Bill Johnson - Hearing Leads to Faith
Yeah, happy, happy Easter! It’s just wonderful. I will never take for granted again the privilege of meeting in a room with humans. What a great treat! It’s challenging to find a humorous story that fits with Easter, but I have one. Most of you have already heard it, but I still like it. A man, his wife, and his mother-in-law went on vacation to the Holy Land. While they were there, the mother-in-law passed away. The undertaker told them, «You can have her shipped home for five thousand dollars, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for a hundred and fifty dollars.» The man thought about it and told him he’d just as soon have her shipped home. The undertaker asked, «Why would you spend five thousand dollars to ship your mother-in-law home when it would be wonderful to have her buried here and spend only a hundred and fifty dollars?» The man replied, «A man died here two thousand years ago. He was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can’t take that chance.»
Well, happy Easter! I like the Bible condemns traditions, but in light of what it condemns, it’s always the traditions that replace scripture and are opposed to scripture to the point where people actually value their traditions more than what the Word of God says. The condemnation towards the tradition of celebrating a certain theme or a certain day or a certain event is never aimed at what the Bible addresses. Those traditions are actually significant. I know that many of you were able to join us for the Good Friday service this week, and I loved it so much. I enjoy those events. I love when we get together as the body of Christ in reading and at multiple events. We weren’t able to hold those this year, but hopefully next year we’ll be able to do that. I truly enjoy those moments, and I appreciate seeing parents who bring their children out. I understand the hassle; I remember when our kids were young how everything of that nature is challenging. It’s a real challenge of faith.
Sometimes we illustrate what we value by what we’re willing to pay a price for, and unintentionally we train our children, friends, and even family members on what is important to us by what we’re willing to endure for a hassle. Honestly, we’re building valuable things in the lives of our children and in our own hearts. Easter is one of those things. I know early on as a pastor I rarely spoke on whatever season it was; I would just talk on whatever came to mind. However, of late, I’ve been warming up more to the idea of paying attention to the calendar. Christmas is enjoyable—enjoy it. I remember one year at the theater in Weberville, we were going to have this Christmas play-type thing, and we had to cancel it for many reasons. So, I got up and announced the Christmas musical was canceled. Well, there was a little kid in a kind of balcony section that didn’t hear «musical,» all he heard was «Christmas» and that I canceled it. I didn’t know I had that kind of authority, but he figured I did. He threw himself on the floor, wailing and gnashing his teeth because I canceled Christmas! I didn’t do it; it was just a musical. But anyway, it was so fun!
I want to talk to you today about the resurrection story, but I’m going to back my way into it. We will go into Romans chapter 6. We’re going to do two portions of scripture: Romans 6 and then also Mark 15 and 16. We’ll wrap those two together, but I want to talk about faith. It will be a slightly different kind of faith message. Usually, when I think of talking about faith, I think of getting amped up to believe for the impossible, and that’s always the case. However, what I’m looking at is a little bit different. The Lord has initiated this relational journey for us here. Let me bring something to mind: Hebrews 11:6 says it’s impossible to please Him apart from faith. That means faith is fairly significant because establishing favor and increasing in the pleasure of the Lord is connected to our life of faith in many ways.
One of the most important things I’ve learned in recent years is that faith doesn’t grow from striving; it grows from surrender. It’s the place of yielding that brings me into greater and greater faith. So, if we can keep those things in mind, it keeps us from the hype that is a counterfeit to what real faith is. You can’t self-will your way into great faith. I’ve heard people say, «I’m just going to believe God,» as though they can will themselves into great faith, but that’s not how it works. Faith comes in one of two ways: firstly, it’s a fruit of the Spirit, and/or it is a gift of the Spirit. In Galatians 5, it’s mentioned as a fruit of the Spirit. Many of your translations will use the word «faithfulness,» but it’s the exact same word for faith found in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, where it talks about the gift of faith.
So let’s talk about these two things: the fruit of the Spirit is faith, and the gift of the Spirit is faith. Fruit means it’s something you can develop with use, so you can increase its size, and you can increase its impact through use. It’s like a muscle; you develop it through use. I had someone years ago tell me they had zero faith—no faith whatsoever—and I was trying to figure out what they did with it because God gives every person a measure of faith. I’m not sure if they left it somewhere or what they did, but oftentimes we look in the wrong places for faith because faith doesn’t come from determination; it really does come out of surrender in relationship.
