Bill Johnson - Arise and Shine
Thank you so much! I love how well all of our teams—our sound people, camera crew, worship teams, prayer teams, ushers—just do a great job, and I’m happy they’re here. I think there’s a restaurant sign that shows where the men’s room is and where the women’s room is; it says, «Men to the left because women are always right.» Oh yeah, I think this one’s funny. I know this will offend some, but you know I’m just in the mood. This business is guarded by a shotgun three nights a week. You guess which three. There’s a picture in a restaurant of a basket of eggs that advertises boneless chicken. There’s a sign on a door that says, «Push. If that doesn’t work, pull. If that doesn’t work, we must be closed.»
I ate a salad for dinner; it was mostly croutons and tomatoes. Really, just one big round crouton covered with tomato sauce and cheese. Fine, I ate a pizza. Women belong in the kitchen; men belong in the kitchen—everyone belongs in the kitchen. The kitchen has food. Yeah, I just entertain myself with these slightly humorous things. I wish I had a dollar every time I got distracted. I wish I had a puppy. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance—these are the five stages of waking up. Do you know the correct term for gluten-free, sugarless, vegan brownies? Compost. I’m just reading the news; that’s all I’m doing. Has anybody here ever sent a text message to someone, and as you push send, you realize spellcheck changed the word to something not good at all? This one is for you: spellcheck has got to be my worst enemy. Well, I love you too; thanks.
Um, anybody ride horses here? Just a few of you? Well, this is for you: for fast riders, we have fast horses; for slow riders, we have slow horses; for those who have never ridden, we have horses that have never been ridden. I’ll just end with that one. The last time I rode a horse, it tried to kill me. It did. How old was I? Oh, in my 20s. It’s been a while. This horse was demon-possessed; I’m sure it was. They had to keep it in a small corral because it would run itself to death. Why did they let me get on it? They were supposed to know, «He doesn’t know anything, put him on the slow horse.» They put me on this horse, and it ran like lightning across the field and then back again, and I’m hanging on for dear life. It ran straight for a tree with a low-hanging branch because it wanted to be delivered—not from the demon it had, but from the person on its back. I’m telling you, I hugged that thing. The branch went right over my head and scraped my back. That’s my horse-loving story; it has nothing to do with anything, just thought I’d keep you up to date.
Don’t you open your Bibles; hurry, hurry and open them, or it’ll just get worse! Go to Isaiah 60. Um, we’re not going to study Isaiah 60, but it will serve as a launching pad. Isaiah 60 is a chapter that we have looked at probably 20 times in the last 20 years, and the reason is a good reason. The Lord really changed my life through the reading of that chapter. It was in May of 1979, on a Thursday afternoon, and I was walking around the back of the church facility in Weaverville. I like to walk and pray; you never fall asleep when you keep walking, so that’s kind of my secret. I was in the back of the church, just walking back and forth and praying—this was my custom—and I began to read from Isaiah 60. It’s hard for me to describe what happened, except that I knew I was in the middle of a divine moment, and I hadn’t had many of those of that nature.
I had encounters, you know, with the Lord where He touched me deeply—the weeping and the response to Him, the tenderness we experience so often in worship—but this was different. It was like my head was exploding, in a positive sense, with sudden understanding of where the church fit into the whole picture, and it was life-changing. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it has affected every day of my life since 1979. It was this month, oh, 1979—that’s like how many years ago? A lot! Forty years ago, so this is a 40-year anniversary! Come on, I didn’t think that through, but it works for me; we’ll work with it. And so I began to read through Isaiah 60, and He spoke to me quite clearly from what I was reading, telling me, «This is a present word.» I remember that next Sunday I could hardly wait until Sunday. This was a Thursday, and on Sunday, after the worship ended, I said, «I feel like the Lord spoke to me, and here’s a word from the Lord for us.»
