Bill Johnson - The Power of Confession
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re so nice. Eric sends his love. By the way, he is on his way to New Zealand to our Bethel. We have a Bethel plant there, and he is going to be with them—a great group of people. All right, it’s been a while since I read this. One, two elderly couples were enjoying a friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, «Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?» «Outstanding,» he replied. «They taught us all the latest psychological techniques: visualization, association, etc. It was great.» He said, «That’s great. What was the name of the clinic?» Fred went blank. He thought and thought, but he couldn’t remember. Then a smile broke across his face. He said, «What do you call that flower with a long stem and thorns?» He responded, «Do you mean a rose?» «Yes, that’s it!» Fred turned to his wife and said, «Rose, what was the name of that clinic?» All right, that’s just plain pitiful. That’s what that is, just plain pitiful.
All right, open your Bibles to the 40th Psalm. We’ll bounce around a little bit. I’ve got to kind of feel my way through this. When I came here earlier this morning, I had a specific thing that I was planning on teaching today, and I don’t know what to say. I just felt like God was tampering with me and felt led to go in a direction. I don’t have a teaching; I have a subject, so I’m going to talk my way through it. By the fourth service, I should have it down, I figure. So if any of you want to stay for the next one, I probably won’t have it down either. I really felt the Lord touching my heart about something.
Let me ask a question first: how many of you have had unusual breakthrough answers to prayer, miracles, or something that happened in some area of your life in the last 90 days? Put a hand up. Okay, because about 90 days, 85 days or so ago, I made this proclamation about 90 days of breakthrough. What happened was I was in Vacaville on a Saturday; I was teaching at a conference there, and I found myself saying, «This begins a 90-day period of extraordinary breakthrough.» It wasn’t premeditated; I really felt it was a prophetic unction that came out of nowhere. I came here the next day and made the same announcement, just believing that God wanted to bring unusual breakthroughs. That’s always the case, but there are times when God breathes on something that you just need to give attention to.
What I felt about today is that what I was going to teach on, I’ll have to do another time. What I felt today when I was here praying—I get here early; Eric and I usually get here together early—we go through the sanctuary and just pray for an hour, an hour and a half, or so before we have our staff prayer meeting at 7. We pray going through the building. What I felt today was that I was supposed to talk to you about something and give you tools—specifically, a tool—to help sustain a lifestyle of breakthrough. That’s what I want to do; that’s what I want to do. I want to talk to you, and we’ll look at a few verses, but it’s essentially like one of those one-point messages. I’ll drag it on just so we can fill the time, but I’m going to talk to you for a little while, and then we’re going to share in the celebration of communion together at the end.
Yeah, let’s just do it: Psalms 40. I’m just going to read two and a half verses, beginning with verse 9. «I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly; indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord; you yourself know. I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your lovingkindness and your truth from the great assembly.» Verse 11: «Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord.»
Go back to verse 9: «I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly; indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord; you yourself know. I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your lovingkindness and your truth from the great assembly. Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord.»
Here’s what I want to talk to you аbout: there’s a theme I don’t emphasize enough, and that is woven throughout the New Testament. Whenever there is a bold proclamation of the gospel on the part of the people of God, there is a bold response from heaven to bring breakthrough. They run parallel courses. When something is boldly proclaimed here, there is a bold response there. We see it in Acts 4:29, a verse that I quote often because of its effect on my own thinking and my own life. In Acts 4:29, Peter has just gotten out of jail. Peter and John go to a prayer meeting, and Peter prays this prayer: «Lord, take note of their threats and grant that your bondservants may speak your word with all boldness while you extend your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of your holy servant, Jesus.»
So, Peter and John were arrested for boldness. It says in Acts 3, and in Acts 4, they are released from jail, go to a prayer meeting, and pray, «God, give us all boldness!» So here is the request: «God, we want to be more bold, more effective in our proclamation of what is true, but we are asking that in response to our boldness, you would extend your hand to heal and that signs and wonders would increase.»