Another point about faith that is important before we read this scripture is that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We studied this a couple of weeks ago. Faith comes from hearing. Faith is evidence of a current relationship where you’re hearing from God. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the Word of God. So, my capacity to hear is enhanced through the literal reading of scripture; it’s pouring the Word of God into me that increases my capacity to hear. This is vital because the Bible also says a man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. I live because He talks. I’m alive because He speaks. The very fact that God speaks means He breathes His word into my heart day after day, hour after hour.
It’s evidence because I’m alive. He keeps me alive with His voice. The mistake many of us make is that we can’t hear His voice well. In fact, I asked you the question: how many of you have had times when you couldn’t hear His voice well, but you could sense His presence? The point was that this is His voice; that’s His voice. We tend to measure His voice by what we comprehend instead of by who is in the room; He is the living Word. He is the Word of God, and when He comes in presence like that, He’s generally depositing things in our spirit that are too big or too significant for our mind. Oh man, I don’t want to fall into that hole, so let me back away here and stay away from that hole right there.
He speaks to your spirit man; He deposits things. For example, you’re sitting here this morning in worship—great worship—and we’re enjoying Him, and there’s this interaction between the Holy Spirit and your spirit. The Bible says we worship God in spirit and in truth. So, in spirit means we engage with the Holy Spirit, who guides us, leads us, and empowers us during this time of worship. It also says to worship in truth, and truth means nothing hidden. I am there with all my pain, all my breakthroughs, my testimonies, my questions—all my stuff is laid out on the table. I’m not being presumptuous. I don’t pretend to be something that I’m not. I am here as a child who has problems, and I lay all of it before You; it’s all a part of my worship expression.
There’s something about that kind of interaction with Him where you know you’ve had this happen: you have something that’s an insurmountable problem, and you can’t explain it, but you walk out of that moment with peace. You walk out of that moment where you don’t know what to do, but it’s almost like it doesn’t matter. You can almost worry yourself into feeling irresponsible because you’re not fearful. There are those moments where the peace of God just comes. What happens is He ministers deeper than your mind can comprehend in that moment. If we don’t learn to recognize that, we won’t know that He is actually speaking words of life into us that literally keep us alive.
There are times where the Lord speaks to you. Job has this great dialogue or situation where he talks about God visiting us. In the book of Job, it says that God visits us in the night, putting things in our heart that are too big for us to handle if He gave them to us in a day. The reason is that we become egocentric or we think more highly of ourselves than is healthy for us. The Lord deposits these things very deeply in us, and over time they mature and come to the surface.
The point is God is always talking to us. The problem for many of us is we sit in our spiritual recliners and basically say, «God, I’m hungry for revival. If You want me to experience it, You know where I’m at. Just come and visit me.» That kind of approach to the things of God is very dangerous because it means you’re only going to get what He has sovereignly determined you’re going to get, and your hunger has no role in the outcome of your life. That didn’t sound right. Let me put it a different way: most of what you need in life will be brought to you; most of what you want, you’ll have to go get. There’s a responsibility to seek and to pursue; even the spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 are once again repeated in 14. He says, «Pursue earnestly spiritual gifts.» The revelation of the gifts does not deposit gifts; they must be pursued independently because they are in the Word.
Let’s jump right into Romans 6, since you’re giving me that deer-in-headlights look. Let’s try and find some scripture to redeem this section!
Verse 4 of chapter 6: «Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life.» What Paul’s doing here is teaching about the death and resurrection of Christ, but he’s also teaching about water baptism. He uses the picture of being immersed in water—a picture of the grave. He says, «You’re buried in the death of Christ, and when you come up out of the water—» (it’s one of the reasons water baptism is so critical)—"there’s a newness of life that is imparted to an individual that you can’t get. Physical obedience brings spiritual release; don’t question what good it does, just do what He says.» Amen!
Verse 5: «If we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.» Knowing this, that our old man—that’s not any relative of yours—that’s your old nature—"was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.»
Now, jump ahead. The whole chapter is profound, but let’s just go to verse 11. «Likewise you also reckon or consider yourselves to be dead to sin.» This is one of the most stunning chapters in the Bible. Follow this logic with me: First of all, did you know that we know the cross and the shedding of blood made forgiveness of sin possible? Yes, blood can’t be atoned for apart from blood; the shedding of blood—Jesus' sacrifice—made that possible. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, which is an incredible mystery to me, «Without the resurrection, you’re still in your sins.»
