Bill Johnson - Resurrection Power
Thanks, you’re cutting into my message time here. Wow, happy Easter! He has risen! Risen indeed! Amen! What a wonderful day! How many of you were at the Good Friday service? Was that just wonderful or what? Honestly, I plan my schedule around that event every year. All right, where is it? I’m home that week; I cannot miss that event! It’s just so good! I don’t even want to be somewhere else until Thursday in case there’s some mess-up with the flights. I have to make sure I’m home for that because, oh goodness, it blesses me so much!
All right, I have something very important to read. I’ve read it before, but you’ll understand why it’s appropriate today. 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 they could have her shipped home for five thousand dollars, or they could bury her there in the Holy Land for one hundred fifty. The man thought about it for a moment and said he’d just as soon have her shipped home. The undertaker asked why he would spend five thousand dollars to ship his mother-in-law home when it would be wonderful to have her buried there for only one hundred fifty. 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!» I know, it’s pitiful, isn’t it?
Open your Bibles, if you would, to the Gospel of John. We’ll start in Chapter 19. I’ve had a fun experience a couple of times in my life when people told me I ruined their Easter, and that felt so good—so encouraging! It was because I didn’t tell the Easter story; I just presented testimonies of the resurrection power of Jesus. I thought that would work, but apparently the story is better, so we’re going to tell the story today and, once again, give the opportunity at the end for the power of Jesus to be displayed. You and I were born for the impossible, and we are actually uniquely designed to walk in a relationship with God in this relational journey where the impossibilities of life can be confronted. It’s actually in our DNA. We are designed to carry that possibility of potential every day of our life.
The death and resurrection of Christ—two sides of the same coin. The death and resurrection of Christ is the most demanding reality in all of life. I remember when I met with a bunch of high school students a number of years ago, in fact, it was at Chris’s house in his living room, and I talked to them about the significance of the death and resurrection of Christ. It’s so significant that if it’s not true, I owe humanity the rest of my life to warn them of this lie and to disprove this fallacy. On the other hand, if it is true, I owe all of humanity the rest of my life to bring the story and demonstrate the power of that resurrection because it defines everything else.
All of life is defined by this one great reality. Take all the confusion that exists in the world, all the craziness that is going on, and all of it could be settled and fixed with a clear understanding of the death and resurrection of Christ—every single bit of it! Because when Jesus died, He did not die missing anything. He didn’t forget to deal with something; He didn’t offer Himself as an offering for part of the problem. He actually became the offering to settle all the issues. I was trying to remember a quote earlier; Eric sent it to me on my way to the next service over to Twin View. It’s one of my favorite quotes of all time. It’s a C.S. Lewis quote: «I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun. The sun has risen. I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.»
The resurrection of Christ, the death and resurrection of Christ, redefines everything about life—relationships, giftings, purpose, dreams, visions—all that stuff takes on a different flavor and definition because Jesus conquered death in my place and rose victorious! Interestingly, His resurrection is actually our resurrection. Romans says if you’ve been baptized with Him, you’ve been buried in His death, then you also have been raised up in His resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is given to you the moment you’re born again. It’s what causes us to be born again. Do you understand? Jesus didn’t raise Himself; He didn’t raise Himself! The Spirit of God came upon Him and raised Him up as this testimony of resurrection.
What I want to do today is go through the story, starting with the crucifixion and then going into some of the resurrection story. I’ll read a few verses, and then I’ll talk until we’re done. If you get through before I do, just go home! I’ve always wanted to tell you that!
All right, here we go. John Chapter 19—open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, Chapter 19. Did I say 19 already once, and then I just said ninth? Yeah, you just pick and choose; they’re both good, but I’m going to be in Chapter 19 if you want to join me. So, I was just at Twin View, one of our other campuses, and I was going to start reading, and I didn’t even tell them what book—what chapter in John—so I accused them of not having a strong enough prophetic anointing on their life, but I repented quickly! It’s all right.
The Gospel of John, Chapter 19. Let’s just go right to verse 31. Jesus is already crucified. It says in the previous verse He gave up His spirit and announced, «It is finished.» Verse 31: Therefore, because it was the preparation day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.
