Bill Johnson - Jesus, Full of the Holy Spirit
Good morning! How many of you are horse people and like horses? If you like to ride fast, we have fast horses; if you prefer to ride slowly, we have slow horses. For those who have never ridden, we have horses that have never been ridden. Probably not, huh? I’m not a horse person. I’ve been on horses, but I once got on one that was demonized. It was the horse where all the demons went from the man of the Gadarenes. That horse wanted to kill me, and it knew it had an idiot on its back—it just knew. They can tell instantly what you know and what you don’t know, and that horse tried to kill me. They had to keep it in a small corral because it would run itself to death; it just wanted to. My friends put me on that horse, and that thing took off across the field like a rocket ship. Then it ran toward a tree with low branches, as if trying to get deliverance for me. I seriously melted into the saddle and the branches scraped over the top of my head and back. I thought I needed a sozo ride, yours. Yeah, I have gotten as close to horses as I have an appetite for, so I got it out of my system all in that one day about 35 years ago or whenever it was. Everyone thinks a girl’s dream is to find the perfect guy. Please! Every girl’s dream is to get thin by eating cupcakes. I didn’t make it to the gym today; that makes five years in a row. My bathing suit told me to go to the gym, but my sweatpants were like, «Nah, girl, you’re good.» I probably have two or three hundred of these; I just save them. You know, there are three kinds of people in this world: those who are good at math and those who aren’t. There’s always a little delay. What did he say? Spell check has got to be my worst enemy! Has your phone ever spell-checked you and you sent a message, and as it’s going, you’re like, «Come back, come back?» Yeah, I had a pastor friend of mine send me a voice message, and it put a nice, healthy swear word in there! He texted me back filled with repentance, but I’d rather believe he did it on purpose just so I could tease him. One last one: if you’re depressed about being fat, you should eat right and exercise; then you can be depressed about being hungry.
All right, grab your Bibles; it’ll take me a little while to get there, so open to Isaiah 61. It’s kind of a hallmark passage for us, and actually probably for the church in the last 2,000 years. We’ll get to it in a little bit; put a piece of paper in there or something, unless you get bored with what I’m saying, then you can just read it while I’m talking. Yeah, Jesus modeled what it looks like to be full of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is actually a command in Scripture; it’s both an invitation and a command. It’s kind of like being invited to a birthday party. When somebody says, «You will be at my birthday party,» that’s kind of the way this command came. It says, «Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Don’t be drunk with wine; be filled with the Holy Spirit. Don’t live under the influence of this, live under the influence of this. Don’t let this shape how you walk; let this shape how you walk.» So Jesus modeled what it looked like to be full of the Holy Spirit. Imagine this: thankfully, we just finished with a drought. We got tired of it and prayed it out of here last year, and it wasn’t nearly as fun as they said it would be; we enjoyed bountiful rain last year. I’ve been here during two droughts—one back in the 70s and then one that just finished last year. Both times, the drought was so severe they said it would take like 10 years for our lake to recover, but both times the Lord restored the lake in one year; a real miracle I’m thankful for!
But let’s imagine, for example, that you live in San Diego. I don’t know what the rainfall is, but let’s say they get 10 inches of rain a year, and you move to Redding during a drought, where we get 20 inches. You move into this environment where there’s 20 inches of rain. Droughts don’t mean it doesn’t rain; it just means it doesn’t rain enough. But if you move from an area that has 10 inches and you go to an area where there’s 20, you might think it’s more than enough. See, a lot of people experience outpourings of the Spirit and think it’s abundant, but according to biblical standards, it’s a drought. Jesus models what the fullness of the Holy Spirit looks like—not to shame us or ridicule; he never says, «Look what I have that you don’t.» It’s always an invitation to pursue what he has made available. It’s interesting to me in Scripture that some things he has just determined will be given to you, and sometimes that’s what happens. Sometimes you’re just in the room and catch something; other times, he’s unpredictable because he’s a God to join in relationship. He’s not just a philosophy; he’s not just a God of principles where you take one, two, and three steps and end up with an equation. He’s not that way; it’s a relational journey.
