Bill Johnson - Values Create Atmosphere
I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Nahum, and that’s where we’re going to start. We’ll actually have four different portions of Scripture today: Nahum, right after Micah if that helps. If you get to the Psalms, turn hard right; if you get to Matthew, turn left. It’s in there somewhere. All right, we’re going to actually start with this verse, but we have several others that I mentioned. I would say probably everyone who has the privilege of getting up and speaking—teaching God’s word, preaching his heart—what we’re interested in most is just representing Him well and saying what He’s saying. You know, I’ve shared my ideas before; they’re not near as fun as sharing His ideas. So that’s our heart. Our heart is always to hear what the Lord is saying. We pray for direction, and sometimes it comes externally; sometimes it comes as an overwhelming sense of faith for something, and other times it comes from a desire. Sometimes you just have something that stirs up inside of you, and you find yourself wanting to do something; and that’s the position I’m in today—wanting to do something that I normally wouldn’t do in this context, only because we’ve done it before.
Here’s the picture that I had this morning: I felt that it would be important for us to review some things that we’ve done in the past. I imagined a trucker who takes a load of logs or lumber or whatever goods he’s carrying, drives a while, and then pulls over because the load will have shifted and settled. He always re-tightens the straps; he always gets it tighter. I feel like, through the wild ride we’ve been on in the last 12 months, it might be good if we just kind of pulled over and tightened up the straps. So that’s actually what I feel like I’m doing today: I feel like I’m just cranking down the straps, making sure that we don’t lose anything on this next journey, because I expect it to be a wild ride. We’ll just call it «Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.» But it’s just time to tighten down the load.
So here’s what I wanted to do: I want to talk to you about something that, as I said, I’ve done before. I want to talk to you about what I call the «four cornerstones of thought.» These are areas of thinking and values—things that we embrace—that, when they are in place, actually help us to bring transformation to atmosphere and, eventually, culture. They are our points of reference for just about everything that we do around here. Each of these four areas are things that you could have told me, so there will be nothing new there. They are all self-explanatory. I tell our young preachers, if you want a lot of amens in your message, just tell people what they already know. So I’m going to give you a heads-up; you’ll be able to say amen for the first part anyway.
These four cornerstones I view as like the chairs that you’re sitting on: four legs, equal in length, equal in value. You don’t even think about it. You sit down with all your weight on it knowing that it’ll hold you up. If there’s three, you can make it work; if there’s two, that’s challenging. And all of these things actually fit together in what I believe to be a perfect marriage of thought that actually makes the kingdom transferable to any part of culture. That’s another subject. Let me just go through the four.
Number one: God is good. Amen to that! Yep, see, I told you! Here’s another slow pitch: nothing is impossible with God. There’s another amen! Everything was settled at Calvary—everything was settled at Calvary. Everything we will ever experience throughout all of eternity, the issue was actually settled at the cross where Jesus died. And the fourth thing: I am significant. It would be easier to say it this way: each person is significant. But to believe that each person is significant and not include ourselves is actually an injustice, because it’s not a philosophy about how to treat people; it’s the value of human life.
So we’re going to go through those. The distinguishing factor of this particular talk today is that when we have beliefs, there are always measurable behavioral changes that illustrate what we believe. Without the behavioral changes, it’s a philosophy; it’s not a way of life. So what I want to talk to you about is that, number one, God is good. If God is as good as we say He is, or as good as the Bible says He is, more importantly, then I owe Him a lifestyle of big dreams. It would be like inheriting 10,000 acres, and you stand on the border of that 10,000 acres, and you never explore what you’ve inherited. You could boastfully say it’s all mine, but what does that mountaintop look like? What does that lake over there look like? Are there any fish in that stream? What kind of timber is there? This inheritance that you have has to be explored, and faith explores what revelation reveals. It’s vital that we use our faith to explore that which God has apportioned for us.
What I owe Him to illustrate my conviction, my embracing the lifestyle of dreaming of the lifestyle of settling into the goodness—delighting in the goodness of God—is actually to dream in a significant way. Jesus came, we know, to reveal the Father. I know that many people in the room had horrible experiences at home, and you didn’t have a father or still don’t have a father that inspires dreams. But in this relationship, this particular Father invites us to stretch the envelope, invites us to go above and beyond. In fact, He almost dares us when He says, «I’m going to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all you could ask or think. I’m going to reach beyond your prayer life; I’m going to reach beyond your imagination.» And that’s the realm that He lives in, and He’s inviting us into this journey.