A couple of things I want to mention here. First of all, the prophets had declared that not one of His bones would be broken, so it was essential that His legs were not broken in fulfillment of prophetic word. But what’s interesting to me is that He was dead before the other two. Firstly, the guy, the thief that died with Him on the cross next to Him, talked about coming into the kingdom at the last moment. Can you imagine this guy? You’ll see him in heaven, and you’ll recognize him; you’ll know who he is. He’ll be able to brag throughout eternity that he was one of the guys that came in at the exact last moment.
Years ago, we had some of our team down in the streets of San Francisco. They were sharing the gospel, ministering to people. One of our directors, a fourteen-year-old girl, sat down on a curb, and there was an elderly man sitting there. She shared the gospel with him, and he ended up getting born again—a tremendous Holy Spirit moment where He just came upon that man, and he was so deeply touched and transformed. She went around ministering to other people and heard sirens. She followed the sirens, and when they came back, this man had passed away since the time she led him to the Lord. So she was there at that moment.
My prayer is that it would be impossible to get to heaven without reading that. There would be people at the gates in hospitals, in convalescent homes, and ambulance drivers—all these places that are gateways to eternity—manned by people who love Jesus and can introduce people into that final moment experience. But here, these two guys are still alive. Their legs have to be broken so they can no longer push up and keep themselves able to breathe, so they suffocate. When they came to Jesus, He was already dead. Why was He dead ahead of the other two? Personally, I think it was because of the weight of sin. If you take the billions of people’s sins—you know what it’s like when you’ve done something wrong—that shame and guilt that heavy feeling you experience? Now multiply that by billions of people, and then multiply that by a lifetime of sin, and put all of that on one person in one moment—Jesus, who proved Himself to be holy, demonstrated power in miracles, but also demonstrated power in holiness as talked about in Romans 1.
This one, in that moment, was crushed and literally died of that broken heart because of the weight of sin. Wow! Jesus became a curse; it says He became a curse on a tree, referring to the cross, became a curse on the tree so that you wouldn’t have to bear the curse. He didn’t suffer and die so that you would have a good example to follow; He did not bear the weight of sin so that you and I could keep a stiff upper lip and deal with our sin. He bore the curse so that the power of the curse would be broken and completeness, wholeness would be available to every person in every situation.
It says here—verse 34 says, «One of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear. Immediately, blood and water came out.» I love this part of the story! In the Old Testament, I’m going to use several Old Testament references today. In the Old Testament, there was the tabernacle of Moses, and it had a courtyard area outside. Inside was a little building with two compartments: the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies—I’ll get to that later. As people would enter this courtyard area, the first thing they ran into was a brazen altar; this is where the blood sacrifices were made. Right past that was a labor—a bowl made out of the mirrors of the women. This was in the wilderness, now! Out of the mirrors of women, it would contain water.
So here’s the interesting thing: the priests would sacrifice the animal, which never dealt with sin by the way—it only postponed the penalty for one more year. It gave them an act of obedience to be included in His redemptive plan, but it never dealt with sin. And so the blood would deal with sin. But in this labor, the priests were still required to wipe off uncleanness. Let me put it this way: people who live with other people get dirty; they get contaminated just in relationships. I can go on social media, and you can get contaminated quickly; it’s a very quick experience. It’s just available to you, right? It’s like the kingdom; it’s at hand!
It’s right within reach. You can feel seriously; you can feel like you did something wrong. You can feel that shame or that unsettled feeling that something’s wrong. You can ask God, «What did I do wrong?» And there’s nothing to confess because no sin was committed; there’s just uncleanness. The scripture says we are washed by the washing of the water with the word of God. I’ve had times—countless times through my life—where I just feel unsettled. Something’s wrong, I don’t know what it is, and I pray and think, «God, did I do something wrong? Did I say something? Did I think something? Did I entertain or plan something?» I go through, and there’s nothing to confess. I open the word up, and I begin to read, and I just become cleansed. I become washed in the water of the word of God!
Blood and water! Listen to this passage out of Zechariah 13: «In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.» Now, stop for a minute! House of David, inhabitants of Jerusalem—that would be Old Testament terminology that would equate to, in New Testament terms, the community of the redeemed! Right? So we’re talking about you all, us all! «In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David, for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and uncleanness.» A fountain shall be opened that deals with the power of sin but also makes it possible to stay clean just through the contaminants that happen in life—the cleanness of conscience.