In this journey, he’s invited us to do things, and some things just happen simply because you’re in the room. Other times it’s a simple prayer. I’ve watched some of the most extraordinary things happen to people who weren’t even asking for God—he just literally visited them. We’ve had people join us here; some come very hungry; others, to be honest, have told me they just came to check it off the list. You know, they had somebody say, «You need to go,» and they came just to kind of get their friend to leave them alone for a while. I get that; I’ve done the same thing. You know, they won’t get off my back until I do what they ask, so I just do them a favor. Some people literally have just come into the room that way, and then Jesus completely and totally heals them of something that’s impossible.
I remember a pastor friend sitting right over here who almost didn’t become a pastor because his dyslexia was so bad he just couldn’t read. It would turn things around so badly he’d have to study the Bible on CDs and stuff; it was just so challenging. He sat here, and the Spirit of God fell upon him in fire, and while it was happening, he discovered his bad attitude. He came face to face with the fact that he didn’t even want to be there, and yet you’re touching me anyway. It’s a wonderful story! God, in his grace, was just touching him, and he said, «Oh God, please don’t let me mess this up,» because he could tell something was happening. He went from someone who couldn’t read to someone who, within just days, was reading for six to eight hours a day; he just couldn’t get enough. He suddenly had no problem whatsoever with his reading. He was sitting right over here, and the Lord just healed him!
So there are things like that he just does through surprise, and there are other things that come to us in seed form or come to us as promises, and he waits for us to pursue him. He waits for us to come hungry, and so much of the kingdom is available for those who pursue and pursue according to his invitation. We have this concept of Jesus modeling the fullness of the Holy Spirit; another term that we use often is: «Jesus Christ is perfect theology.» I don’t believe there’s a problem with that phrase; what’s highly possible is that theology is typically thought about that which we know about God. Jesus was perfect theology in that he modeled perfect knowledge of God, the burning conviction of what to do, and the actions that followed illustrated what he believed. There wasn’t a separation between idea and display; there was no separation between the philosophy of healing and the burden to heal and seeing people healed. They were seamless in the way they merged.
Jesus was perfect theology in that sense; he not only had perfect insight and knowledge of the Father because he is the eternal Son of God, he is exactly like the Father! I love Hebrews; maybe sometime we’ll take some time just to study it. I really love Hebrews 1, how it says that Jesus is the exact representation of his nature. He is that which emanates from the Father in the same way that light comes from these light bulbs; so Jesus comes forth from the Father. He is exactly like the Father; he represents him perfectly. There’s zero blemish, there’s zero difference between the Father and him in nature, in kind, in action, in word—everything is exactly the same. When Jesus said, «It’s better that I go,» he would send the Holy Spirit, he used a term to describe the Holy Spirit: the word «another.» He says, «I will send you another Comforter.» There are a couple of words that could have been used: for example, behind the piano here is a chair, and then you’re sitting in a chair. They’re not the same kind of chair, but they’re both chairs, would you agree? So here’s the chair that you’re sitting in, and then there’s another. But they’re not the same; whereas in the chairs, you’re sitting in what Tom is sitting in is exactly the same as what Paul is sitting in—there’s another.
So when Jesus describes sending the Holy Spirit, he uses a word that means «exactly the same as me.» Here’s Jesus; he emanates from the Father; he’s exactly like the Father, and then he says, «I’m going to go, and the Holy Spirit who is with you is going to be in you. It’s better that I go, and he is another Comforter; he is exactly the same as me.» Now, if you can imagine this perfect representation of the Father now dwelling inside every born-again believer, his longing is that accurate expression of who God the Father is would flow in and through us. He models the fullness of the Holy Spirit; he models perfect theology; he illustrates, demonstrates the knowledge of God, and brings about deliverance and healing, etc. Jesus entered every situation with a redemptive solution, in other words, there wasn’t a problem he walked into that he looked at and walked out saying, «I’ve got to avoid this one.» There weren’t any of those! He calmed storms; he slept in a storm; he walked through a storm—he was stormless! He was unaffected by storms; he affected storms. He was carrying something that affected storms, so every situation he entered into he brought a redemptive touch into that situation.