In John 14, 15, and 16, three chapters, there are four times where Jesus said, «Ask whatever you want, and it’ll be done for you.» Now we know instinctively, we know from the weightiness of the rest of Scripture He’s not inviting us into a self-centered lifestyle. He’s not inviting us into this journey where we build our own empire and we become the king of the mountain. It’s not that. Anyone who thinks that hasn’t read the rest of the book. But He’s inviting us into this scary journey where we actually come into a place where anything you ask for is done. Look at His heart: He’s looking for co-laborers. When He said, «Ask whatever you want,» He didn’t say, «I’ve made you to be a robot, and you are to repeat back to me what I tell you to want.» I mean, if I made it as a robot, I don’t mind doing anything with and for God. That is an absolute honor and privilege. If I am a servant and not a friend, and I just do what He tells me to do, I’m good with that. I actually am very good at giving me a list, and I just get that stuff done. The scary thing is He’s invited me into a relationship, and in the relationship, He’s put Himself at risk.
By saying, «Son, that’s whatever you want. Abide in Me. Stay connected to My manifest presence. Let My words abide in you. Keep what I say in the center of your heart, and I will trust you to shape the course of history through your prayer life, because anything you ask for will be done.» We owe God extreme dreams. Disappointment kills the capacity for dreams. Not knowing how to handle disappointment is an entirely other study. But oftentimes, we let religious environments that are known for resisting change of any kind—or the other extreme is the disappointments that happen in life—just kill that capacity for dreams. But you were born to dream. Everybody in this room, we are never at our potential apart from the capacity for dreaming.
God’s goodness, I believe, is actually displayed through your ability to dream big. In Psalm 67, it’s a favorite psalm of mine, which starts with a prayer for blessing. The psalmist writes, «Lord, bless me,» which I like! Any prayer that starts that way, «Lord, bless me.» And then he says, «Cause Your face to shine upon me.» That face is the picture of a father’s approval: cause Your face to shine upon me. Listen to the next phrase: «that Your way would be known on the earth.» What does that mean? That Your way—that Your nature, who You are—would be manifest in the earth because of how You treat me. Listen, folks, you have this as an obligation. This is not a luxury. This is not luxury equipment on an automobile; this is the essence of who you are. You’re a son, a daughter connected to a perfect Father. Now dream and display it!
So he says, «Bless me, cause Your face to shine upon me, that Your way would be known in the earth.» Here’s the interesting thing: «and Your salvation to the nations.» Salvation to nations! We know that tragedy brings people to Jesus; we get that. I don’t blame people in crisis, in war, or who are put in prison or facing earthquakes or whatever. It is in those moments that people turn to the Lord. I’m so thankful that this happens, that ministers of the gospel are there in Christ to share their faith, and people find peace in God. I’m thankful for that! But what would it be like to actually have salvation impact the course of history for entire nations because the goodness of God was revealed upon the people of God? I’m not talking about becoming, you know, building our empires and being the wealthy person that everybody is jealous of. That’s a poor counterfeit. Wealth is in the presence of God, the peace of God in the middle of difficulty. It’s being able to trust when everything is crazy. It’s having enough resource and more than enough to be able to sow into other people’s lives. It’s the giftings, the insights, the spiritual activity of God in and through us. It’s having friends that would take a bullet for us. I mean, these are the things that make us wealthy: the family members that actually love each other and care for each other.
This reminds me, sorry, of a friend of mine sent me this: he said, «I’d take a bullet for you, not in the head, but maybe like in the leg or something.» It’s that third-grade humor. Sorry. All right, not in the head but maybe in the leg or something. Where was I? I don’t know, I just got shot in the leg! What happened? So, this goodness of the Lord upon a people who have found a capacity to think large, to dream significantly—again, not about being at the top of the stack but having the resources of heaven to empower people around you to succeed—is the privilege in life. Hosea 3 says that in the last days, people will fear God because of His goodness. How good does it have to be? The goodness on your life—so you got a promotion; people just think you worked hard. So you’re the one-millionth customer at Safeway, and you win a brand new car; people just think you’re lucky. What kind of goodness does it have to be to actually bring salvation to nations? What kind of goodness does it have to be to actually bring people to drop to their knees in the fear of God? A fear of God that doesn’t drive them away, but a fear that endears them to Him.
