonderful! We’ve got at least two people that responded, and Jesus is about to raise up some world changers in this place. I just pray for the two of you. I’m going to ask the ministry team to come quickly to the front. All of you, please hold your places, except for the ministry team, and the two people that raised your hands, please come over here to my left. We have some friends over here that I want to talk with you and to pray for you. Just come on down over here to my left, people that we know and trust, who will talk with you. Church, bless them as they come. Bless you!