Obviously, it’s in the Scripture, so it’s always for us, but He highlights things for certain seasons. And so I read it, and everybody responded with praise. I don’t know that any of us understood what it meant, but you don’t have to. When the Lord breathes on something, you can say, «I’m clueless about what it means,» but it brought life to me, and that sometimes is a big challenge. If you only get life through what you understand, you really sell yourself short because there are times the Lord speaks something to you that you won’t understand, but if you’re receptive to what He’s saying, there’s life in it. Anyway, this is one of those moments. That Sunday night, a dear friend of ours was speaking here at Bethel. My dad was pastoring here at the time. Her name is Iverna Tompkins; she’s one of my all-time favorites and heroes. She was speaking that night, and I got there late because of the drive from Weaverville, so I ended up sitting in the back.
At the end of her message, I felt like I needed to read this portion of Scripture for everybody. It was present, but it was a long sanctuary, and I was way in the back. I thought, «Man, I’m going to get halfway down the aisle, and they’re going to end the meeting.» So she turned it over to my dad, and he just kept talking and talking, and I thought, «Well, if I had enough time to get up there…» Then somebody else came up, and they were talking, and it just seemed like it wouldn’t end. It felt like the Lord was setting the stage. I saw one of the elders in the church, a friend of mine, over in the corner of the building, and I went over to him. I said, «Jim, I feel like I have a word from the Lord.»
This is what he did; he looked at me. He just looked at me and said, «Yes.» I didn’t realize there was history there. He looked at me and said, «Yes, this is the word of the Lord.» So I went down the aisle; my dad saw me coming, and of course, welcomed me. I said, «I feel like I have a word from the Lord.» So he gave me the mic, I read several verses out of Isaiah 60, and the people, of course, responded with great celebration because of the word. We’ll read these verses in a moment. Then Iverna Tompkins, who was through speaking and sitting on the front row, came up and grabbed the microphone. She said, «I forget how long, I think she said just last month, I was with charismatic leaders from around the nation that gathered together, and five or six of them came to that gathering with this chapter, saying, 'This is the word of the Lord for this moment, for this season.'»
So, you know, it went from, «It really touched my heart; this is for the church in Weaverville,» to «Whoa, reading’s included,» to «Oh, this is like for the whole planet.» It just kind of grew in the sense of significance. Let’s read the first five verses. This is a little awkward for me because we read this so often, and this actually isn’t what I’m going to study, but it’ll set the stage. All right, so verse one: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. Then Gentiles shall come to your light.
The New American Standard says nations, which I’d rather use that term: Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Does anybody remember whenever Jesus told His disciples to lift up their eyes? Does anybody remember that? John 4: Lift up your eyes; look on the fields; they’re all white unto harvest. Are you flowing with me here? Because this is the way this evening’s going to go. You have to track with me. All right, so He says, «Lift up your eyes all around and see. They gather together; they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you will see and become radiant; your heart will swell with joy because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you; the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.»
Let’s go to verse 5 again. «You will see and become radiant; your heart will swell with joy.» One of the translations says, «Your heart will tremble and be enlarged.» Tremble and be enlarged! There’s this very strange connection between the trembling of the fear of the Lord and extreme joy. I know they sound like opposites, but that’s only in the natural world. In the kingdom, they are actually very closely related. In Psalms 2, it says, «Rejoice with trembling.» In Psalms 2, it says, «Rejoice with trembling.» It’s too late; I got the same response out of the drum set! So it says, verse 5: «You will see and become radiant; your heart will swell with joy because the abundance of the sea will be turned to you; the wealth of the Gentiles will come to you.»
Now, I’m thankful for the abundance of the Lord, the provision of the Lord, the finances, and the promise of fulfillment—all that stuff. But when He’s talking about the abundance of the nations and the wealth of the sea being turned to you, He’s talking about the harvest. I’m thankful for all that He provides for me financially; I’m grateful for that. But the real wealth is people. The sea of humanity; the wealth of the sea will be turned to you. This is prophetic. You’ve got to understand prophetic terminology to glean from this chapter. It starts by saying, «Arise, shine.» So here we are waiting for something to happen, and God says, «Arise, get up and shine.»