The goodness of God, I believe, requires us to dream big. Go with me to Luke’s Gospel, chapter 1. The second point in this, the four cornerstones of thought, is that there’s nothing impossible for God. If I truly believe that nothing is impossible, then I owe Him a lifestyle of risk. If I believe nothing is impossible, I owe Him a lifestyle of risk. It doesn’t do any good for me to sit back and quote the verse, «Well, nothing’s impossible with God; He can do whatever He wants.» Yeah, but He looks for people. Ninety-five percent of the time, He’s looking for someone to cooperate with Him. And the one time out of 20 that He invades on His own is usually in response to intercessory prayer. John Wesley said, «God does nothing in the affairs of man except in response to prayer.»
So this thing of sitting back saying, «Well, if it’s God’s will, He’ll perform it"—that’s just not true. That’s not Bible! Can God violate everybody’s will, step over all the fences, and accomplish what He wants? Of course, He’s God; He can do whatever He wants. But what He reveals throughout Scripture is that He’s looking for the participation and cooperation of an individual. And in this area, this whole idea that nothing is impossible for God means that we actually have to take risks. It means that what I do as an individual is He’s the extravagant one; all I do is create time for Him to do something. I can’t do the something, but I can create the time. I can stop and say, «All right, we’re going to make room for this.»
Now we just— I was in Seattle this week, and we had a guy who had many health issues and open-heart surgeries. His entire chest was wound together with some kind of wire or metal device throughout his chest. It was raised like a spiral notebook, and it was painful to the touch. He walked with a limp because of an issue. One of our students prayed for him, and it’s just gone! It’s just completely gone; it’s not there! He can do whatever; it’s just not there anymore. And then he discovers that I don’t think his leg was even prayed for, but he’s walking completely normal! Nothing’s impossible with God! It means you take a risk. It doesn’t mean you jump off the pinnacle of a temple; that’s presumption. That’s the reference to Satan’s temptation of Jesus—perform something for me. We’re not performers, but we do move redemptively toward broken circumstances in life.
That’s the whole thing: we look for broken people, broken situations, challenging opportunities, and just believe God for the impossible. That’s what we do, and we do that because nothing is impossible with God. Here in Luke’s Gospel, Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel—a messenger angel—which is fascinating to me that God would assign an angel to bring a message to Mary when God could show up and do it Himself and do a better job. He’s omnipresent, so it’s not hard for Him to pull off two things at once. Yet His delight is in co-laborers; His delight is in everything He has made stepping fully into its design and purpose.
That’s His delight. His joy was in having an angel show up and give Mary this bizarre message that she’s going to give birth to the Son of God, to the Christ child. He delights in everything He made standing fully in its responsibility and position and promotion in the kingdom as increased responsibility. That’s the nature of maturity. You don’t obey God and get the beach house in Hawaii to sit on the beach for the rest of your life. Promotion in the kingdom is greater responsibility, a greater sense of authority and impact.
Thankfully, He throws in a weekend in Hawaii occasionally! Yes, Lord, I’m hearing You! Yes, I’m hearing You now! Yeah, I’m ready.
So here’s this verse in response to this dialogue that Mary has with the angel, and He says in verse 37, «For with God, nothing will be impossible.» Instead of doing the whole story, just because of time, let’s just look at this one verse: «For with God, nothing will be impossible.» Say that with me: «For with God, nothing will be impossible.» Say it again: «For with God, nothing will be impossible.»
Jack Taylor, who by the way went home to be with Jesus this morning, Jack Taylor, our dear friend, a father of the faith, my greatest encouragement in my life, in fact, when my dad was the constant encouragement for me, when he died, Jack said, «I will be that for you.» And he was. He wrote to me so often, day after day after day after day—literally sometimes multiple times in a day—but always encouraging, such a great father of the faith, and he went home to be with the Lord this morning. But I remember him teaching on this particular passage, and «For nothing will be impossible with God,» and he gave me a view of that I’ll never shake the rest of my life. It impacted me tremendously.
The word «nothing» is actually two words: just the word «no,» and the word «thing» is actually the word «rey.» We get our word «rhema» from it. If you are familiar with some of the language of Scripture, there’s rhema and there’s logos. This would be most often considered logos, and the rhema would be that freshly spoken word of God. They don’t contradict, but it’s when God breathes upon something; faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. The freshly spoken word of God.
So no rhema will be impossible. Impossible means without ability. And Jack told us that this verse can actually be translated this way: «No freshly spoken word of God will ever come to you that does not carry its own ability to perform itself.» No freshly spoken word of God will ever come to you that does not contain its own ability to perform itself. So now we understand why Jesus can look at His disciples, and His disciples say, «We’ve got a crowd of thousands; how do we feed them?» And He says, «You feed them.» Because in the command is the capacity. That’s why quick obedience releases the greatest amount of power; obedience after extended analyzation drains it almost always of power.
