Bill Johnson - Using Adversity to My Advantage
Wow, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, guys! Thank you so much. Please, uh, be seated. Good evening! Glad you showed up; glad you’re here. How many folks are still here from the uh, leaders conference this week? Actually, we had, uh, we had so many events this week. We had other schools and conferences and stuff going on. Sheesh! I almost got confused trying to figure out what’s going on around here. So anyway, good to see you.
Um, who is it that has uh, an issue with clogged arteries? Clogged arteries, I believe Jesus is healing. He’s opening up clogged arteries. There’s also somebody who has an irregular heartbeat that the Lord is healing. Um, so when I call your stuff out, stand up. Um, is there anyone here that has metal in the right ankle? Metal in the right, yeah. If you’re able to stand, uh, stand and believe God. Especially do you have any pain or restricted movement, anything of that nature? Yeah, okay, a little bit. So just pray for absolute liberty for you and, uh, yeah, well just pretend I’m a dyslexic knowledge guy and get it from the left ankle, yeah. Um, there’s a missing cartilage, and there’s torn cartilage in the knees. Um, stand up if that’s you: missing and/or torn cartilage, damage in the knees.
Who is it that has some sort of an injury to the collarbone? I believe it’s on the right side. There’s some sort of an injury right here on the right. Who is it? Put your hand up so I can tell who you are. Is that you over here? Okay, oh, here, another one! Alright, alright! I, I yeah, the Lord’s healing that; He’s restoring broken bones. There are people here—quite a few people here—who have broken bones sometime in the past. It could be 50 years ago, but broken bones and things just did not heal correctly, and you’d love for the Lord to just restore that. If that’s you, just stand up right now.
Stand up right now! There’s also someone here who has damage to the Achilles tendon on the right leg. Obviously, if you have it on the left, stand up anyway, but there’s some sort of an injury there. I don’t know if it was torn and there was surgery, but there are ongoing issues with that Achilles tendon on the right leg specifically. Now, there’s nerve damage on the right side of the body, specifically the right leg, this area here, but I think it may be more than just a leg. Is that you? Yeah, there’s this issue of nerve damage. I can actually feel it; it feels almost like, um, it feels almost like it’s weak as a result of some sort of a nerve thing. It’s weak; it’s, um, like it would maybe be hot or warm or numb, or it’s a weird combination of feelings, but I believe Jesus is restoring that tonight. Tonight, yeah, amen!
Alright, there’s, uh, let’s see… and you guys have anything else here? Brian, you got anything going there? But, yeah, do we have a mic? Somebody help me take it to Brian here. And if you guys have anything, the Lord gave me the number 12. I think it’s like a family size, and I saw like a whole bunch of girls. Set 12. Is there a family here of 12 with a bunch of girls? Yeah? Yeah, right, that is true! That is you guys; there’s a whole tribe back there! Yeah, is there a bunch of girls? Yes, there’s a bunch of girls!
Yeah, what do you have for them? You know, I was asking the Lord, «So what am I supposed to say to them?» and He just, um, said that He hasn’t taken His eye off you. I’m just supposed to speak life, health, and vitality over you. Yeah, um, and then, uh, so that whole family, just stand up because you’ll get prayed for people. Well, yeah, and they’re missing some too; there’s four missing. Yeah, I just feel like the Lord just wanted to highlight you tonight.
Um, good, and then, um, something about like, uh, organs or, uh, like premature aging, um, like you’ve been, or organs in the body. Yeah, there are like anyone like—has there been a diagnosis? Like does that make sense to anyone? You’re aging—I mean, we’re all aging—but like just something prematurely, it’s not right. And just the Lord wants to—does that make sense back here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that stops right now, yeah, that’s completely over.
Alright, and actually, I really feel like the Lord wants to turn the clock back on your life, and uh, the way He’s gonna do it is you’re gonna find yourself getting caught up into the realm of the Spirit and you’re going to lose track of time. Beautiful! And that’s the Lord just turning back the clock and just giving back everything that’s been taken from you. Alright, good, thank you, Brian.