All right, well, I know how to get up, but I don’t know how to shine, so we’re going to look at that in a moment. It says, «Arise and shine; take your place and shine,» because your light has come. In John chapter 1, it says Jesus is the light that enlightens every person who comes into the world. So, there are many who would say that this chapter is referring to natural Israel. Now, I’ve got to be very careful here because there is a movement of what’s called replacement theology where people believe that the last days is everything about the church and not to do with natural Israel. I don’t believe that. I need to clarify that; I don’t believe that. But I’m only going to emphasize the church part tonight. All right?
I believe very strongly that natural Israel has a place in God’s end-time plan. You only have to read Romans 9, 10, and 11 to come to that conclusion. Paul hit that very hard. So, I believe that, but let me just set that aside and just emphasize the church in this passage. So, He says, «Arise and shine; take your place, take your posture, shine.» Why? Because your light has come. Jesus is the light; there isn’t another light coming. It’s not referring to another period because there isn’t another light. It may unfold more profoundly in years to come, but I have no excuse to sit and wait for something else to happen because my light has come.
So here’s what He says: «Arise and shine,» and something profound happens when you arise in the glory that the Lord has placed in your life; it attracts the glory of the Lord, where it will actually be seen over you in the same way that water attracts water, money attracts money, favor attracts favor, mercy attracts mercy—so glory attracts glory. Anything in the kingdom that is stewarded well increases; to him who has much, more will be given beside. It’s the nature of the kingdom. Anything—whether it’s revelation, insight, the anointing for healing, friendship, or favor in business—does not matter what it is. Anything that we steward well in His name actually attracts more of the same. The opposite is also true.
If I treasure things that are wrong, it will actually attract. If I value gossip and don’t guard my language and my heart, I will attract gossip. If I don’t have a standard of morality in the jokes or the kinds of stories I tell, I literally will attract people who come to me out of nowhere and tell me some horrible joke. Why? Because like attracts like. Anything we steward well—and in fact, that’s why, in the gospel of Mark, Jesus taught, «Guard your ears,» because whatever standard you set will be given to you. If you have a standard for testimony, guess what? You attract testimonies. If you have a measurement—a measurement standard allows for encouraging words—you will attract encouraging words. If you have anger and bitterness in your heart towards a group of people or a political party or anything of that nature, you will attract things that reinforce your resentment.
You know, that’s worth the whole day right there! If we can just get that one fixed, we’ll be all right. Just get that thing settled. Because whatever you treasure is what you attract. Verse 3 says nations will come to your light. Let me take the second half of verse 2: «The Lord will arise over you; His glory will be seen upon you.» I don’t know if there’s another promise in the Bible that excites me more than that one. And if you understood what He meant, it would set you off as well because it’s all about the manifestation of the glory of God in the earth. That is the target. From day one, it has been that the glory, the manifested presence of King Jesus, would be seen, realized, and visibly recognized all over the earth. Everything is building to this crescendo, this great orchestra that is playing, and it’s building to one point, and this building as we speak is the crowning moment in human history where the glory of the Lord becomes manifest.
Here He says, whenever you take your place and you shine, it attracts the glory, and His glory will be seen upon you. I love to read about revival moments and high points in church history. Some of the most incredible things I’ve ever read about have to do with the glory of God being seen upon an individual or a group of people. I’ve been in Wales, where the Welsh Revival really is some of my favorite stuff in church history, and I went there—a friend of mine got me into a little chapel where the lightning of God first fell on Evan Roberts. It’s not a place that’s open to the public, so it was nice to be able to get in there and sit. I’ve spent hours in there on two or three different occasions just to reminisce and think about this that has happened when the glory of the Lord would be seen upon people.
I remember them telling me that they would not schedule meetings; they would just gather whenever they could look down at the chapel and see light inside the building, and they had no electricity! It was when the light of God became visible that people would put everything down and they would come. You know, when God gets ahead of you, you might want to show up—it’s kind of a way. I know of times in history where the glory of the Lord has been seen. We’ve actually had times where flames have been seen shooting up from our facility here when inside was just a worshipping group of people or there was a breakthrough in presence and power, and people would drive by and see the flames.