I just made a really good point there, by the way. Jackie, excellent! Excellent! No freshly spoken word of God will ever come to you that does not contain its own ability to perform itself. So now we know why Jesus said, «Heal the sick.» Not «pray for the sick,» because in the command, the command itself contains the ability.
One of the coolest things ever to discover in Scripture is found in Mark chapter 9. We know God is the only one who is infinite; everything else, from the angels to Satan himself—everything. Satan is not the opposite of God. He’s the absolute mark—Michael the archangel. There is no opposite of God, believe me; there’s zero contest.
It’s raining! Come on! All of our Bethel TV friends and people around the planet, bless you for joining us, by the way! We always love to hear the reports, but you just need to know we need rain! And I just think—I just forgot everything I’d said and anything I want to do! I’m just happy it’s raining!
I hear it’s going to snow up in the mountains. That’s even better! Yeah! So here, back to this thought: nothing is impossible with God. This incredible thing took place where there’s a dad who wants his son healed and delivered, and he has the lowest measurable amount of faith I can find in the Bible. There are different levels of faith all through the Bible, but the lowest measure barely moved the needle on the Richter scale. It just twitched at the bottom.
It’s when he came to Jesus, and he said, «If You’re able"—asking God if He’s able to do something is not great faith; it just barely—just barely lifts the needle. And Jesus responded to him, said, «If you’re able, you turn the tables. If you’re able to believe"—and then use this phrase—"All things are possible for those who believe.» So here it says, «Nothing’s impossible with God,» and then it says, «For those who believe, nothing’s impossible for them either.» So all of creation exists in this finite, limited realm, except for God, and then God invites you to join with Him in that realm of knowing nothing to be impossible. Talk about co-laboring!
Let’s take the last one and go quickly. We got two more. Ephesians—will go faster on this one! Ephesians chapter 1! Was that coffee? Is that for me? You operating in a word of knowledge here? Yeah, bless you! Thank you.
Excuse me, can you hear the angels too? I don’t know if it’s just me or if it’s everybody, but I’m pretty sure I heard them! All right, thank you!
The third one is the centrality of the cross—more practically applied to this concept that because of the death of Christ, every issue is settled for all eternity. Now let’s just take a real quick look here. Ephesians 1, verse 3: «Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us"—make a note there—"who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.»
So the point is, is Jesus—what He suffered on the cross puts into your account everything you will ever need for all of eternity. Jump down to verse 7: «In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.» Now, most often we define grace as unmerited favor. It’s a great definition; it’s just the beginning of the definition of the word grace. Why? Because grace in its nature is the empowering presence of God to enable us to become—not just to perform—it actually changes who we are and what we’re capable of doing.
So grace would be like the hands of a potter shaping clay. Our skill set, our ability to represent Him well—all those things are according to the hands of that potter, in this case, according to the shaping that takes place in our experience with grace. Now go to chapter 2 of Ephesians.
I don’t know of a more pregnant chapter in the Bible than Ephesians 1, my goodness! I think you could study the rest of your life and still have your head hurt by the end. There’s so much in there!
Chapter 2, verse 4! It’s my dad’s key verse. It’s actually on his tombstone, verse 4: «But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.»
Look at verse 7: «That in the ages to come you might know the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.» Okay, catch the phrase «in the ages to come.»
Okay, now think with me! 2,000 years ago Jesus hung on a cross and was crucified on our behalf—not as opening up one of many ways to God, but opening up the only possible way to God. God would not require something so brutal of His own Son if it were not the only possible solution. So Jesus dies a brutal death, and at the end declares, «It is finished.» And when He declares, «It’s finished,» His job literally was done. What He did in that moment is He purchased for us everything that we would ever need—not only in this life but also in the life to come.
And so this phrase in Ephesians 2, verse 7: «In the ages to come.» Think about this. In the ages to come, He will show us the surpassing riches or greatness of His grace. Ages to come! A hundred billion years from now, you will just be starting to discover the richness of His grace. Let me rephrase it: one hundred billion years from now, you will just be beginning to step into the empowering presence of God that enables you to become all that He designed you to be. It could never be fully accomplished in this life; it must be done throughout eternity. When was that paid for? On the cross!