So, it’s the blood, but it’s also the resurrection. It’s two sides of the same coin, if we can put it that way: the death was necessary; without a resurrection, you don’t get life. Without a resurrection, you don’t live. So here are the two absolute theological cornerstones for all that we believe: Number one, Jesus died; He died in my place. He died for me; He died for you. He suffered a brutal death to atone for our sin. Secondly, on the third day, He was raised from the dead, never to die again. Everyone Jesus raised from the dead during His earthly ministry died again, but this was the firstborn from the dead, never to die again.
Two absolutes—would you agree? Verse 11 says, «Even so, as real as those two realities are, think of yourself as dead to sin.» Is there anybody else in the room here that I should be talking to? In the same way that those are absolutely true, equal in absoluteness is the fact you’re dead to sin. The reason the enemy targets the mind so much is that if I believe a lie, I empower the liar. And if I think inconsistent with that, this is not mind over matter; this is not some mental gymnastics we try to hype ourselves up with. It is the discovery of truth. It’s the discovery of the greatest reality there is: the death and the resurrection of Christ. Absolutely true. Now let your thinking be shaped by those two realities, and the conclusion is, he says consider, reckon it. It really means to add up; do the math: He died, rose again; it’s your life. I’m dead to sin. It’s the only possible conclusion when you actually believe those two things.
I like to put it this way: Jesus never took away any of our ability to sin; He just took away our ability to enjoy it. How many of you have made stupid decisions? You were miserable, right?
Now let’s move over to Mark chapter 15. We’re going to read two verses there, and then I want to go into Mark chapter 16.
All right, here we are—15, start with verse 31. «Likewise, the chief priests also, mocking among themselves with the scribes, said, 'He saved others; Himself he cannot save.'» Verse 32: «Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may see and believe.» Even those who were crucified with Him reviled Him.
Here’s the phrase that really gets to me, and I just want to camp on this for a moment: «Let the Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross that we may see and believe.» Nobody gets to set their own parameters for growing in faith. No one has the right to say, «God, you do this, and I will believe.» It is not the product of determination and self-will; it’s the product of the Spirit’s work in a surrendered person’s life. The sooner we get rid of that arrogant notion that «I’m just determined to do this, I’m determined to do that,» and replace it with the ambition to surrender and yield and illustrate the nature and the character of Christ in our lives, surrendering to His purposes and promises, the more differently we begin to see things.
These religious leaders had no right to even make the claim that we will believe if He does certain things. It would be a fascinating study to see all the things that were presented to Jesus. There were suggestions made to Him, like when Peter said, «Don’t die—that’s a bad plan!» and the devil said, «Turn this stone into bread.» There’s a whole list of suggestions to Him. Thankfully, He knew when to recognize what was from the Father.
Verse 1 of chapter 16: «When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices that they might come and anoint Him. Very early in the morning on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they said among themselves, 'Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us? ' But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away; for it was very large.»
Entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; they were alarmed, and he said to them, «Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen!"—there are the coolest three words ever spoken—"He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter"—which is interesting; it’s not that Peter wasn’t a disciple; he just needed a little extra attention. Sometimes each of us has needed just a little extra nudge, and Jesus was kind enough to give it to Peter.
So he said, «Go tell the disciples and Peter that He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him, as He said to you.» And that’s an amazing promise, isn’t it? «Go to Galilee; you’ll see Him for yourself.»
They went out quickly and fled from the tomb; they trembled and were amazed. They said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
When He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him as they mourned and wept, and when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
Let’s stop right there for a moment. No, let’s read the next few verses. He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked in the country, and they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
Verse 14: «He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.»
I return to this story. You know the places in scripture that you’re familiar with and you return to, just for «recreational reading,» as I call it. This portion has meant a lot to me personally because it shows how to deal with mourning. Every one of us has disappointments; every one of us has lost. Every one of us has stuff that we have no explanation for—you just get that in life. If you don’t know how to navigate that stuff, you end up crippled. You can call it whatever you want; you can say, «Well, that’s just not my gift; that’s not my calling.» But really, you’re just resisting stepping into who you are because you’re hurt.