There’s also somebody, uh, there is a tear or something in the left Achilles. Uh, is that you? It’s a, yeah, it’s a tear in the left Achilles tendon right now. So tonight, you get it on either side and it’s all free! Alright, here’s what I’m going to ask you to do. Excuse me, all of you, any of you guys have anything? Dave, did you have something? Yep, I’m sorry, just like a real last minute or so. Real warmth in my left hip. I believe God’s healing, uh, hips, so stand up if that’s you, but specifically your left. But I can really feel like, even as I’m speaking, I can just feel this warm presence in my left hip. And then it’s fingers—just like, I don’t—it could be any fingers; I’m not that specific. But the finger I have on my right hand, I saw a ring or something going wrong—an injury and damaged a broken finger. So just take it for four fingers, fingers being restored, crooked fingers being healed. Yep, yeah, beautiful!
Alright, go ahead. Alright, yeah. I saw, like, a muscle in the left calf that actually hadn’t healed correctly; there was something in the left calf right here, great. And then, um, issues with gallbladders. I feel like you’ve gone in and they’ve sent you home, but it’s a continuing issue in the gallbladder. Um, and then there’s something—I don’t even know, but this—I’m gonna say left side—um, that’s what I got: left side, a chronic, um, incurable issue right here in the left side. I’m gonna leave it kind of open-ended. Does it make sense to anyone? Stand up—okay, that’s you. Alright, okay, beautiful!
Now, if, uh, all of you that are standing put a hand up. Now, those of you that are sitting down, you just got drafted! You are now the team that’s going to pray. So here’s what I’m going to ask you to do: listen carefully! I want you to go to somebody, have them pull their hand down so I know they’re being covered, but don’t pray yet; wait until I give you instruction. Okay? So go to somebody whose hand is up; if you can’t reach them, at least stand and extend your faith towards someone who has their hand up.
Alright, okay, look around; keep your hand up until someone comes to you. Okay, front row, we’ve got a couple still here on the front row. Okay, did we miss anyone? Wave your hand at me if we did. Oh, wow, that was amazingly fast. Good job! Alright, I realize most of you know what to do, but just to make sure we’re all on the same page: number one, you’ve got to find out what the problem is. I don’t like general shotgun prayers; I like rifle prayers. I like very targeted, specific prayers. Don’t shoot anybody; it’s just an analogy. Alright?
Um, very specific prayer, so you’ve got to find out what’s wrong. Sex shh, I’ll tell you when. Secondly, those of you that are receiving the prayer, don’t give them a big story; just give them a target. Honestly, keep it simple! When you depress the people who are praying, that’s not a good deal. Keep it simple! Thirdly, there are many ways to pray for the sick. One of the most common is laying on of hands, so I’m gonna ask you to put your hand on the problem if it’s an appropriate place to place your hand. If not, put your hand on your shoulder or something. And then finally, as you pray, speak to the condition. If there’s arthritis, if there is, uh, you know, something—missing, for example—missing cartilage doesn’t need a healing; it needs to be created, so be specific. If there’s something that’s torn, it can be mended; if it’s missing, it needs to be created. So when I pray for something that’s missing, I will pray specifically, «Lord, recreate right now; we just declare all things be made new.» Let that cartilage be formed!
In fact, I think it just happened in somebody’s knee as I was just modeling a prayer. So go ahead and turn and, uh, minister to these folks. Find out what’s happening and then pray your best prayer. The Lord is just wholesale healing those knees right now! Even though you’re receiving prayer, just start checking them out right now! There’s a creative miracle happening with these knees. Okay, the conversation should be over; you should be praying by now! Holy Spirit, we ask that You’d come now in power and glorify the name of Jesus through miracles, through signs, through wonders! Glorify the name of Jesus through miracles, signs, wonders. There are people being healed of arthritis, even though it wasn’t called out. We rebuke arthritis now in the name of Jesus, the affliction on the joints and in the tissue of the body! We declare this ends tonight in Jesus' mighty name! Let cartilage be formed now in the knees to be restoration. We declare healing to the gallbladder; ongoing affliction in that gallbladder, be healed now in Jesus' name! Kidneys—the Lord is healing kidneys— even though you’re praying for someone else, if you’ve had an issue with kidneys, just lay your hand literally on your own kidney. Just put your hand on it as you’re praying for someone else! The Lord will honor that simple act of faith. I know the people watching at Bethel TV oftentimes get miracles, and I just want to declare to you this is your portion as well! Those of you watching at home or in small groups, we just declare that healing grace of Jesus.