This particular psalm is a confession of David, and he says to God, «I have not withheld what you’ve shown me about you. I have boldly proclaimed. I have declared; I have confessed.» Now he’s asking for the Lord to respond to his personal need. The picture that works for me is that my proclamations are seeding the cloud of rain that’s going to fall upon my own life. It’s the bold proclamation; it’s the bold confession. I am sorry that over the years, the subject of the confession of faith has occasionally been twisted to be a self-serving tool to get God to do what we want. I understand that, but it doesn’t cancel out the absolute truth of the gospel. The Bible teaches in Romans 10 that confession is made unto salvation. In other words, we make this confession of our faith, and it seals the deal; it completes what is in the heart.
What is in the heart has to be proclaimed; it has to be declared; it must be confessed. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. I think maybe one of the ways to look at it is that God made us in His image, and He spoke the worlds into being. Many of the problems that exist in our lives result from improper conversation. For many people, their goal in life is to vent when something is going wrong, and all they do is add to the strength of that particular problem. I’ve tried to make it a practice in my own life: I will not talk about a problem with anyone who is not a part of the solution, which cuts down on a lot of conversation. I’m not going to talk to someone just to vent; I’m only going to talk if I’m looking for a redemptive solution, and I believe they are a part of it.
Life and death are in the power of the tongue, which means that you and I have the ability with our speech to bring life to a dead situation or to kill a live one. Peter denied the Lord three times, and in the Gospel of John, the 21st chapter, Jesus has the disciples together, and He asks Peter, «Do you love me?» Peter says, «I do,» and then He waits a moment. He asks, «Peter, do you love me?» He says, «Lord, you know I do; I love you.» He asks a third time, «Do you love me?» It’s interesting that for each denial, the Lord gave Peter an opportunity to reaffirm his place in Him through proclamation, through confession. It needed to be not just a happy thought; it needed to be the proclamation of truth coming out of Peter’s own mouth.
I went through a significant physical struggle three years ago right now, and I remember when it was over and I was restored to health. I was at a place of full recovery. I remember pondering, looking back over the previous several months and the things that I had learned and gone through. I would lay in bed and just read promises; I would watch videos of prophetic words, and of course, in my own Bible reading, I’d read until He speaks. I found myself wanting some key that would reveal some great truth to unlock everything, and maybe He did, but it came differently than I expected. At the end of maybe four or five months of a real challenge, I came to the conclusion that bold faith stands on the shoulders of quiet trust.
What He was working to build in me was the quiet trust—an anchor for the soul that says, «Regardless of circumstances, I know where my confidence lies.» The opportunity to make that proclamation, that opportunity to make that confession, is the most famous verse in this regard is from Mark chapter 11. If you turn there with me, that would be great. I know that there are times in recent church history when people have used this particular verse, thinking they can use it to get God to do whatever they want. While I do apologize for that, I also want to say: don’t react to error and create another. The abuse of a principle doesn’t excuse the neglect of a principle.
My hands are not clean because I dropped the subject; if it says so in the Word, then I have to find out how to apply what God has said to be true. Mark chapter 11 gives us a profound lesson. To me, it’s a humorous chapter. Towards the beginning of the chapter, we find that Jesus curses a fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season. I just think that’s the coolest thing ever—that Jesus cursed a fig tree when it didn’t bear fruit in the wrong season. What does it mean? I don’t know; I just think it’s cool. He cursed a fig tree because it wasn’t bearing fruit out of season. I’ve come to the conclusion that Jesus is the only one who has the right to expect the fruit of the impossible out of our lives. The resurrection factor makes nothing impossible and qualifies you and me as participants in the unfolding of His conflict with the impossibilities of life.
You and I are instruments of the redemptive work of Jesus to see impossibilities bow. So He curses the fig tree, and as the disciples and Jesus walk up to the dead fig tree, verse 20 says, «Now, in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.» Peter, remembering, said, «Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away.» Jesus answered and said to them, «Have faith in God.» Some translations say, «Have the faith of God,» which is interesting because God has quite a bit of faith.