It wasn’t something that was done wrong; it’s just we rub shoulders with people. We are broken people living with broken people who are all in process, and there’s a contamination that takes place. You can have the TV on, and something comes on; you quickly change the channel; it’s too late, you saw something. There’s a contamination. These things just happen. You’re in the office— not here, this office—but some other place, and somebody tells a joke. You didn’t have a chance to get out of the room in time because it’s a defiling. It’s too late! But it’s not too late for the washing of the water with the word. Just know where to go! Just know where to go! That’s where we stay in this throughout the day; we stay in that word because there’s continuous cleansing and the word of God itself.
A fountain was opened up with a spear that brought out the blood that deals with sin and the water that deals with contamination. Verse 35: «He who has seen has testified; his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth so that you may believe.» Here’s what I did in my Bible: I circled the word testimony, and then I underlined that you may believe, and I drew an arrow because testimony is always that you may believe. It is always to lead to a greater faith to encounter God for yourself!
Chapter 20, verse 1. «On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark, and she saw that the stone had been taken from the tomb. She ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, 'They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.'» Peter therefore went out and the other disciple, and they were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, but the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.
I love this part of the story! Let me tell you why. John is the one writing this, and in verse 2 he writes, «And the other disciple whom Jesus loved.» John either has some issues, or he lacks self-awareness, or he is facing the greatest challenge to his humility! Not since Moses was required to write; Moses is the meekest man on earth! Either he’s an egotist, or he actually chose to walk in humility to the point where he obeyed writing what he was supposed to write at the expense of appearing to be self-serving!
Verse 6—are you alive? How alive are you? Okay, all right, all right, all right! He’s risen! Let’s—that’s—He’s risen! All right, all right, that works. Verse 6: «Simon Peter came, following him, went into the tomb, and he saw the linen cloth lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloth but folded together in a place by itself.» This is interesting. They come into the tomb; there’s a place where the body was, and He was wrapped in cloth, but the part that was wrapped around His head was folded in a place by itself, separate from the other cloth.
I’m told of this Jewish tradition that if you went to somebody’s home to eat a meal and you hated the meal but didn’t want to say anything, there was a way you could fold up the napkin and put it on your plate, and it basically was telling the host or hostess, «I will never eat this meal again.» The Bible says Jesus tasted death once and for all; the napkin was folded saying, «This meal will never be repeated; it’s been defeated once and for all!»
Verse 11. «Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.» Stop right there for a minute! Back to the Old Testament, there was the most sacred piece of furniture in Jewish history in their routine—sounds negative; I don’t mean it that way—in their routine of worship was the Ark of the Covenant. We’ll just say this is the Ark. It was a wooden box overlaid with gold. In the four corners are rings so that they could put poles in those corners, because when it was time for the presence of God to move, it was to rest on the shoulders of priests.
David made the mistake of putting it on an ox cart, and somebody died. The presence of the Lord is always designed to rest on the shoulders of priests—those who walk in that lifestyle of authentically serving Him. People carry presence, and that’s the design, but this golden box contains three items. There are the tablets of stone (the Ten Commandments), a jar of manna, and the almond rod that budded. These three things testify of the law of God (the word of God), testify of God’s absolute, complete, total provision in the manna, and then resurrection power—this dead almond branch has sprouts, buds, blossoms, and ripe almonds!
These testimonies are in this box; on top of this box, this center area is called the mercy seat. On both ends of the mercy seat are two angelic beings that face each other in the middle—that is the ark of the covenant, the Ark of the Testimony! Every time you share a testimony, you are ushering in the mercy seat of God into that person’s experience where they can taste for themselves of God’s mercy, because His mercy rests upon this ark of testimony.
These two angelic beings face each other! I’d like to suggest that when the disciples looked inside the tomb and they saw where Jesus was laid, and they saw these angels there on both ends that it was the prophetic decree that the Old Testament natural ark of the covenant has been replaced by the true spiritual one—where the mercy of God is now released into the earth through the resurrection power of Jesus! Because He is alive! There is a shift in season! We see this shift in season even more so in the rest of this story.