Azusa Street, they would call the fire department, and they would show up to put out the fire, and all there was was the presence of God and worshipping people. It’s not that we’re in for the show; we’re not in for the, you know, the bragging rights, so to speak. It’s just that we would be a people that arise and shine. That we would be a people that take our rightful place—not in ruling, in serving. A rightful place in yielding to the presence of God, and the end result of this was, «Lift up your eyes; they will gather together; they will come to you.» That is the Old Testament version of John chapter 4: «Lift up your eyes; look on the fields; they’re white to harvest.» All right, is anybody tracking with me here?
All right, so here’s the deal: Isaiah 60, 61, and 62 are, at least for me, the most reformational chapters in the Bible. If you understand any kind of prophetic language, there’s years' worth of material in these three chapters. If you have any kind of desire—and I hope everybody in the room does—for reformation, do you understand that if everybody in Redding were to get saved tonight, we would still have economic issues tomorrow? We’d still have family crises and other things. Why? Because it’s one thing to get born again; it’s another to get the way of the King and His kingdom working in how we think and how we do life that brings about the kind of reformation we’re looking for, whether societal change or culture transformed.
This is what we burn for as a team constantly; it’s what we talk about and pray for and dream about. It’s this issue of reformation, and I personally believe we are at the beginning stages of a great, great awakening. Great! We can call it awakening, reformation, or renaissance. I like all three terms. So, somebody figure out one word that has all three of those in it. It’ll be renowation! Yeah, I think I’ll quit right there before I look any more dumb. All right, so here are these three chapters. Just take one quick look with me at Isaiah 62. Just one real quick look. I’m not sure how much of this I’m actually going to get through tonight, but we’ll play around for a few minutes anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don’t feel rushed; I just don’t want to kill you with too many words. All right?
So let’s just start with verse one. We’ll take verses one and two. «For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace; for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles or the nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate.» You can stop right there. These are, I hope you see, obvious reformational decrees and promises. In Hebrews chapter 12, there is this interesting section of Scripture that says, number one, we have not come to Mount Zion that burns with fire, to where anyone who touches the mountain—excuse me, Mount Sinai—we’ve not come to the mountain where it burns with fire, that if anybody touches the mountain, they will die.
Okay, here’s this picture: Moses is up on the mountain; the people of God are told not to go near the mountain. Even if an animal goes up there, it’ll die. This is a holy moment where God is giving the law, the Ten Commandments, to Moses. Here’s this divine moment, and the New Testament writer—Hebrews writer—says we’ve not come to this mount. We’ve not come to the mountain of judgment. Then he says we’ve come to Mount Zion—Mount Zion! And then he goes on and he says, «The New Jerusalem, the church of the redeemed, the firstborn.» What is he saying? The Old Testament terminology for Zion and Jerusalem—oftentimes in prophecy, those two phrases, Zion and Jerusalem, are Old Testament terms that point to a New Testament reality called the church. A new name will be given to her.
Jerusalem is the term that refers to the community of the redeemed; Zion is a section within the city of Jerusalem and it was set aside entirely for worship. It was a hill; it wasn’t a mountain. Even though it’s called Mount Zion, I mean, when God’s there, a hill is a mountain; that’s the point. Zion means «sunny place,» so it’s a hill in Jerusalem that gets the sun rise first—sunny place. All right? So, Jerusalem is the community of the redeemed; Zion is a terminology that refers to the worshipping community. Is there anyone in the worshipping community here? Are you guys still alive? Like, is this all right? So here’s what I want you to see: Chapter 60 starts off in this reformational theme; chapter 62 puts the crowning touch on this reformational theme. We’ll look at a little bit more in a minute.