Verse 23: «Assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and cast into the sea, ' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.» Let’s read it again: «Assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and cast into the sea, ' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.»
The emphasis, without question, is on the proclamation of truth. I don’t think we have the luxury of just saying whatever we want, even though there is life and death in the power of the tongue. The heart of the believer is to find what God is saying, to find His Word in a given situation. But once we’ve received the Word of the Lord in a given situation, it is up to us to make the proclamation that those things would come to pass.
I can tell you from my own experience—and I’m in the middle of the journey like everyone else—I’ve had times where I’ve clearly heard from the Lord what His will was in a situation, and I have stood back and waited for it to unfold. Most of the time, it doesn’t happen until I step in and start enforcing, decreeing, and declaring what the Lord has spoken into my own heart. There is a role that you and I play, and for some reason, He has chosen to respond to the decree, the declaration of surrendered believers—those who say, «The will of God, God being glorified, is all I want.» I’m going to harness my own conversation and ensure that I proclaim that which You are saying, God, and in a given situation, making that decree.
Joel chapter 3 says, «Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'» Say that with me: «Let the weak say, 'I am strong! '» The reason He had to say that is because when you need to say it, you are least likely to say it. The reason it needed to be a command is because the times when it’s most effective in our lives are when we’re not prone to make that kind of confession or declaration. It’s easy when you’ve had this miracle and that miracle to stand up and say, «I just feel so strong right now; I feel so mighty in God.» There are other times when it just seems like boom, boom, boom—miracles happened here, there, and there—and I feel so strong and powerful in the Lord.
But there are times when it’s a fight and a struggle—the thing that I feel least like saying. Yet, that’s when it is most necessary to speak bold confessions: «I am strong.» My translation says, «Let the weak say, 'I am a mighty man.'» For women, of course, it is «I am a mighty woman.» But I’m not going to make that confession because of the power of confession. I don’t want anything to happen while I’m up here—"Oh, I am a mighty man!»
How about this: be a year that we work hard to embrace what the Lord has declared over our lives and to make that the only thing we say. I don’t mean you don’t seek counsel; I don’t mean you don’t bring a problem up and get advice. Living in denial is not a solution, but there are times when we actually fuel and feed conflicts and problems in life. We make them bigger than they are because they’re the topic of our complaint, the topic of our conversation, and I feel like the Lord wants to increase the use of a particular tool that He taught His own disciples. Whatever you say, you’ll have.
The problem is we often have much of what we’ve said. Amen? Bill, good point. Where this is all headed today is that I felt earlier today when I came in that we would just share in communion together as a church family. I want to take you through what I do. I’ve done it, I think, a couple of times in the last year, year and a half, but I felt I should do it again today, where we’ll just take communion at the end of the message in just a few moments. I want to walk you through the beauty and privilege of proclamation, confession of faith, of looking in the face of an obstacle, looking in the face of a problem, and making a confession.
I remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; they were thrown into this fiery furnace, and they made this confession: «God will deliver us.» Then they said, «Even if He doesn’t, we’re not bowing.» I just like that approach. It’s like, «I’ve only got one option; He’s it. There’s no plan B. I’m going with Plan A.» There are certain moments and times in our lives where circumstances need to hear the Word of the Lord. They need your proclamation of faith, your proclamation of what God has said.
I remember somebody asked a question— I think it might have been John Arnold—who, by the way, I fly to Toronto this week for the 25-year anniversary of the Toronto Outpouring. It’s going to be so fun—one big party! But he asked this question once: «What’s more powerful, the Word of the Lord in Jesus’s mouth or the Word of the Lord in yours?» If it’s the Word of the Lord, it’s equally powerful regardless of the mouth it’s released from. That may sound blasphemous to some, but Jesus chose to live with the restriction of being human, even though He’s eternally God, and He would only say what He heard the Father say. It was powerful because it came from the Father, and that same Word, coming through you and me, I just want to encourage you—drive around town and make proclamations!