Okay, about 30 more seconds! Thank you, Lord! Okay, go ahead and end your prayer, but stay with the person—just stay with them. Okay, don’t, no hit and run; stay with them! Alright, now just give me your attention. Stay with the person you prayed for. Oh, everyone, give me your attention please. Stop praying. There we go! You can actually pray past the miracle; you can! Alright, everyone that received prayer, this next moment I consider to be as important as the prayer—that’s where we put faith into an action, into an activity. I don’t want anyone; you don’t have to prove anything, but you need to discover.
Only half the people we see healed feel it happen, which means another half just receive prayer and they’re clueless that they’re actually better until they examine themselves. So, some of you, you could discover through emotion, a movement of some sort—whatever it would take for you to do right now. I want you to try to do that! The Lord is also healing; there are people in the room that have issues with the gut; uh, you have digestive issues. There’s something not right in your digestive system, and the Lord is healing that right now! And the phrase that goes through my mind is «all foods are to be enjoyed—» all foods! So we declare that word: all foods are to be enjoyed!
Alright, now everyone that just received prayer, examine yourself right now. Do it quickly! Examine yourself quickly. Everyone that’s at least 80% better, wave both hands like this over your head! Wave both hands like this over your head! Okay, look around the room! Thank you, Lord! Alright, okay! Stan, please stand with me! Don’t, don’t let your faith sit down yet. If you let your faith sit down, we have to quit this, so stand with me if you’re able to! Everyone that just got healed, wave your hands at me like this! I want to see who you are! Alright, wonderful! Beautiful!
Now I want you to turn and pray again! Turn and pray again! If they’re 100% don’t pray for them again, because you might mess them up; leave them alone! But if they’re 80-90, pray again! Alright, go ahead! It’s gonna be the last time, then we’ll find out what happened! Yeah, that’s awesome! Beautiful! Thank you, Lord! Alright, just about 30 more seconds! Speak to the condition! We declare healing grace now in Jesus' name! Thank you, Lord! Thank you, thank you, Lord! Alright, you did good! Go ahead and end your prayer now!
You know what to do; everybody examine yourself again! Even if it seems silly to you, do it anyway! Just some kind of movement, something to see what the Lord has done! Now who was healed the second time we prayed? Wave your hands over your head, because I want to see who you are! The second time we prayed, right down here! There’s another one, there’s another one there, another one here, another one over here. Thank you, Lord! Beautiful! Wonderful!
Alright, hug them! Do something nice! Bless them! Good, and be seated now. Okay, so we had five people healed in the overflow as well! That’s awesome! Okay, now I want everyone that got healed tonight—we say 80% because sometimes a healing will actually start, and it takes 20 minutes, 30 minutes. We like to acknowledge what God is doing, and we have to create some kind of a line, so we choose 80 as kind of a mark of what the Lord is doing.
So if you’re at least 80% better on something that was prayed for, I just want you to stand, because I want us to see who you are. And if you got healed of more than one thing, put a hand up! Alright, thank you, Lord! Beautiful! Wonderful! Now how many of you got healed of more than one thing? Wave your hand at me! Look at this! Isn’t that great? I love this! Yep, thank you! Go and be seated.
I want to hear from at least three or four people; something significant happened in your body. Every miracle—I don’t care if you had a headache and it’s gone; you know we celebrate everything that He does! And I don’t like categorizing, but I do ask that tonight you were able—you were able to test yourself and prove that Jesus did something pretty significant in your body tonight. I’d like to hear from at least three people right now; just put your hand up! Right over here is one.
Alright, yeah, um, it was my left hip. Um, I had an injury to it a number of years ago. I fell off a ladder, and the ladder fell on top of me. Anyway, I’ve been going to the chiropractor every week for probably, I think like at least the last year or so, and he has to reset it because it’s turned, and, um, so it’s painful off and on, varying degrees. And, um, I have no pain at all, and I can move and twist ways I can just feel freedom where it was restricted before. Thank you! Beautiful! Wonderful!
Somebody else? I need to hear from at least three people. Somebody else, right down here. Just stand up; tell us what happened! Okay, I had a, I had ripped my calf muscle right by the bottom of the cavity and the Achilles in a basketball accident, and um, I had this big knot for about almost 20 years, and it’s gone! So I can jump again! Man, that’s beautiful! The knot is gone? Yes! Let’s have at least one more just give a testimony! We have one right over here!
In fact, you know what? We, if we could have one or two more. Come on up here, just come on down! What did Jesus do for you? Go ahead and tell us. A couple of years ago, I broke my ankle, and it never healed right. And there’s, I think there’s still metal in it, but in the last two or three days and including tonight, I’ve gotten all kinds of more range of motion in it, and it’s gotten stronger! That’s beautiful! Thank you, Lord!