In the middle is the portion of Scripture that Jesus quoted in Luke chapter 4 when He said, «The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me to bring recovery of sight to the blind, to heal the brokenhearted"—all this ministry stuff. So here we have Isaiah 60, reformation; Isaiah 62, reformation. In the middle of it, we have the Spirit of God coming upon Jesus to do the impossible. Hold that in mind. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we have teaching on the gifts of the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, we have the exhortation to pursue earnestly the gifts of the Spirit. What’s in chapter 13? It’s a chapter of love; it’s the chapter of love that makes 12 and 14 work. I’d like to suggest to you it’s Isaiah 61, «The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,» that makes 60 and 62 work.
It’s the same combination of chapters; they fuel each other and they make it possible. I have been burning in my heart with hope for the church since May of 1979, and no one can talk me out of it because I see our place in Scripture. I realize it’s not an easy road; I realize there are challenges along the way. I get that. But when you see God’s intention and His plan, then you know how to pray. I can’t settle for anything less than what He says. So there—how long have I been going? Does anybody know? There’s no timer up there. No, I’m not unlimited; I could kill you! I’m going on! I’m not stopping! But I need to find a place to land here in a few minutes. Um, here’s what I want you to do: I want you to look at Isaiah 62. This is the portion of Scripture I actually wanted to look at. Maybe someday I’ll have the courage to take all three chapters and we’ll just take a month on it—three, four weeks.
Anyway, verse one again: «For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace; for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness.» What does it say in Isaiah 60? «Nations will come to your light.» Here, let’s merge New Testament: Jesus said, «Let your light shine before men in such a way they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.» The light that is to shine from the life of the believer are the good works that represent who Jesus is, which is both integral acts of kindness towards people and demonstrations of power. It’s not one or the other. Verse three: «You shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.»
Look at verse six: «I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent. Give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.» We’re not talking about the church becoming famous in the sense of, you know, like a rock musician or actor or an athlete or something like that. We’re not talking about that; we’re talking about the people of God becoming so fully who God designed them to be that the nations of the earth celebrate who God has made the church to be. This is actually all through Scripture. This is all through Scripture. In Jeremiah, it says this, referring to the people of God: «It will be to me a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, which will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble because of all the good and all the peace that I make for your success.»
I’m not talking dollars, but it’s included in a minor way. Your success in knowing how to reign in life is what the nations ache for. They ache for why they’re alive and how to do it well. They ache for fulfillment in why they’re alive. For some, it’s business; for others, it’s raising a family; for others, it’s art—expressing themselves in wholesome ways that add quality of life to a city, to a culture. The list is endless, but there’s an ache in their hearts for fulfillment by stepping into God’s design for life, and you have access to what no one else has access to. The church, the body of Christ, has access to something in the Lord that is not to exalt us in the sense that people now come and serve our vision; it’s not that.
It’s that people see Him through us and are attracted to this Him that we serve. You are the light of the world—the salt of the earth! The light of the world, a city—not a city—that is lit up is recognized when it is dark, and people look to that city because they’re in darkness, and they need nourishment, they need safety, they need refuge, they need community; they need all the things that a city on a hill speaks of, and they are attracted in the night, in the darkness, to that place in hopes that they will find what they were born for. We know that we are sent to the nations of the world. Missions is just—it’s all through my life, my family background, my church background. It’s a heavy, heavy emphasis on world missions, and I will always be in supporting, going, and sending. But there’s an aspect of the gospel that sometimes gets neglected.
There is the «go» of the gospel, but there’s also the «come"—that we would actually become something that people would come to. A city set on a hill does not go somewhere; people go to the city to find the safety, to find the refuge, to find a place of healing. They may come for strange reasons; they may come to that city set on the hill—which is not our church services—it may include that, and that’s fine, but that’s not the point. It’s not trying to get more people into the building; it’s that people would come into a place where they find a sense of belonging among the people who know how to do life. Throughout Scripture, there’s this thought, this theme, that the people of God would be a praise in the earth. Do you get praise? Do I get praise? I don’t think so! Let your light shine before men in such a way they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven!