Make confessions over circumstances, over impossible situations. When you least feel like it is when it needs to be proclaimed and confessed the most: boldly. So, we’re going to do that together today. I want to ask the ushers and folks helping with communion to come right now, if you would. Our staff and ministry team will line up along the front, and we’re going to share in communion together in just a few minutes. If you would come and pass out the elements, don’t take them yet, as we’ll share in that journey together today.
I’ve had two services already, so I forget where I’ve said what. Did I mention that Benny has a book coming out on communion? Not here? Oh, she has a book coming out in just a few weeks on the power of communion. She had a friend write her an email or text—forget which—some time ago. Her friend was in the hospital; she had seven different conditions. She was terminal; she was dying. She had seven conditions they could not fix—no solutions. So her friend wrote Benny and told her the news, and Benny wrote back and said, «You need to take communion every day.» She did—I forget how many weeks; I think it was three weeks, but I don’t remember for sure.
Her friend wrote her back and said she’s out of the hospital completely—everything is fine! Communion is not to be approached as a magic pill; in fact, it hurts a person if we don’t give it proper estimation or value the way Jesus does. Jesus took—have you guys all been served up here? No? Can I get someone to—oh, you are coming. Thank you, sir! Don’t pass me by; that’s all I’m saying.
On the Passover night, Jesus took bread and broke it. He broke the bread and made this statement: «This is my body.» Now, I know there are probably some Catholics and Episcopalians who would have a different approach than my historical background. I remember my dad teaching on this once; he said, «Jesus said, 'This is my body.' He didn’t say it represents my body; He said it is.» I feel like it’s important for us to approach it the way Jesus said it.
That we have the same value and respect for this that we’re about to do again—it’s not the magic pill that fixes everything; it is the Person we come to in absolute surrender that Jesus made full and complete provision for you and me to be healed, to be forgiven, to be delivered, and for poverty to be broken off. Poverty is actually one of the targets of the redemptive work of Jesus, and I believe we’re going to see in this house every single person who has had poverty as part of your background, multi-generationally, that it is breaking, and the Lord is resetting that part of life for us.
When I take the broken bread, the body of Jesus, there are certain confessions that I like to make over the whole communion time. I usually take probably 20 minutes or sometimes even 30 minutes for it. We only have a few minutes, so we’ll have to abbreviate it, but I want to at least give you an idea of my approach. When I hold the bread, the body of Jesus, I like to make a confession: «By Your stripes, I was healed.»
By the stripes of Jesus, I was healed. It’s extremely important that we begin to contend for what Jesus made provision for, and that is the subject called divine health. I’ve stated it before that it would be tragic to come to the end of time and have the only generation that lived in divine health be Israel in the wilderness—rebellious against God. They had a period of time where they were in divine health; clothing didn’t even wear out. I believe it is the provision of the Lord in His suffering on our behalf. Jesus bore stripes in His body through brutal beating as an atoning work to deal with the power of sickness and disease.
So I’m going to ask you to stand with me, and we’re going to make some bold confessions, proclamations together: «By the stripes of Jesus, I was healed.» «By the stripes of Jesus, I am healed.» When I do this, I purposefully bring to mind people who need miracles in their bodies—people I know, people who are either family members or dear friends—and what I like to do is take this moment to come before the Lord and to make that bold confession: «By the stripes of Jesus, and then mention their name.» «By the stripes of Jesus, Mark is healed of cancer.» We’re not talking mind over matter; we’re not doing mental gymnastics; we’re declaring a reality that has not yet been fully experienced. I want to take that moment to just make the proclamation: «By the stripes of Jesus, cancer is defeated in Mark’s body.»