Wonderful! Okay, you guys go ahead and stand up! Um, how many—let me ask the question—how many of you, you had a broken bone sometime in your life that never healed correctly? And tonight, Jesus healed you! Put your hand up! I want to see! We’ve got one here! Who else? Way back over here’s another one! Anyone else? Right over here? There’s another two more right there! This actually used to be the most common miracle we had, and, uh, it probably still would be if I kept calling it out, but, uh, I actually quit counting at, um, goodness, what was the number? I think it was like 2600 people had been healed of injuries of that nature. This is about 10 years ago; I quit counting, so it’s just what Jesus is doing! So you might as well get in on it!
Alright, let’s find out what happened. He’ll hold it for a bit! Go ahead and face everybody! Yeah, you called, uh, out an Achilles tendon, and I had surgery on it years ago, but it never healed right, and it did! And tonight, the pain is gone from that, and I can feel—I felt a release in my Achilles tendon. Also, two weeks ago, I had a heart attack and, uh, I came in with—I’ve had a lot of episodes in the last two weeks, and came today really by faith, but the pain is, uh, being relieved in my left side right now in my heart! That’s wonderful! And so, thank you, Lord!
Wonderful, thank you, Pastor! I love you. We lived here five years ago, and we came back after five years! Well, it’s about time! Yeah, come on; you need to be here! My husband is in BSSM! Masela, stand up, baby! I wanted to crack you up because he said that problem, right? Yeah! I teach at Anderson Elementary. I was out of school this week for my first graders. I was on the stool eight times with that problem! Yep! And then you just called out healing of the gut, and you said you could eat whatever you want, right?
I’m standing outside you guys at the chip—I was experiencing pain today! Yeah! On my right side in my gut, and I was like, «Oh no, I don’t receive this,» and right there at the chip machine, I felt that pain just go away! It does say you could eat or drink any deadly thing, and it will not harm you, so that’s good! What did He do for you?
Um, so I have had some pain in my hip, which I’ve had for years, and just kind of put up with it because, you know, you just do. And, um, actually during worship I had to sit down. I was like, you know, bummer because I’ve come so far and I really want to enjoy this moment. And, um, then, you know, you did this. Stand up if you got it! And I was like, okay, well darn, that’s me! Um, I stood up and, um, I’ve never had an experience myself of instant healing because, you know, I just haven’t. And when people were praying, it was, you know, I could just feel this great feeling, but, um, the second time they prayed, it was like someone was massaging in the inside of my hip! And I was like, and my legs started doing this! I was like, guys, that’s not me! That’s not me!
And then, um, as I was praying, you called out, um, people with gut problems, and I have IBS. And before I came here, I flew out here; I was supposed to go and see the nutritionist because I’m not, I’m not supposed to eat really a small amount of food. And I’ve come from New Zealand; we have a lot of dairy. I can’t eat dairy, and so when you said, I was like, «Yes, that’s me. I’m going to eat dairy after this because I believe it. I believe it!» So I’m excited! Thank you! Wonderful!
Wonderful! Bless you! Thank you, Lord! Well, the doctor said I had nerve damage all down my side from, uh, okay, acute appendicitis. It was real nasty! Yeah! But, uh, so the pain went away when they were praying, and they asked if something was—I could prove it, you know. There’s nothing really I can do, but then I remember I used to be able to roll my stomach, so I can do it again! It works! Yeah, that works!
What did He do for you? So about ten years ago, I had a really bad joint problem that caused my knees, my kneecaps, to just roam around because the ligaments were too long, and it wore down the groove that holds the kneecap in place. So when you called out missing cartilage in the knees, I actually suddenly started feeling this grinding and popping and tightness happening! Wow! And my kneecap groove grew back on both legs! Wonderful! Just give a shout of thanks to the Lord!
You know, years ago we had, we had in our school—it when it was quite a bit smaller, we had maybe, I’m guessing, 100 people in the school or 100, maybe per class. And one of the older gals in the school was actually in this moment where she saw the spare parts room in heaven—body parts! I’ve, I have met several people that have seen that room. I can’t give you chapter and verse; I just nod my head while they’re talking. And, uh, she was, uh, I believe she traveled with Chris to in the Bay Area, and somebody came up and needed a miracle in their leg.