There is praise as a result of the people of our community seeing that we are actually doing what we were born to do—caring for the poor, caring for crises and tough situations. You know that we stand in a place of hope. There’s something that happens in the heart of a community that says, «There’s something right about this.» They don’t use their religious conviction just to try to drain the community of money, but instead, they contribute to the health and well-being of the community. A praise in the earth is the theme of Scripture. It’s a reason I have hope for the church in these days, that regardless of what’s going on around us, things are actually getting better. It doesn’t mean every situation is better, but it means the overall picture is getting better. Why? I’m glad you asked! Come back next Sunday, and I will tell you!
That’s old. Sorry, that’s just bad. The Scripture says the government is on Jesus' shoulders, and there’s no end to the increase of His government—no end to the increase! When did it start? At least when it was spoken! So if He says it starts now and it will never decline, then guess what? It’s increasing! Yeah, but have you heard what happened here and there? It doesn’t matter; just read what it says! It’s never decreasing; it only increases! When you start to think that way and believe that way, guess what you attract? The news that reaffirms that THAT is true! But if what I value is the bad news—it doesn’t mean I like it; it doesn’t mean I celebrate it. If that’s what I hold to, I will attract that which affirms my unbelief.
I think it’s Hosea 3:5—says this: In the last days, people will fear God because of His goodness! Isn’t that crazy? People will fear God because of His goodness! Think about that for a minute. You work hard at work; you’ve been there for several years. You got a decent raise, and that’s the goodness of the Lord. We just give thanks to the Lord for that, but it’s not the measure of goodness that causes anyone to drop to their knees. To get that kind of response, it has to be so extreme that everybody around you knows you could have never gotten that on your own. This could only have come through the hand of God. When people see the hand of God released in an individual’s life, it brings about that fear of God.
Early in Jesus' ministry, in the Gospel of Luke chapter 5, Peter and the guys are with Jesus, and He tells them to cast the net out again, which He did on a couple of occasions, and they did, and the load of fish they caught started to sink one boat. So he called for another boat to come and help, and it started to sink the second boat as well. What does Peter do? He’s a fisherman, which means what? He’s a businessman who catches and sells fish, right? He’s not working for Outdoor Life, taking pictures of fish he caught to sell his latest lure. He’s a businessman who catches and sells fish! So Jesus tells them to cast out the net, and the catch is so extreme that it actually starts sinking two boats. And Peter does what? Drops to his knees and begins to confess his sin! He drops to his knees; he says, «Depart from me; I’m a man of unclean lips. I’m an evil man; I’m a sinful man.» He starts confessing to Jesus.
Jesus hasn’t preached at all about Peter’s need for repentance. Peter’s been hanging out for a while; this isn’t like the first rodeo he’s been on with Jesus. It’s just this time He brought such extravagant, extreme blessing into his life that it took all the wind out of the sails, and he dropped to his knees and began to confess sin! It began to repent! The goal is always repentance, but it doesn’t come only because you tell someone to repent. Sometimes it’s because they taste of God’s goodness in a measure that is beyond anything they’ve seen or understood before, and they fall to their knees and yield themselves completely to this one. This is it—a praise in the earth!
God’s intention is that you would inspire—that your life, that our life together would bring out a song in Reading that’s never been heard before! A song in your city, a nation that you belong to, that the church would be so connected with each other, doing life together, welcoming people in, being evangelistic obviously, but the profound thing that happened with the disciples is they belonged before they believed. Jesus brought them into the inner circle before they knew who He was. You know, you’d think if you’re going to choose disciples and you’re God, you’d want to pick people that think you’re God—just a thought. And he doesn’t take them through that quiz; he just says, «Follow me,» and they learn through the journey who He is, but they belong before they believed. There are nations and cities represented in this room, and by our friends, our church family literally around the world that watch us on Bethel TV.
God is wanting to bring because of your success in life—don’t be afraid of the term. It’s a biblical term; it’s not cars and mansions and planes; it’s that we do life well. It’s the fact that we live with a sense of peace. We’ve won the battle over the mind; we know what it is to be content with our slot and place and lane that God has given us in life. We know how to flourish in our assignments; we know what it is to be faithful in our service in honor of the Lord. The things that He values, we value. The things that He doesn’t value, we don’t have time for, and we just illustrate how to reign in life! Some of you are about to bring the song of the ages out of your city and out of your nation—a song that’s never been heard because they never yet had a chance to sing of the greatness of God, actually seen in a measurable way through how people do life. He says, «Take no rest for yourselves, and give Him no rest until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.»