So the dead child he raised, the blind eyes he opened, the storm he calmed, or he would direct his disciples. The point was he didn’t avoid problems; he always walked into them with redemptive solutions. We know the Bible says that the devil comes to kill, steal, and destroy. That’s not an assignment by God; it’s just what he does. The devil is not the opposite of God; he’s the opposite of Michael. The devil is a created being who has zero authority. I don’t want to talk about him, but you get the point. The devil comes to kill, steal, destroy—which means death, loss, and destruction are the fingerprints of his work. It’s the residue of him being present in a situation. You find death, you know; you find something that’s dying, you find something that’s broken, and then you know where the enemy’s been—that’s what he leaves behind. But Jesus comes into every situation with redemptive solutions and answers. In 1 John 3:8 it says that he came to destroy the works of the evil one. Elsewhere it says that he came to openly display the foolishness of darkness, and all of that is in a measured way what the fullness of the Holy Spirit looks like.
When the Lord says, «Be filled with the Spirit,» it literally enables us to do exactly what Jesus did: illustrate the Father and deal with the afflictions, the issues of life. There’s not one that Jesus bypassed. I remember a passage that messes with me a bit; it’s out of Mark 9, and it’s very personal to me. There’s a moment where a dad who has a demonized child brings this child to the disciples to set him free. They were so well experienced in the area of healing and deliverance that Jesus actually trusted them to go on their own in pairs to their hometowns. They were so successful in their ministry in their hometowns that when they regrouped with Jesus, they started arguing about who was the greatest. They only argued about who was the greatest because they had just such a great week! They had seen demons leave, they had seen miracles happen, and they thought, «Well, Peter’s thinking there’s no way John could have carried that kind of anointing; I’m pretty sure I have the corner on what Jesus just did.» They got back, and they were arguing. Jesus doesn’t mind making you successful to the point ugly things come to the surface; he’s not afraid of the ugly things. In fact, he wants them to come to the surface so we can deal with them. When we put religious names on them, we pretend we’re broken. We give it a virtuous name, and it has permission to stay and grow. So when you take things that are really marks of brokenness and put a virtuous name on it, it now has permission to stay and set up camp.
Anyway, back to the story. Jesus brings the disciples into places of great success, and they taste of the healings, deliverance, and all the stuff. No doubt, the crowd that the disciples are in has been doing that because that’s what they’re assigned to do; Jesus told them to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils, etc. The dad sees this going on with the disciples, grabs his son because now there’s hope, and he brings the son to the disciples. They try everything they’ve tried; they rebuke every way they’ve rebuked before. They’ve bound, they’ve loosed, they’ve done everything they know to do. They probably poured oil, blew the shofar, played the tambourine, every Christian toy that they had available to them—I’m sure they used just to get rid of that demon—but nothing happened.
I had a similar situation I’ll never forget. I happened to be in Southern California; I was in some meetings there that, quite honestly, were extraordinary—just one of those times when Jesus seemed to enter the room, and there was so much stuff going on. I don’t remember one situation besides the little boy that was brought to me. A young mom brought her son to me—probably five or six years old—and he was just horribly demonized. I’ve seen Jesus set people free; it’s a great privilege to bring liberty and freedom from that torment. I did everything I knew to do that I had done before. I prayed, I bound; I tried to do exactly what the Father was doing, and that child didn’t get free. The mother looked at me after I spent a fair amount of time with them both, and she said, «What do I do now?» Because the child wasn’t free, I will never forget it! I’ll never forget the look on her face. She wasn’t rude; she didn’t point a finger at me, but it seemed to me when she said, «What do I do now?» she was really saying, «Is that all you’ve got?» You know, and it was—you’re stuck realizing you’ve done your best, and that child that you’re so moved for is leaving in the same condition they came in with. It’s the same with the wheelchairs that come in week after week; it’s the same with various conditions. I am thrilled with what we see happen! I’ve seen things I didn’t know I’d ever get a chance to see. We had more stuff happen this week—just unusual invasions of God, absolute raw miracles—and I’m thankful! I’m not ungrateful at all; he’s already gone way beyond anything I’d see in my lifetime. But he’s touched me deep enough to ruin me to stay there!