This issue of pain says here that they were mourning, and they did not believe. Mourning will take you one of two places. First of all, mourning is biblical. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Here’s the point: there’s one route to go in mourning where I don’t have the answers, I don’t have the solutions, I don’t have some great strategy. All I know is who to come to, and I come to this place in abandonment, oftentimes in worship, in the sacrifice of thanksgiving when it doesn’t feel good. But I do it anyway; in that engagement with the person of the Holy Spirit, He comes and comforts.
There’s one direction to go in mourning where I don’t have the answers that takes me to the Comforter; the other takes me to unbelief. We can call it all kinds of religious titles, but the bottom line is I’m in pain, I don’t have answers for it, and I’m going to keep the routine up. I’m just not going to be as involved in that area. I just suffered a great loss. I’m not going to pray for the sick like I was. And it’s not always thought through; it’s just what we do. We react to «Oh, we suffered loss with cancer; I’ll just let somebody else pray for people who have injuries.»
You know, we rationalize instead of going head-on into the area where we need to be healed. When He brings healing to a broken heart, it doesn’t, at least for me, initially start with answers. Most of the time, I don’t need answers anyway; I need a person. I need presence. If I can have the peace that passes understanding, I’m good; which for me has meant I have to give up my right to understand.
There’s something about coming into that place of engaging with the person of the Holy Spirit, where I’m engaging with Him in surrender. I’m not there to dictate to Him; I’m not with Him so that I can become successful in life. I’m there because He’s God, and I’m not. I think I mentioned it last week: I saw the sign that said, «The only difference between you and God is that He’s not trying to be you.» Excuse me, that’s not the only difference, but you get the point.
All right, so this mourning then takes me in one of two directions: it either takes me to a place of healing and comfort from the Comforter, or to unbelief. Now, picture being the Eleven: you’re huddled together in a home, scared to death because Jesus was just brutally murdered before your eyes. You’re afraid you might be next. If there’s anything you don’t feel, it’s resistant to truth. You feel demoralized; maybe you feel weakened. There are probably tears and all this stuff going on in the room. But the one thing you don’t feel is a hardness of heart. Yet, when Jesus walks into the room, He rebukes them for their hardness of heart.
See, hardness of heart isn’t evident through strong self-will. Hardness of heart is oftentimes evident in the unwillingness to deal with the pain that’s in your life, the unwillingness to come to the Lord for Him to bring healing out of that which makes no sense. And what happens is it builds a resistance in us.
The scary thing to me about this story is that these guys are going to be taking on the message to shape the course of world history, and Jesus starts off His relationship with them with a rebuke. This is His first interaction with them after the resurrection, and He’s basically saying, «Listen, I sent messengers to you. You didn’t believe them. I told you ahead of time what would happen. Then I sent messengers.»
Here’s part of the problem: the first messenger was Mary Magdalene. First of all, in this male-dominated culture, women weren’t counted—I’m just saying that’s the culture of the day—and these guys that are running things: Who does Jesus first reveal Himself to? Not just women, but Mary Magdalene—the demonized, tormented one. Jesus chooses her first—however it works, it was chosen.
I remember part of the problem is you have to learn to recognize when God is speaking, not because it makes sense to you, but because you recognize the presence of God being released when they speak. I know that may sound abstract, but I feel like I’ve been harping on that for years. I feel like if the Lord wants to bring it up again, it’s recognizing the presence.
Jesus taught this in John 6 in this incredible chapter where He multiplies food; first, the crowd was there—at least fifteen thousand. There were probably five thousand men, besides women and children, so we’re looking at maybe fifteen or twenty thousand people—anyway, a whole bunch of folks. Jesus multiplied a boy’s lunch to feed them all—the lunch of someone who didn’t count was multiplied from the one who counted.
In this dialogue, He tells everybody they have to eat His flesh and drink His blood, which grosses everybody out, and He doesn’t bother to do the pastoral thing and give an explanation. He could have easily calmed everyone down by taking them through their own Jewish history and showing them where it was foretold that this would be coming about, but He didn’t bother. He didn’t want a group of people who were together just because they agreed. Towards the end of this time, people started leaving, and He makes this comment to His disciples: «My words to you are spirit and their life.»