Jump down to verse 15. In verse 14, Mary saw it was Jesus and didn’t know it was Him. Verse 15: «Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?» She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, «Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.» Jesus said to her, «Mary!» She turned and said to Him, «Rabbouni!» which is to say «Teacher.»
I don’t know; I just like this verse! I just like the fact she has dialogue with Him! She doesn’t know who He is, but when He mentions her name, all of a sudden everything gets put in place! One of the things I pray for people often—I pray for my grandkids, I pray for my kids—that there would be that hearing of the voice of God! There’s something about God calling your name; there’s something about God speaking to you where everything takes on definition because of that one thing!
In this moment, she realizes who it is. He says, «Mary» in verse 16. She turned and said, «Rabbouni!» which is to say «Teacher.» Then Jesus said to her, «Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father.» Stop right there! «Do not cling to Me!» Another translation says, «Stop clinging to Me!» I’ve not yet ascended to My Father. Think through this with me for a moment: Jesus, He raised from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and was glorified. At this moment, He has not yet ascended. All right?
So it’s three days after His death, and He says to her, «Stop clinging to Me!» Compare this with His first birth. His first birth was a virgin birth through Mary, the mother of Jesus. The first person to touch Him was the virgin; the first person to touch Him in His second birth (if we can call it that, because the Bible does say He’s the firstborn from the dead)—the first person to touch Him was Mary Magdalene, out of whom seven demons had been cast out!
It’s a shift in seasons! He’s making this announcement: Old Testament, you touch the leper; you’re unclean. New Testament, Jesus touches the leper; the leper becomes clean. Old Testament, the severity of sin was the focus. It had to be! It had to set the context in which people would realize their need for a Savior. There is no solution for sin! You can’t fix yourself! There’s no self-help program that will deal with the nature of sin and the root of sin inside a person! There’s only one possible answer! People said there are many ways to God; if there are many ways to God, then God is cruel to require Jesus to go through what He went through.
He went through what He went through because it was the only possible solution that you and I—everyone within the sound of my voice—would know what it is to be born again and have eternal life because of Christ! So here is this: Here is this virgin Mary, His first birth. When He was born of the dead, the firstborn of the dead, the first to touch Him is the one who illustrated grace, because it’s a new season.
«Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father. Go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.'» When Jesus died—I’ve heard some people say before He went; remember three days later, He ascends to the Father? So when He died, some people I’ve heard say, «Jesus went into hell and suffered in hell on our behalf.» No! No! If He did, then the blood wasn’t enough! It’s about the blood!
So what happened? Luke 16 gives us the best description of this reality. This place called Sheol has two compartments: a place of torment, a great chasm between that and the other compartment—it’s called Abraham’s bosom. Abraham is called the father of faith. The righteous who died before the death of Christ went into this place—a paradise, if you will, a place of peace, a place of comfort. Those who didn’t went into the place of torment.
Read Luke 16—end of 16—sobering, sobering chapter! When Jesus—it says Jesus when He ascended before He ascended, He descended into the lower parts of the earth. Listen to the phrase: «to lead captive a host of captives.» You want to be captive by Jesus, because being captive by Him is the most freedom you’ll ever experience!
It’s this weird kingdom; you rise by going low! You’re received by giving! It’s that whole thing; you live by dying! It’s this confusing journey of just saying yes to Jesus every day. So here Jesus, it says, descended first into the lower parts of the earth. What did He do? He went to the place where the people who had died in faith. Remember, it’s a level playing field—Old and New Testament—the thing that got you born again in the New was the thing that got you preserved in the Old; that’s why it’s called Abraham’s bosom!
Jesus goes in and makes proclamation: «The payment has been made!» Because no one could go to heaven until Jesus died; there was no payment for sin. So God allowed it to be a place of peace until the death of Christ came.
So Jesus, having made the payment, grabbed the keys of authority that man had given over to the serpent, comes into the room, makes the announcement—I want the videotape on this one—makes the announcement: «The price has been paid!» Come on! And they all begin to ascend, and Jesus glances over and sees Mary Magdalene weeping at the tomb. I don’t know how this went down: this is my imagination. He turns to the crowd and says, «I’ll be right back!» And then He goes over to Mary Magdalene.