This father brought this child to Jesus; the disciples couldn’t get him free. He saw Jesus, took the child to Jesus, and Jesus drove the evil spirits out, and the child was free. The disciples watched this and were stunned by his success. They were stunned by his ability to do what they couldn’t do because they were trained by him. They weren’t careless rookies; they knew what they were doing, and they couldn’t get free. They saw Jesus bring deliverance to the child, and it says they took Jesus aside and asked him, «How come we couldn’t get the child free?» There’s that great, very famous statement that Jesus made, «Well, this kind only comes out with prayer and fasting.» To come out of that story with that as a formula (and I mean that in a good sense) as a principle to follow, when you don’t get a breakthrough, praying and fasting is really, really huge! It’s something all of us can glean from that story, but I think there’s a bigger lesson from that story. Sometimes, the breakthrough comes through prayer and fasting, but sometimes it’s a decree; sometimes it’s a radical act of obedience; sometimes it’s giving; sometimes it’s the shout of praise—I mean, it’s just any number of things that he brings us into. We learn them as principles, but we don’t turn them on and off at will to get what we want. We are children who learn to respond to a Father and do as he’s leading us to do; that’s our life’s journey. That’s our life’s goal—to say what the Father is saying and do what we see the Father doing. We’ve been invited into that kind of relationship where we actually get to represent the Father.
It was the command of Jesus in John 20 when he, after he had raised from the dead, the disciples were hiding in a room; they were scared to death. Jesus walks through the wall, which really helped them with their fear issues—I’m sure pampers were needed by everyone! He gives them, there’s this encounter that extends for several verses, but the conclusion of this encounter, Jesus says, «As the Father sent me, I send you.» If you look at every verse that describes Jesus' coming as sent from the Father, the overwhelming theme is he was sent by the Father to reveal the Father. So if we take that as Jesus' primary function to reveal the Father, and then Jesus turns to those who follow him and says, «As the Father sent me, I send you,» then really what he’s saying is your privilege in life is to reveal the Father. But I’d like to suggest it’s impossible to do adequately without being filled with the Spirit. I’m not trying to make this a doctrinal issue; there are many who—I think praying in tongues is glorious; I can’t imagine life without it. I like what Paul said: «I pray in tongues more than all of you.» The language he uses there is he says, «I pray more in tongues than all of you combined.» In other words, I’m a tongue-talker, and that’s—I believe in that breakthrough! I know what it’s like to be edified by just praying in the Spirit and have the Holy Spirit pray through. I love it! But it would be like going through the River Jordan into the Promised Land. You cross the river and you’ve got houses built; you’ve got lands, vineyards planted, and all this stuff to inherit. You walk through this river on dry ground; you stand on the banks of the river and you stand there for your entire life and never enter the purpose for going through the river. Yes, tongues are valuable; yes, that shoreline is important, but it’s the beginning of a breakthrough in which the Lord Almighty, the God of the universe, is represented and manifest through people that taste of his goodness in his provision.
Isaiah chapter 61—I fear that sometimes I become too familiar with the passage. Sometimes I’ll read it in a different translation, sometimes I’ll read it out loud, and sometimes I’ll stop after each phrase and think, «I need to jar myself from familiarity,» because some things are so huge; some things are so weighty that it’s easy to skim over the surface of something and not be impacted by its depth. This is one of those passages; this is what Jesus read in his hometown of Nazareth. I think we studied it a week or two ago a little bit. This is what he read to announce the beginning of his ministry from Nazareth. In verse one he says, «The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to console those who mourn in Zion; to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.» Such a wonderful, wonderful verse! Really what he’s saying is he’s saying, «Listen, the Holy Spirit is upon me.» I know the Holy Spirit lives in us; as I’ve stated countless times through the years, the Holy Spirit is in me for my sake, but he rests upon me for yours. We have to understand that when the Spirit of God comes upon us, it’s always for action; it’s always for impact; it’s always to change something. We’ve been privileged to step into the middle of an impossibility.