And then they made the comment, «I don’t even have a kneecap,» and she said, «Oh, I’ll get one for you!» She did! She said, «I’ll get one for you!» and she reached up like this, brought her hand down, and began to pray, and within 15 minutes, she had a kneecap created! Isn’t that amazing? I said she had a kneecap created! Wow!
Alright, let’s, um, I was going to do something much more extensive, but not now. We’ve had a long, full, wonderful evening. So let me, let me just kind of ramble for a few minutes and see if we can make sense out of a few things. Uh, yeah, I’m going to read a verse for you out of Psalms 23; if you want to open, that’d be great. 23rd Psalm, what I’m finding is that I hardly know anything. I don’t know why after all these years it hasn’t changed. Seriously, I, I keep, I keep learning and catching glimpses of the fact that He thinks entirely different than I do—entirely different. And I’m the one that has to change, and that’s what the renewing of the mind is; it’s accommodating to His mind and seeing through His eyes—thinking His thoughts.
Because He just, He just thinks different! I met with about 40-plus leaders this week in a private setting before our big conference, and I shared a story there that, uh, came back to mind tonight in wanting to talk with you. There’s a pilot friend of mine who told me of this incident a number of years ago, where there was a commercial jet, a 747, the big, big jet, was flying, I believe it was over Canada if I remember the story right. Flying over Canada and all the instruments failed, and the pilot was able to recognize the thermals—recognized the air current. He was able to ride on those thermals and find a place to land and landed safely.
The airline that owned that plane ran tests, and they had all of their pilots in this airline company, all of their pilots get in a flight simulator to see if they would be able to land that plane because they found out that this pilot that landed the plane was actually also a trained glider pilot. And so he knew how to read thermals, and he knew what to do in that situation. So they put all of their other pilots in this company through that flight simulator, and every one of them, in the exact same conditions, crashed! This guy knew how to ride the thermals!
Right outside here we have a prayer house, and I was over actually this side of the prayer house one day, and I was, I just, uh, there was this hawk over the top of the prayer house; it just caught my eye. And I just watched this hawk; he didn’t flap his wings at all. All he did was go in a circle above the prayer house; he got higher and higher and higher until he was almost out of sight, and then he just folded his wings and he dove! It’s just the coolest thing! I wish I would have had a video, you know, because he just rode the currents!
He was able to recognize—see, there are a lot of times we face adverse winds, and we don’t realize it’s those winds that give us access to going higher! We misinterpret the moment. When you misinterpret the moment, you won’t talk right, and the condition of your heart won’t be right. The analogy that I usually use in this context is a sailboat. The sailboat can, with adjusting the sail and the rudder, actually advance. It’s called tacking; advance against, can actually sail against the wind.
It’s extraordinary! The sail is your heart attitude; the rudder is your tongue. It’s your speech! And by managing attitude well and our confession well, we actually make advancement against adverse winds. Adverse winds are actually in the kingdom, there are invitations for breakthrough, but we tend to see them differently than He does. If I’m not positioned well in my heart—my heart attitude—if I’m not positioned well in what I’m willing to speak and confess and declare over my life, then I can actually partner in thought and in conversation with the enemy’s reason for sending the adverse winds, and I actually empower what the enemy meant for evil. Suddenly, there’s the effect of destruction, evil, but the enemy has no authority over you! He can only get authority from those who have it—that would be you and me.
And so, back to this analogy of riding the thermals, something I’ve tried to practice for years. I remember Bob Jones. What a wonderful man and a dear friend of this house! He was a great, great prophet of the Lord, a personal friend. I miss him; he’s home in heaven. And, but, I remember he talked—he talked once about eagles. Eagles have this, uh, this special, uh, like something that covers the eye lens where they can actually, when they—if there is a predator flying chasing them, they will actually fly toward the sun. And the other bird that wants to do damage to them cannot handle looking into the sun, but the eagle can!
And so, I’ve made it to practice for a lot of years. I’ll just be driving down the road or maybe just in conversation or just walking out, and this horrible thought or idea comes or accusation, whatever it might be. And I’ve tried to make it just almost like a, you know, a reaction—where you get something so ingrained in you that you react before you think. And what I’ve tried to do through the years is anytime something like that comes, it is my head up! I lift my head up! The Scripture says, «Lift up your heads, oh your gates,» He’s the glory and the lifter of our head!