He’s talking about watchmen. Watchmen—everybody in this room is a watchman in some measure. Any area of responsibility that you have, you’re to be a watchman. For a watchman is not a gossip who gathers information to spread; a watchman is a person who looks for activity outside the walls of the city, and when they see it, they sound the alarm. It’s called prayer. It’s that we realize we’ve been called, summoned to a place—"God, this is working well; these people are thriving! God, we bless that!» We pray that increases! Or, «We’ve got a crisis over here! Father, this family is falling apart; this group of people is having great difficulty stepping into their identity.»
What do you do? That’s where you pray—you partner with God Himself to see His purpose realized in the earth. It’s the watchman role! Take no rest for yourselves! Give Him no rest! Be inconvenienced that you might pray! Don’t just pray the easy stuff; pray the hard stuff, pray the impossible stuff! Take your place on the wall; you’ve been given sight so that what you see will cause you to pray! You have not been given sight so that you can gather information. We’re not doing studies on the well-being of our cities; those are fine, but that’s not the purpose. The purpose is He allows us to see what we see because He’s hoping we’ll take what we see to Him in prayer. It’s this connection; remember, His overall commission is, «On earth as it is in heaven.» What is that? It’s a prayer! The backbone of this assignment is to pray!
All right, let’s wrap it up with this. Verse 10: Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people! Build up, build up the highway! Take out the stones. Lift up a banner for the peoples! I remember when I first read that, I was so—I don’t know how to describe this. When you read something that God is breathing on, you come alive inside. Somebody asks you, «What does it mean?» And you say, «I don’t have a clue! I have no idea what He’s talking about!» All I know is I got very happy reading that! And that’s how it was when I read that for the first time. I was stunned by the life that I got out of His Word, but I could not have explained it. So how does the verse start? It’s a command to go through gates.
Now, look at chapter 60—15, 20 verses earlier, verse 18—the second half of the verse says, «You will call your wall salvation and your gates praise.» So when he says, «Go through the gates,» what is he doing? He’s assigning us to a role in the kingdom of being worshippers! Go through the gates! But these gates are not just any gates. In the book of Revelation, the city of God has gates, and those gates are made out of one solid pearl. Talk about strange imagery! Prophetic imagery. But if you think through this, we can each discover a profound lesson in this prophetic language. A gate in the Bible is a pearl. How are pearls formed? Through irritation. How is the gate of praise formed in your life? That gate through which God invades—it’s when I’m facing something I don’t understand that is frustrating or disappointing to me, and I give Him thanks and praise anyway.
Every time I do that, something is being formed in me that attracts God to invade my present situation. It would be well and good if that was the only part of the story—that God would invade through that gate, if you will He will come through that gate to heal and to restore and to refresh and do all the things that He does. But this lesson has gone far beyond our personal needs and personal benefit. By obeying God, He has now described your evangelistic role, and He says, «Go through; go through the gates; clear the way for the people; remove the stones—the dusty rubble!» Strange picture! What’s amazing about this imagery is, as we did tonight, we gathered the team; they led us in thanksgiving and praise and worship. We celebrated His goodness; we became filled with peace, with just this love and affection for Him; not realizing that what was peaceful for us is actually warfare to the powers of darkness!
It never became the devil’s focus; it’s not supposed to be! That’s why He says, «The Prince of Peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet.» The devil never becomes the focus; the Prince of Peace is the focus! So here we are delighting in Him, ministering to Him, giving thanks to Him. By the way, just let me answer something. When you’re giving thanks, don’t just say thank you; be specific! «Thank you, God, for my family.» When you give Him praise, don’t just say, «I give you praise; I give you praise,» because He’s sitting there going, «When are you going to do it?» I had a glorious hunk of deer meat for lunch today; it was a sign and a wonder! And I had a glorious hunk yesterday and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that, and in some of those days, I’m throwing deer sausage in the morning!