We may not know what’s supposed to happen; we just know God doesn’t want it left the way it is. We come in looking to him; our hearts turned for solutions. We don’t come as the smart people; we don’t come as the people that always have the plan. Sometimes we know the least about a given situation, but we step into the middle of an impossibility knowing that the God of the universe, the Creator of all, lives in us, and he has practical solutions for the situation. Here we have this announcement Jesus makes over his own life, and he’s basically describing the broken, the poor, the blind, the lame, the imprisoned, the tormented—all this stuff. He says, «I’m here to fix that.» But then he comes to the end of verse 3—talks about these people that are broken becoming oaks of righteousness. I remember we used to go get firewood in Weaverville. It was a love-hate relationship; it was fun to be outdoors, but man, it was work! We’d go to areas where trees had fallen due to windfall. We’d chop them or cut them up, get the rounds, and put them into the truck. It was always a very interesting journey! We would get on these logging roads, and sometimes we’d have a friend who’d have a key to a gate. We’d get on these logging roads, and maybe the area hadn’t been logged for, you know, like 20 years, 30 years, and there are these little pine trees, about this big around, that grow up in the middle of the road. Well, into your truck, you’d just go right over them; it doesn’t kill them—they bend over and bounce back up after you go past them! You run into an oak tree that size, and you’ve got an issue because that thing isn’t budging, and you have now damaged your car. We learned, «Oh, oak tree, don’t go around the oak tree!» But we’d see the pines—they just bent down and bounced back up. Oaks of righteousness are absolutely stable, and that’s the goal of the Lord for the most broken of the world: oaks of righteousness! He’s saying, «I will take the most broken among you.»
Remember, he doesn’t choose us because we’re qualified; he doesn’t choose us because we’re gifted. If we have anything, it’s only because he gave it to us; it’s not about that at all. He champions the most broken for a reason in this passage—why? Because that’s where he receives the most glory. Here are the most broken in the world. Jesus steps into their lives; you, the anointed one, you—the one who carries the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit in your life! —step into that person’s life to see that individual restored. They’re now set free; they sleep at night; they’re not tormented anymore! Those who were so bound with fear and anxiety are now free to think creatively. They have an impact in their job; they have an impact as entrepreneurs; they influence other people’s values. They don’t do the addiction thing anymore; they’re now reaching out to friends who are bound by those addictions. What happens is the person who was once the most broken becomes one of the oaks of righteousness!
That which has such firm roots that you just can’t budge them, can’t move them… well, there’s a reason for that; there’s a purpose, an «unto» something in that great miracle. It’s verse 4: «They shall rebuild old ruins; they shall raise up former desolations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.» This is one of the most beautiful pictures in the Bible! You’ve got the most broken becoming the most stable, but they don’t stop with their own personal stability; they don’t stop by saying, «I can now prosper.» They’re saying, «All right, let’s rebuild the city! Let’s rebuild this city!»
Here’s the point that I want to share from this: you don’t get the rebuilders if you don’t get broken people healed. If you don’t get broken people healed, you don’t get rebuilt cities! We keep crying out for our city to be healed and restored and, you know, all the stuff that’s in our hearts. This only happens when you have people here that are filled with the Spirit! There’s a cause and effect; there are people who carry the fullness of the Spirit, who live under the influence of this outpouring, this constantly changing ebb and flow. It’s constantly moving from this to that, because it’s relational! It’s not—we don’t memorize six principles and then change the world; it’s a relational thing!