Now, if all of that is true—and obviously, I believe it is absolutely true—then it is completely unreasonable for me to not trust Him when I’m facing a difficulty. I owe Him absolute trust. I found—just for me, in the last couple of years—I should have known this my whole life, but it never clicked until a couple of years ago—it’s vital for me to say out loud, «I trust You.»
Now, I’ve always worked on the trust element in my heart, but I have found it’s important, if I’m in this situation, I find my head spinning about this and about that, and I go, I just step back, «But Father, I trust You.» Something happens to me when I put myself on the line like that, and I say, «I trust You.»
Because see, if Jesus actually thought of everything and all of eternity is already set up for me to draw from what He purchased in that one violent and powerful act, if it’s true, then there’s not anything I could possibly face that would disturb or upset His capacity to rule and bring solutions that He’s already paid for. He already thought through the entire thing—there’ll never be a moment in all of history where He looks at a challenge and goes, «Man! I wish I would have thought of that when I was going to die; I would have included that in the pile of stuff I paid for.»
There’ll never be one of those moments!
Let’s go to the last one—go to John, chapter 13. I’m going to read just one verse here, and then let me talk to you: verse 3. John 13: «Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands…» Just stop right there because I just need to talk about that first part first. This is the only place I know of—I’m probably—there’s probably all through the New Testament; it just never clicked for me until this verse. This is the one place I know of where it describes what Jesus is thinking. You know, we see His actions; we see all these things that He does. But this is one moment where it says, «Here’s what He’s thinking.»
«Jesus, knowing…» Jesus, conscious of two things: number one, everything is His! Everything! The billions of galaxies? All mine! Every realm of authority, principalities, powers, everything that exists? All His! Past, present, future? All His! Everything in existence is His!
Now see, as the Son of God, it was already His, but He laid it down to become a man, and now He’s re-inheriting everything as the Son of Man—still the eternal Son of God, but re-inheriting. John 16 says everything the Father has is mine, and everything that is mine is now yours.
Is your head hurt yet? It should. If it doesn’t, you’re not thinking! This is mind-boggling! Jesus says, «It’s all mine! Everything in existence, every realm, everything unseen and everything seen, it’s all Jesus!» This is on His mind. It’s all mine; it’s all been given back to me.
And then it says He was thinking about the fact, «Yeah, it’s just about time for me to get back to the Father. I came from Him. The time is just days away when I’ll be returning to the Father.» This time glorified in a different way, firstborn of the dead where death finally dies, seated at the right hand of the Father.
So this is what is on His mind! I really doubt that any human being has ever had a greater awareness of personal significance! In this moment, verse 4, He rose from supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel, girded Himself, took water, poured it in a basin, and washed the guys' feet that in hours would deny they knew Him! Mind-boggling!
From significance to washing feet!
See, most of us when we think in terms of personal significance—and I know we were against this, but most of us tend to think in terms of title or power or reason, you know, money or something to do with being elevated to a more powerful position. Yet the one who illustrated what real significance looks like—the very first thing He did after all that was in His mind was to get a basin of water and wash the disciples' feet.
The whole point is true significance in Christ cannot be tarnished through servanthood; it’s actually revealed through servanthood. Real significance is never tarnished through going low. We work a lot with people in our schools, and for years, I don’t know how many graduates we’ve had, but it’s multiplied thousands, and it’s a fun journey to walk with people as they discover, day after day, their significance before the Lord. The ability for them to pray and to have things happen; it’s just a wonderful journey.
But sometimes I chuckle a little bit because somebody will discover part of the story of their significance and want to get a business card with their title! You know, «Apostle of this universe!» So as we’ve conquered this one, we’ll move to the next! You know, it’s that kind of—it’s a title; it’s a position. It’s not the resource of heaven flowing through my veins that enables me to serve powerfully and effectively to mark eternity; it’s not that.
I remember my brother, who runs—he used to run a pretty significant, scary, powerful ministry on the streets of San Francisco. I remember we’ve had so many things happen together with the things that we’ve seen the Lord do—experiences, encounters. We’ve both been laid out under the power of God in ways where you can just hardly function, can hardly move. We’ve been in meetings where the glory of God is so manifest you just lose track of time—so many different things that we’ve had experiences with through the years.
I remember he was describing to me and to us the time he had the greatest encounter, the greatest exposure to the glory of God. It was actually on the streets in San Francisco where they would have hairdressers volunteer their time. I remember one particular guy that was the most consistent that I know of; his haircuts were $400 a pop. He would volunteer himself to come down, and they would wash the homeless, wash their hair. They had a sink with a special sink to be able to wash their hair, get all the bugs out, and then they would trim their hair, trim their beards, and wash their feet, trim their toenails, give them fresh, brand new socks, do all of these things.