My words become presence, and that presence gives life. Every word that comes to us from the heart of God carries presence with it, but if I only analyze from my reasoning, I’ll get it right sometimes and I’ll get it wrong sometimes. I’m not saying reasoning is wrong, so please don’t read that wrong, because we’re supposed to analyze truth.
But there are times where—here it is: I was sitting in a kitchen at a ministry house we had here in Redding, and a guy sat across the table from me. He was sharing his testimony with me. I just met him days earlier, and inside I’ve got the alarms the Holy Spirit put in me going off. But my brain, my mind was enjoying the story, and my mind basically told my heart to be quiet. This is a good testimony.
I sat there and listened to this guy go on and on about how Jesus did this and Jesus did that, only to find out in about a week or two that he had been stealing from people, creating false bank accounts, and literally set himself up as a «Christian» to work with Christian businessmen, plundering and stealing from them. The alarms were going off because there was no life in his words, but his words were impressive.
Are you getting the picture here? The words stirred my curiosity because they were the kinds of stories I had heard before about great things that God had done, and he duplicated them, and he suckered me into that place to just sit there and let my heart be involved in praising the Lord. I had to ignore everything inside me that said, «This is not right.»
Another time, I was in a big conference with thousands of people—and I was in the front row with one of the speakers—and right in front of me was a woman singing the wrong words at the wrong notes at the wrong time. Some of you have such deep powers of concentration that you would have done fine, but I’m fighting through this. I had been in enough of these, in fact I was in one in New Zealand. You’ll like this one: Danny Silk and I were standing together and there was this gal who would wait until it was silent, and then she would sing things that weren’t in the song at all, in a falsetto soprano voice. The two young ladies in front of her just started giggling.
But they stayed there. I was impressed that for about forty-five minutes, they stayed in front of this piercing soprano voice, singing the wrong words at the wrong time. They stayed there; everyone said they’d giggle to compose themselves so they could get back to worship. When the worship ended, I walked up to both of them, I gave them twenty bucks each and said, «You earned this. I’m impressed!»
I did. I’m serious; I felt like the Lord wanted to reward them for their—because I would have turned around and found another place in the room to stand. But they stayed there.
So I’ve got this gal singing the wrong song—now I knew enough, not to judge her; it was annoying, but I tried to distance my heart from it because I’ve just been wrong too many times. I’ve looked stupid too many times when coming to a conclusion incorrectly, so I knew that was always a remote possibility.
So, I just stood there, tried to worship the best I could, and pretty soon Heidi Baker comes over next to me. She was down there and she comes over right next to me, leans over, and says, «Isn’t that beautiful?» And I’m thinking, «yeah,» and she goes, «Oh yeah, oh, beautiful.» I didn’t lie; it just required greater faith than I was accustomed to operating in. Isn’t that beautiful?
«Yeah, beautiful.» She says, «Yeah, she was a prostitute for thirty-seven years, and now she’s free.»
I thought, «Yeah, you can sing anything you want! In fact, I give you the microphone; you can take my next session!»
I realized another story had warning going on, but my intellectual pleasure in the story canceled my discernment. Are you getting the picture? The Lord wants us to learn the source of life itself. A man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from His mouth. We live because He speaks.
Literally, we are alive because He talks to us, and our comprehension of His words—word by word, His voice—word by word—is not the measure of recognizing His voice; it’s the impact of His presence.
Verse 14 again: Later, He appeared to the Eleven as they sat at the table; He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. You know nobody wants to be gullible, right?
Nobody wants to look stupid, right? Maybe it doesn’t matter to you, but for Chris and me, it matters a lot. Nobody wants to be left looking stupid because you believed some dumb thing. We’ve all seen it—we’ve seen people sneak into churches and plunder and steal money and all kinds of stupid things just because of being gullible.
But the protection for that is not being resistant to people. See, that’s the counterfeit. The protection is to become a worshiper and come to know the presence because He’ll never deceive you.
I remember my first time to Toronto. I had seen most everything that was going on in a room, but there were five thousand people there, and I had never seen anything like that. It was overwhelming to my senses. I walked in, stood about that far away, looking at everything that was going on; people were being radically touched by God. The meeting hadn’t even started yet, and I was a little overwhelmed by what was happening.
Then, I thought, «I’ll just close my eyes.» I closed my eyes, and I realized it’s the same Holy Spirit—the one I’ve interacted with over the years. This is Him!