By the stripes of Jesus, deafness is defeated in that woman’s body. By the stripes of Jesus, Parkinson’s is gone in Alan’s body, in Kathy’s body. We make these decrees, these confessions. I want you to do it right now over a family member or friend—two or three that you can think of that just need a miracle. I want you to see the broken body of Jesus as more than enough for the problem they’re facing. Do it right now! If you’re joining us at home on Bethel TV, if you’re able to join in, do the same thing. Just make the confession and proclamation: «By the stripes of Jesus, Kathy was made well.» «By the stripes of Jesus, Brenda was made whole.» Just make those confessions, proclamations, the stripes of Jesus.
Now I want you to hold this body of Jesus in front of you. Lord, we give You thanks that You were willing to suffer the way you did to disempower disease, infirmity, and afflicting spirits. I thank You for this right now, in Jesus' name. Now there’s one more thing. Jesus said in Ephesians 2 that He bore on His flesh the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile. It is a prophetic picture of Him bearing in His flesh the penalty for all division. Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day—racial divide? Guess what? The suffering of Jesus is more than enough to fix that problem. More than enough!
Maybe division in a family, division in a home, husband and wife, or a place at work. I would just take one moment and look at one place where unity needs to be established. Just make this confession with me: «The broken body of Jesus is more than enough to fix that division.» Now with thankfulness, let’s receive the body. We receive the body of Jesus into ours, in Jesus' name.
Now we have the cup. There are two confessions I like to make. The first one is: «The blood of Jesus sets me free.» Say that with me: «The blood of Jesus sets me free!» Oh my goodness, that is just all-encompassing right there. Say it again: «The blood of Jesus sets me free!»
Now, we need to write a song with those lyrics. The blood of Jesus sets me free! We should have about 10 by next week. The blood of Jesus sets me free!
As I hold the cup, you want to rediscover in your heart of hearts the profound effect of the sacrifice of Jesus on everything about your life. In this moment, I like to make the confession: «As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.» Say it with me: «As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!»
Every single family member—"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.» I like to pray for my family by name. Why don’t you take a family member or two and bless them by name? Anyone that you know—a child, a parent, an uncle—whatever. If they’re not serving the Lord, just pray them back into the kingdom. Make the declaration: «God, the blood of Jesus is enough for them too.»
Every family member will serve you with great passion and great purity. I like to pray for my children, my grandchildren. I pray that Jeremiah 24 passage—that God would give them a heart to know Him. Make that confession over your children, your grandchild, extended family. Now we just made that bold confession: «You would give our children a heart to know You, that they would hear the wooing of Your voice for them to find out why they are alive.» We pray that over them right now, in Jesus' name.
Amen! Before we wrap this up, there’s one more thing I like to do. Before I take the cup, there are certain individuals who, through the years, have— I always forget how to say it—I don’t remember quite how to say it, but there are people who oppose me. They write against me in their books or against Bethel and maybe in their radio shows or conferences or whatever. Yet, they are people who have committed themselves to Jesus.
My privilege is to celebrate their zeal for the Lord and to honor Him for their great zeal—that they would be willing to live with such risk to honor His name. I love to pray that God would prosper them in every possible way: spirit, soul, and body. Everything about their life would experience the bounty of the Lord. Then I like to pray especially that God would give them the joy of having children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren that all serve Him with great passion and great purity. I want everything about their life to be touched by the grace and mercy of God.
If you have— you say, «Well, the person that has opposed me most is now dead.» Well, then pray for their family. Pray for their descendants. Just do something to be proactive to contribute life into another family right now. So just take, if there’s a point of conflict, a point of difficulty, take that right now and just pray the blessing of the Lord. Just do that!
If there’s anyone else that didn’t raise your hand, we have people right up here that are ready and willing to pray for you. We want to open the front up. I’m going to have Tom wrap it up, so hold on if you would please. But I want you to come to receive your miracle, and Tom, why don’t you wrap it up for me?
Yeah, so good! Can we give Pastor Bill a big hand? Thank you for that! Wow! Wow! So good! Come on! So powerful! Yes, God! Amen! Amen! Hey, if you need to pray for anything at all, come on up and receive your miracle, just like you said. God bless you guys! Have a good day!