Well, Matthew 27 says the graves of the righteous opened, and they were seen walking around Jerusalem. When did that happen? I’d like to suggest it’s right now! Jesus says, «I’ll be right back!» He goes over to Mary. David looks at Moses and says, «He’s going to be a while. We might as well catch a few sights!»
When He’s through, back on the bus, and He brings the prize of His suffering before the Father. The Moravians have this great statement: «To win for the Lamb the reward of His suffering.» This—that Jesus suffered and died was to purchase people—you, me—this host that He led captive, and He presented the prize before the Father.
Verse 19, we’ve got just a couple more, then we’ll wrap it up. It says, «Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you! '» When He said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, «Peace to you! As the Father sent Me, I send you.» Jesus walks into a room where everybody is scared. They’re next! They’re afraid they’re going to die! They saw the angry crowds; they know that they have been recognized. Peter was picked out standing by the fire by a servant girl, so they’ve got this fear thing all over them that they’re going to be crucified next. And so they’re hiding.
Then Jesus walks through the wall, which doesn’t help with their fear issues, and they don’t know who it is, which makes things worse! He didn’t come appearing as He did before because He likes to appear to us differently than the last time so that we learn to recognize Him by voice and presence and not by our formulas that we have created. He’ll break out of any box you create! So here He walks into the room and says, «Peace to you!» It’s like Noah when he released the dove out of the ark, and the dove flew around and could find no place to land and flew back to the earth—Jesus releases the presence of God over this group of people, but no one is there receiving peace because they are locked into fear!
You say, «Well, I thought that peace would be given to those who are fearful?» You can’t have them both! You have to let go of one to embrace the other! There has to be a—there’s a conscious decision! I’ve been living by fear; I renounce fear! You can’t hold it both! You can’t hold on to both hoping one beats the other! You let go of something to embrace another!
Jesus says—He showed them His hands, His side, and it says then they were glad when they saw the Lord! Which tells me they weren’t happy the first time! That’s because they didn’t know who it was! I’ve seen a lot of people that weren’t happy with what God was doing because they didn’t know it was Him!
Jesus releases the presence of God! Again! This time, they were glad when they saw the Lord, and Jesus concludes this with this statement: «He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit! '» Here’s the deal: the resurrection power of Jesus lives in you, and He wants out! I personally think all of heaven is looking to see what impossibility we will conquer in His name! What will we do with what we’ve been given?
It’s a strange example, but Jesus came to a fig tree. It’s one of the funnier stories in the Bible. He came to a fig tree out of season for it to bear fruit, and He came to it to get fruit, and there wasn’t any fruit because it wasn’t the right season! And it says He cursed it, and I’ve heard great teachings on the fig tree representing Israel or His name—whatever! I don’t know what it means except Jesus is the only one who has the right to expect fruit of the impossible from us! And we didn’t—He didn’t find any!
He had to bring that confrontation into a reality, and you and I have been given the Spirit of the resurrected Christ! It’s not a condemning word—it’s an invitation. It’s a word that says, «Let Him be who He is in His resurrection power flowing in and through our lives, confronting those things that have been deemed to be impossible!» That’s what you were born for! That’s what I was born for! Our conversion is the DNA of Christ! It wasn’t earned; it was given as a gift—His actual DNA—where He gravitated towards the funeral, towards the hungry crowd, towards the leper that needed help, towards the blind who wanted someone to guide them—all these situations.
He gravitated forward towards them because He carried this absolute solution to every broken situation. My prayer for you— for me—is that in this next season we would become even more convinced of how ready the resurrection power of Jesus is available in word, in touch, and in action!
Word—the right thing needs to be said; don’t think a casual statement accomplishes much; it’s the decree of God! Say what He’s saying: «Cancer be gone!» Say what He’s saying! Don’t do this: «God, if it’s Your will, show mercy, kindness!» Look, don’t be stupid! Confront the thing! Don’t ever—don’t show any respect to a problem! Do not show respect, kindness, and respect towards people! Love, affectionately serve people! But have no respect for a problem!