The whole point is you don’t grow in faith by trying to grow in faith. You don’t keep safe because you put these barriers up that this person has to meet these qualifications and this qualification. It really is an invitation into an acknowledged relational journey where the key to my life is my ability to recognize Him.
It’s recognizing Him. It’s one of the things in these prayer meetings out in the tent. Oh my goodness, time after time, we just walk into that tent, and there’s just this glory that’s there; it shapes you.
I don’t walk out of there spouting off forty-five minutes of revelation I just got. That would be a disappointment. Because it’s like walking into a person where you engage with the one who created everything—the one who sustained your life—the one who is the evidence of God on earth, the Holy Spirit himself.
In those moments, I don’t have any great ideas. I have nothing I want to persuade Him of. Suddenly, in this moment of presence, all I can think of is to honor Him, to love Him—to draw near to Him and celebrate Him, and to be a faithful steward of whatever He’s put in my charge.
In this moment, do someone ask me, «Do you want to go up and do something?» No! I don’t want to do anything; I just want to stand here and worship, and honor, and love this one who has given Himself so completely.
And I realize that doesn’t sound like a logical way to great faith, but I think it is. I think that’s it; I think that’s the whole journey. The whole journey is that He says, «Come and get to know my voice. Recognize my presence. Acknowledge that glory.»
Know that the scripture says Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. That glory—you come into that place and that incredible sense of His presence—that is actually resurrection power. It’s resurrection power; it’s the testimony of this day that affects every day of our life.
I like how you live—I like how we live. Every day is Easter, I get that, but I love being able to take a moment where we just say, «He has risen!» He has risen indeed, and it changes everything.
As the scripture says, if He did not withhold His only Son, how will He not also freely give us all things? I didn’t deserve His Son, and He said, «It’s a down payment.» This is the life we’ve been invited into. It’s a walk with Jesus, and great faith is what you’re destined for.
I don’t want to grow in faith so I can become more successful; I want to grow in faith because that’s my design. It’s my nature; I’m in a creation created to believe and have the privilege to illustrate His nature through my trust. Trust is the only reasonable response to someone as faithful as He is.
Why don’t you stand? We’re going to pray together. I think our life is made up of a whole bunch of tiny little moments. You know the big significant things are important—when someone gets healed, or delivered, or a relative gets saved, or you get that promotion you’ve been praying for, or whatever it might be. I love all that stuff, but for me, life is really made up of these little moments where you’re just walking down the hall, and you have this overwhelming sense of gladness because of Jesus. It’s just—nothing happened; nothing was said; no fireworks went off; you just become aware.
You just become aware of Him. Sitting on my deck yesterday, two little quail—male and female—came by, and I didn’t shoot them. Some realized I could feel the vibe in the room here. Honestly, they walked by, and I just gave thanks. I said, «Thanks for letting me enjoy this! I love this so much that You would give me the privilege of seeing these two amazing creatures.»
I’m not as happy with ground squirrels. I don’t consider them to be amazing. The gophers? They’re not amazing at all; I think they’re demons in fur. We’re working through that one!
But Father, I ask that You fill our lives with the little things that trigger that awareness of who You are—Your amazing covenant that You’ve made with us, Your goodness that’s beyond our comprehension—and that You would endear us to that place of longing to hear from You again and again and again.
That the result, really, would be great faith. We would really honor You with how we respond to stuff. I know there’s a chance any time there are this many people in a room, we’ve got a whole bunch of folks online. We bless our Bethel family online. We have overflow rooms. Anyone who has never made a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ to be a true disciple of Jesus, you know it is time for you to, as we would say, «get right with God.»
To be born again and changed from the inside out, this is your moment. If there’s anybody in the room in that condition, you’d say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave until I know I have found peace with God. I know what it is to be forgiven and to be brought into His family.»
If that’s you, put a hand up right where you are, and we’re just going to pray for you. Just do it boldly, right where you are. If you’re in one of the overflow rooms, please do it there as our pastoral teams will help you.
Right down here—yep, beautiful. All right, excellent—wonderful! Anyone else, real quickly? We just thank You, Lord. Leslie, would you mind coming over here and just talking with us right back here? Thank you—just minister to her. Oh my goodness, Jesus, thank You! What a wonderful day! What a wonderful day! Hold tight, and Tom here will help you figure out what to do next.