We had an interesting experience this last week. I met with some leaders on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, and Tuesday was the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation. Yeah, it was pretty cool! I didn’t realize when I called these leaders together that we would actually be meeting on the actual day of the 500-year Reformation. We’ve been celebrating it all year, praying into it, talking about it, but I didn’t realize I’d be with these friends of mine on the day. My team put name tags for everyone because they came from nations around the world—about 40 of them—so we met up at the summit by the lake in this lodge area for a couple of days. On the name tags at the top is a skeleton key. That was above the name tag. Well, it was a beautiful sunny day, and we were outside during breaks. We all stood outside; it was so beautiful! You could see shafts of the dam and the lake and down into the valley; it was just gorgeous, and they were all outside taking pictures because the view was so pretty! Come back in, and one of the guys is looking through his pictures. He looks and goes, «Man, look at this!» There are clouds in the shape of a skeleton key.
Do you have that? I was told you guys actually had that. I should have warned you not to have it! Okay, maybe someday I’ll show you. Until then, you have to imagine—I have people take pictures of clouds and say, «Do you see him?» I go, «Who am I supposed to see?» He goes, «Jesus!» «Oh, is that it?» Look at the top! Now, if I could show you—look at that! Look at the exact shape! That’s what the key looks like on the name tag. Do you guys have a picture of that? As long as I’m asking, how about Ferraris? Do you have any Ferraris back there? I really like Ferraris! No, no Ferraris? Okay, all right!
Here’s the point! Here we’ve got this unusual thing. There it is, a skeleton key! It looks exactly like the one on the name tag! So we come aside; we’re kind of chuckling about it. We’re thinking this is so fascinating! One of the guys turns around, and in a vase in this beautifully decorated lodge, he looks in the vase and inside is the skeleton key! So now we’ve got these clouds in the sky, we’ve got the name tag, we’ve got the skeleton key! It came with a house; I don’t know why it’s there, but it was hiding in the vase. He pulls that out, and someone had a prophetic word saying 500 years ago they nailed the 95 theses to the door, but the Lord is now giving you a key to go through the door in this next reformation!
It’s amazing! I have people give me pictures of clouds and go, «Do you see him?» and I go, «Man, I’m trying!» I don’t think my staff makes fun of me. They hung up one in my office just so that I can look at it. It doesn’t look like Jesus to me, but that’s all. Anyway, here’s the point: we’ve got verse 4! We’ve got this beautiful, beautiful declaration of God. Can I put it this way? Verse 4—rebuilding cities—that was the target God began with when he began to fill people with the Spirit! It was the target! He was saying, «All right, all right. So you’ve never dealt with addiction, but guess what, I’m going to put the Spirit of God upon you in such a profound way, I’m going to have you talk with somebody who’s bound by addiction. You’re going to bring freedom! That fullness of the Spirit on you is to bring freedom to them!» That person who becomes free is going to become stable, and as they become stable, they will become the rebuilders of broken cities!
But it all starts with somebody saying, «Holy Spirit, come! Baptize me anew! Baptize me afresh! Fill me with your Spirit!» Many people stop short of a divine encounter because they’re satisfied with good theology. They’re happy with meeting whatever qualifications they may have for being filled with the Spirit. «Well, I pray in tongues; I do this; I do that.» Listen, the point is, is there power coming forth from your life that sets captives free? That’s the issue! It’s the issue! The Holy Spirit’s in you to comfort you, to bring peace to you, to give you insight—all that stuff is for you! But this Spirit of God who comes upon us is for us to bring about transformation in the events and stuff around us—that’s the purpose!
It’s measurable! The fullness of the Spirit is measured by impact. In Acts chapter 2, we know that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s an extraordinary chapter; it’s a Pentecostal’s favorite chapter! It’s where there’s this outpouring of the Spirit; it’s extraordinary! But in chapter 4, it happens again! It’s anywhere from, some say, two to maybe five years after the Day of Pentecost. We’ve got some of the same people who are in the extreme, who are rocked—where thousands are added daily—they’re in the same experience a couple years later! What’s the point? You’re a broken vessel; you leak!