Baba was describing to me these moments. He said, «The greatest sense of presence and power I’ve ever been aware of in my life is in that moment of washing a hopeless person’s feet.» It’s that—Heidi Baker shared similar stories where, you know, I mean, some of the environments you’re in in life are some of the smelliest and most—goodness, it’s the exact opposite of where I want to be and what I want to do. Yet in that moment, in that presence, in that favor of God, in that delight of God in that place of design to serve, there is such a glory, such a presence there.
There are some parts of God’s presence, if you will—there are some parts of His nature, some parts of our experience in God—it can only be discovered in these moments of just going low. You can’t—I can’t possibly tarnish the highly exalted title that God would give us—any of us. It’s untarnishable through servanthood; it’s just tarnishable through self-promotion, through self-exaltation, by insisting that we be the one.
And I will say that I am most impacted by the stories that I hear from people in our community about you and the way you love well and serve well. We just had—did I tell you about Seattle? This is my tenth meeting—did I tell you that here?
All right, so here—I don’t know who prayed for him. That’s what I like. The kid from Norway, 11 years old, unable to eat food, dying soon—350 kilograms of medical supplies sent with him. The doctor not knowing if he would survive the trip—somebody prayed for him. I don’t know who—that’s the point! It wasn’t done by a title. Even if they were prayed for by somebody that was a title around here, it wasn’t significant enough to repeat it. It was the fact that somebody just got in the dirt with that person and helped this homeless situation in a broken circumstance.
That’s our significance: is that God could trust us enough to get into that hellhole and help bring somebody out. C.T. Studd had one of my favorite quotes in history. I forget who it was, but one of the Christian singers some years ago wrote a song about it. But it’s this phrase: «Some people want to live within the sound of chapel bells; I want to run a mission a yard from the gate of hell.» Now there’s a statement! Some people want to run a mission within the sound of chapel bells; I want to run a mission a yard from the gate of hell!
Now, servants—the way we actually demonstrate our awareness of personal significance is through serving well. And those who can’t serve well haven’t yet learned how significant they are. Because once you see it, all you want to do is whatever He says. These four areas are, at least for me, definitive on life’s values and what we have championed for so many years.
I want to pray over you. I want you to go ahead and stand up, if you would. I want to pray over you—over us, actually! My prayer is that the Lord would crack open the capacity for dreaming beyond anything any of us have ever imagined! No, you didn’t hear me—I’m actually talking to Him, so I guess it doesn’t matter, but I’m serious! There are things that are in His heart that He would like to do! History is not winding down to a horrible conclusion; it’s winding up to a glorious invasion!
So my prayer is that the Lord would mess us up with dreams that are beyond anything we can naturally think of. I pray, as well, that our capacity for taking risks would increase. And God, we do so just inviting You to display who You are in Your heart. That’s our passion! I thank You as well that You thought of everything; You didn’t skip; you didn’t miss anything; You thought of all of it!
All through eternity, You settled the issue, and so we just say to You: I trust You! Say it with me: I trust You! Say it again: I trust You! Say it again: I trust You! That every situation that we have been so intimidated with, not willing to look at because of fear, anxiety—God, we dispel anxiety with trust, and we just say, «I trust You.»
And then I ask that You would help us as supernatural servants to, at a whole other level, affect the course of history for this city, for this nation. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
One quick thing before I turn it over to who’s coming up—you are? Come on up, Leslie! Isn’t she wonderful? She is! She is! She’s wonderful. I just want one moment here. Anytime there’s a crowd, there’s always a high chance that we have somebody here who doesn’t know the Lord. You’ve never been born again; you don’t know what it is to be forgiven; you don’t know what it is to be changed from the inside out; you don’t know what it is to actually be adopted into God’s personal family. Those are all biblical terms, but it’s available now for anyone who would say yes to surrendering your life to Jesus. The only one worthy to run our lives is Jesus. If there’s anybody in that condition in this room that would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know I’ve been changed,» then I want you just to put your hand up right real quickly, right where you are. We’re just going to take just a moment just to agree with you. Quick! I want to make sure that I give everyone a chance.
All right, then I’m going to assume you’re all in! Welcome to Bethel, folks! It’s so good to have you here! Welcome, online family! Go ahead, Leslie!