So Bambi and I get along very well when my wife serves me. This is going to sound strange to you, but one of my most favorite things ever—and I don’t know what’s happened; I almost feel like I’m backslidden—one of my most favorite things to eat ever is sautéed spinach. It’s ruining my own self-image now—sautéed with about a quarter cube of butter, helps, and tons of salt and pepper. That spinach just comes to life and talks to you. Potatoes, all this stuff. Anybody getting hungry with me? When I’m eating this, I don’t go, «Praise you, Benny! Praise you! Praise you!» She’s going to look at me like, «What’s wrong with you?» What I do is I say, «Honey, this meat is amazing! This is a gift from God! This is so good! I can hardly stand it! I take another bite and I go, 'Oh! Oh, this is so good! I can hardly stand myself! This is so good! '» And then I tell her, «Honey, don’t tell anybody, but I love sautéed spinach,» as I take another bite! «This is amazing! All this butter—you cooked it just right! This deer meat is rare, like it’s supposed to be because it’s so lean!»
I get very specific at what I’m so happy about because that’s what you do in praise! When I’m getting very serious here—if you get a bad news report from the doctor, this is where you begin to celebrate specifically the healing grace of Jesus that is available for every person in every situation, and you don’t just, you don’t just go general. You get very specific! Why? Because you’re building a gate! You’re in the middle of conflict of thought, conflict of experience, and you’re violating what circumstances are telling you by declaring the greatness of God! «Just got a second notice on a bill that we haven’t paid? You are Jehovah Jireh, God! I absolutely celebrate you! You are my provider! Not just someday; you are right now! You are the God who provides right now! God, I celebrate your kindness, your victory! That it is nothing for you to provide for us abundantly! This is who you are as a father!»
Peter, in his rebellious state, you gave him abundance! God, I know that in any condition I am in, you are the Father! This applies for me, and it draws me nearer to you and I give you praise! Do you understand what I’m saying here? It’s to form the gate! Why? Because it’s going to be a gate that will be your position of authority for reformation! Because the gate that you grow or develop in your personal life over personal issues becomes the gate that you enter through that actually starts affecting the atmosphere and climate of the city that you live in! He says here, «Go through the gates! Clear the way for the people! Remove the stones—the hard places, the places of objection! Take out the stones; lift up a banner over the people!»
Do you understand that when you declare the greatness of God, you’re waving a flag? A flag marks ownership! You wave the flag of the Lord—this city belongs to Jesus! Verse 11: «Indeed, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world.» Say to the daughter of Zion, «Surely your salvation is coming! His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.» They shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and you shall be called sought out, a city not forsaken! Do you understand that the church has been mocked for decades as a group of people—senseless, no purpose, no impact, just religious traditions and such? It’s not that there’s persecution; there’s opposition that comes into this picture as well.
It’s not that the Lord is trying to boost our ego, but He’s wanting to do something so significant in you, in me, in the way we do life that the nations of the world stop and take notice and they say, «They are a people that God did not forsake! They are sought out; they are not forsaken! A praise in the earth!» A people whose life inspires the song out of the hearts of those who have been lost their whole life brings the song out of their hearts. So, Lord, I pray for that! I ask that the grace for releasing this song into our communities, our cities, our nations represented—that something would happen in the body of Christ in all the cities and nations represented here—that the world would change their song!
People would actually be attracted to you because they can see we’re not alone; we’re not just maintaining some tradition! We’re sons and daughters of the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords, who openly gives the invitation for all to come and to receive. Lord, I pray that not only would our evangelism be powerful, our missions, praying for the sick—all of that—but that we’d become a people that others would come to, and that your glory will truly be seen upon us in a way that brings cities and nations to their fulfillment, to their identity. I ask all this in Jesus' wonderful, mighty name! Everybody said, «Amen!» Amen!