Old timers used to put it this way: they would say, «Stay under the spout where the glory comes out!» You know, that’s how—that’s the whole deal! Just stay in that place where the Spirit of God comes upon you continuously. My testimony yesterday is wonderful, but it is no excuse for the absence of hunger today! Anytime yesterday’s experience erases my hunger for today, I’ve chosen where to level off, when in fact the Lord has invited us into this relationship where being filled with the Holy Spirit—the ongoing filling of the Holy Spirit—actually becomes necessary for us to demonstrate who the Father is!
Yes! I don’t think it’s possible, but I’m confident it’s not possible to adequately display the love of God without power! I love the practical stuff. I mean, I really love—I really love giving a sandwich to somebody that’s hungry, giving them a coat, and providing shoes and the stuff for people in need—we love to do that! I love this! But without power, they’re still bound! Their belly may be full—which is important! —but the addiction that got them to that place of brokenness has got to be broken! Somebody’s got to come in filled with the Spirit of God that breaks that thing off and knows how to end this cycle! Maybe it’s five generations of poverty. Just break it off! God has given the ability to make wealth to every individual—anyone who will just turn their hearts to him and say yes! He gives the ability, and then he reveals the purpose for wealth, for prosperity, for blessing! It’s unto something! It’s never about accumulation! This kingdom that we live in is so different! So different!
You’re exalted by going low; you become filled by becoming empty! It’s just a different kingdom! It’s a different kingdom! He welcomes us into this kingdom where there’s conflict and understanding that enables us to understand it’s just a—you realize abundance is measured by what you’ve given away—not by what you have! Fullness…
Give me those two water bottles down there, thanks, Aaron! So we’ve got two—one water bottle that’s full, and one that’s almost full. This is legal to sell because it’s full. This one has been tampered with; this is also legal to sell—it’s full, but it’s not really full. In fact, it’s not full until it overflows! That’s what reveals its fullness! The fullness of the Holy Spirit is never measured by what you have; it’s measured by what overflows from you! It’s what overflows!
See, this kingdom is a different kingdom! It completely functions differently! It’s not by what I contain; it’s not by what I keep; it’s what I release! It’s what I give away! I almost threw this without the topper! That would just… yeah… throw it on Chris! Just throw it over like this. I love the privilege of coming together! Anytime we have the chance—I do love Sunday mornings; they’re full. The multiple gatherings, I do love the chance to get together. My only regret is that Sunday night is the service without end!
So when we come to this point in the meeting, we just say, «All right, everybody come to the front!» We start laying hands on people and just going for it! Sunday morning, if I do that to you, we have a whole other group coming up the hill in just a few minutes. So I’m just going to say, if you have the nerve, come back! Come back to the gathering without end! That’s not a threat! I do want to pray for you now!
I want you to understand that I do want to pray that the Spirit of God would come so powerfully upon you that he would so deeply expand our ability to represent him! To carry presence! Is Paul speaking tonight? Is that a rumor? Paul and Sue are in the house? Am I? Wonderful! Back from the UK for a short time! So we’re going to turn Polish tonight! I also want to have a testimony or two from Robbie Dawkins, so we’ll see how that works! My goodness! He rocked my world this week with some stories!
Oh Jesus! You know when—how many of you are parents? How many of you remember when you’d have a little child that just wasn’t hungry? It was always a sign of something not right—fever—something’s not right! You remember that? The absence of hunger actually revealed something that wasn’t right! Sometimes the beginning place for me through the years has been just the invitation—the willingness to become hungry! If shame and guilt could get us there, we’d all already be there! We know he never shames us; he’s such a perfect Father! He never shames us! But he’s also not afraid of making me uncomfortable! He’s also not afraid of offending the way I think to show me how he thinks!
So I want you just to begin to pray; I want you to ask the Lord to completely fill you with his Spirit. Just put it on your lips; I want you just to pray—ask him to release the presence, the power of God upon you in ways that are new! Just lift your voices and pray! Yes, Lord, we are hungry! We’re so hungry for you to do above and beyond all we could ask or think of! We don’t even know what we’re asking for; we just know it’s available, and we know it’s good! So we just ask for more, Father God! Let this be the beginning season of the fullness of the Spirit that we’ve never yet known about! Let it be that which enables us to not just nail something to the door but actually go through the door at the beginning of this next reformation! Let it happen through people that are actually filled to fullness—overflowing with the Holy Spirit! Just continue to pray, folks, if you would!