Don’t use the word cancer with reverence! It deserves no reverence; it’s a devil! It’s a devil—don’t speak to it kindly! Don’t speak in hushed terms! Did you hear that so-and-so got back from the doctor? No! Harsh terms! We must stop being impressed with the size of our problem! It’s my personal conviction that most of us, our breakthrough would begin the day we stop being impressed with the size of our problem! I’m not trying to create a more magic formula; I’m just saying listen to what He’s saying!
Declare it! Find someone to touch, to love, to lay hands on prophetically! Serve—do acts of service, kindness for people! The Spirit of God is released through those means over and over and over again! I just believe that Jesus wants to demonstrate who He is to our wonderful city in this Easter season and beyond!
So here’s what I want to do: I’m going to pray over all of you in a minute, but I want to first give the opportunity for people who don’t know the Lord to come—come to Christ. So I’m going to ask the Bethel family to hold your places; lunch will wait. The most important thing that could happen this morning, in spite of all the wonderful things we’ve done together—the worship, the communion, all those things—the most amazing thing that could happen would be for just one person even to say, «I want to surrender my life to Jesus! I want to become born again! I want to find peace with God! I want to be a disciple of this Jesus; He is alive!»
He’s prepared to lead every person in this room into a place of triumph and victory! So this is what I would do: I just say, if you would, in your heart of hearts, would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave this place until I know that I have peace with God, until I know what it is to be forgiven and brought into His family.» If that’s you, then I want you, right where you are, with every head raised, every eye open, I want you just simply to put a hand up! By doing that, you’re just acknowledging, «That’s me; I want to get right with God today! I want to know what it is to have peace with God!»
Do that real quickly! I’m just going to wait a few seconds, real quick! If there’s anybody in the room, put your hand up so I can see you! Is there a hand over here? I can’t see. Or right there? Yes! Wonderful, wonderful, beautiful! Yeah! Amen! Anybody else? Wave it at me! There’s another one right over here! Wonderful! Welcome! Welcome! Bless the Lord! There’s one, there’s one more! And I’m certain there’s one more! I want to encourage you—make that bold step! Jesus confesses us before the world in His death and resurrection; He looks for us to make a very simple confession of our faith in Him!
So I’m going to give just five more seconds. If there’s anyone else, just quickly, right over here—that’s you! All right! Here’s what I want: I’m going to ask everyone to stand—stand if you would! And hold your places, please, for a moment! I want to ask—I saw three. If there’s more than that, please join us—but I would like to have the three people, if you’re here with friends, I would encourage your friends to walk with you up to the front right up here. We have people that we know and trust! It’s not about Bethel; it’s not about church membership! It’s about a relationship with Jesus! I want you to know what you just said yes to!
So I’m going to ask you to leave your seat and come right over here, to my left, where this banner is, and these folks will come; they will talk with you; they will pray with you! And again, if you brought one of these folks, offer to walk with them down here, because I want them to have a wonderful, wonderful encounter down here! Why don’t you bless some church as they come? Just come on down! Wonderful! Bless you right over here! Wonderful! Wonderful! God! Yep, that’s it right there! Thank you, Jesus!
Here, I want to pray over you, because I feel like some of you are about to be surprised by opportunities that are in front of you! The cool thing about a miracle is that He does all the work; you and I are the UPS driver that pulls up to the house and delivers a package that somebody else sent! That’s what we do! We’ll lay our hands on our shoulder; we pray a very simple prayer! But Jesus is the one who heals and delivers! Put your hands in front of you! I just want to pray that there would be such a great release of anointing over everybody in this room and that over the next seven days, specifically, there will be opportunities that are new and fresh to demonstrate the resurrection power of Jesus.
Father, You’ve heard our cry—that’s what I asked for! Demonstrate Your love and Your power now in and through this wonderful family of believers that there be an increased appetite—increased appetite in every person to display Your resurrection through purity and power! I ask all of this for the honor of the name, Jesus! Everybody said, «Amen! Amen! Amen!» Good! Hold your places! Ministry team, could you come on up? Chris, tell us what to do! Oh, that’s good right there! Huh? That’ll do!
All right, well, bless you! Happy Easter! If you continue—sorry—if you need ministry further, our team is here to pray for you! Other than that, have a blessed Sunday! Enjoy that incredible weather; enjoy one another! Happy Easter! But our team is going to be up here to pray for you if you still need prayer!