But put your hands down only because I’m going to give an invitation, but just pray—just if you’re born again, ignore me! All right, just pray! Just pray, ask God for more! We’re going to multitask here! I want to give opportunity for anyone in the room that would just say, «Bill, I’ve not surrendered my life to Jesus. I don’t know what it is to be forgiven; I don’t know what it is to be born again, and I want that!» The rest of you, pray—don’t stop! Don’t stop! I’m not offended by you making noise; you pray! But I want to invite anyone in the room that would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave here until I know I’m at peace with God, until I know I’ve been forgiven, until I know that I have truly turned from my life of sin to follow Jesus.»
I don’t want to leave until I know that’s happened. If that’s you, while the others are praying, put a hand in the air and I want to pray with you! This is right where you are—just put your hand up high because I want to see you! Just wait—way back over here, I see that one! Yes, anybody else? Put your hand up high if you’re saying yes, I want Jesus! Yeah, right over here, there’s another one to my left! Anybody else? Put your hand up high; there’s another one way over to my right. Thank you, Lord! We thank you for this God—there’s a… yeah, I see that one there! Okay, thank you! There’s one in the back; yes, thank you, Lord, for that! Thank you for that—keep praying, church! Keep praying!
This changes everything! This changes everything! This is where everything changes in a person’s life! It’s where everything changes! So we just say, «Holy Spirit, come! Bring people to faith; bring them to that place of faith—a relationship with you!» Yes, Lord! We thank you for that! I want to ask—I saw four people; I want to ask the four people that put their hand up. I want you just to look up at me for a moment, here—the four that put their hands up. What I want to ask you to do is we’ve got a team over here that we know and trust; I want them to have just a couple minutes with you to talk and pray for you!
So I want you just to come down to the front. Church, bless them as they come, if you would! Come over here to my left! There may have been more, but I know there are at least four! Just come on, come on down to the front! Come right over here where this banner is, and these folks will talk with you and pray for you! Wonderful, wonderful! Thank the Lord! Thank the Lord! Yeah, come on over! Bless you! God bless you! God bless you! Yes, bless them again, would you? They’re still coming to Jesus! Wonderful! We’re so thankful for this! God, we’re so thankful for this!
Now, just put your hands up in front of me; I want to pray for you because here’s what I want to do: I want to pray that the Spirit of God would come upon everybody in this room in such a deep and profound way that it would take weeks to unravel! Take weeks to fully discover what’s happening in this moment because I believe, honestly, I believe the Lord is giving us a key! It’s a key of surrender! It’s not a key of our strategic wisdom—it’s a key of yieldedness that he’s going to take us into the next season to really see reformation in cities and nations of the world!
So put your hands in front of you! I say, «Holy Spirit, please come even now with great power—great power! Mark us with purpose—the purpose of the fullness of your Spirit! Mark us deeply and profoundly for this next season!» I ask in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen! In a moment, we’ll have a chance for you to come and receive ministry. We’ve got a great team that’s ready to pray for you! If you could hold your places, it really does help! I’ll get to the back door, and then Chris is going to give some directions! Amen! What a wonderful morning! Amen! Why don’t you just put your hand on someone next to you? Just begin to declare more! Say, «God, get them! Fill us with more!» Just begin to declare the more of the Lord! Father, that we would be a vessel that would be full and overflowing! That they would be a vessel that would be full and overflowing! Thank you, Jesus! Thank you, Jesus!
All right, you guys ready to go and impact the city? Yeah! Let’s go out of this place; let’s overflow into our city and see it impacted! If you’re here this morning and you need a miracle in your body, we have a team ready to impact you! We have a miracle team here, so you can just begin to come and line up at the front here, and for the rest of you, bless you, and we’ll see you tonight!