I, I don’t know if He meant actual physical posture or not, but I’m going for it! And so if I’m in that situation, I just, I consciously will go, that thought came, that is not mine! I’m, I’m going towards the sun where the enemy cannot follow! I’m going towards the sun! This whole thing of riding the thermals—the adverse winds that the enemy sends our way—it could, it could come in just personal issues, you know, just discouragement or fatigue.
Sometimes, if the enemy can’t get me to do wrong things, he’ll get me to overextend myself in the right things, because there’s a fatigue that actually gives birth to unbelief. Because it gives us kind of a jaded resistant heart. We become accustomed to activity in the place of relationship, and it doesn’t happen in a moment; it’s a very slow change where we learn just to live in the routine. And we allow a distance to be formed in that tenderness, that intimacy with the Lord. And, uh, and so what happens is we become, if it happened overnight, it would be easy to spot! But it’s such a gradual turning with that busyness; just, just, you know, I just become more calloused and jaded and, and eventually resistant towards the very thing that I’ve been crying out for.
So here’s this opportunity that the Lord gives us, and I want you to look at this verse in Psalms 23, and I’ll just use this kind of as a symbolic verse for the few minutes more that I want to talk to you. Psalms 23 verse 1: «The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.» You know when I was sick a few years ago, I was really having a battle in my health, and I just would read this day after day after day, just meditate on individual words, on phrases, on statements until it came alive!
You want it, you want to look—see, this is eternal; this is the eternal Word of God! You want to give occasion, time, effort for Him to just truly allow roots to go down into your soul where what God has said actually begins to affect your personality. He restores my soul; verse three: «He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.» Yeah, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. Here’s the verse I want you to look at: «You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.»
Say this with me: «Goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.» That is absolutely true! Now here’s the verse I want you to look at for just a moment: «You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.» It is fairly common when somebody wants prayer to come request prayer. Now, I’m not criticizing anyone who does this; I’m just trying to illustrate something. Somebody will come and say, «I’m just—I’m being so harassed by the enemy right now,» and of course, I’ll pray for them, counsel, whatever is needed in that moment.
But because we don’t see situations as they are, we see the enemy’s attack, we hear his voice—we see the tension of the moment. What we often don’t realize is that it was in that atmosphere Jesus set up a banqueting table! He set up a place to feast in the presence of the enemy! So, I’m sitting here with Jesus, but I don’t realize I’m sitting here with Jesus because I hear the harassment coming. I see the tension coming; here I’m feeling all this stuff, and I’m going, «I rebuke and I bind,» and I do all this stuff, and what’s happening is I’m shadow boxing! I’m filled with Christian activity, but I’m exhausting myself because the nourishment is supposed to come from the meal that’s in front of me!
The strength, the nourishment, the reinforcement of who He made me to be! God intentionally threw the banquet where the enemy could see! Now, when the Lord says you’re hidden, you’re not hidden out of view; you’re hidden out of reach. When He said you’re hidden, you’re not hidden out of view; you’re hidden out of reach! Because sometimes, the moment that we think is actually the darkest is actually the brightest! But it’s only dark because of whose eyes we’re looking into! When you look into the eyes of the Father of lies, when you are entertained by the voice of accusation, or whatever it might be of the one who is the Father of lies, there’s really the constructing of that reality all around my life!
But a simple turning of my attention towards what the Scripture says—there’s a table! There’s a table! It’s a table of feasting; it’s a table of goodness! It’s a table of encounter! It’s a table of delight! It’s a table where by I am strengthened, I am nourished! Jesus made this statement that has really rocked my life: He said, «My food is to do the will of Him who sent me!» There’s something nourishing about just being in the center of what God is saying and doing.
So here you are in the middle of this what you think is a hellish moment that actually, by God’s design, is a heavenly moment. But it doesn’t become heavenly until I remove my focus on what’s working against me and I turn my focus to who’s working for me! And listen, it’s the exact same moment. It’s the exact same moment! And all that took place was a shift in perspective!
It’s not pretending; it’s not, you know, denial doesn’t help any of us! Pretending something isn’t—you know, I’ve got this maybe a health scare or a financial crisis or a relational thing, whatever it might be—pretending it’s not there doesn’t help. But not letting it rule my heart does help! The way I like to state it is that real faith doesn’t deny a problem’s existence; it just denies the problem a place of influence!
So you take the moment that you’re in; I intentionally will lift my head. It may seem silly. I, I don’t know, but I, I walk my property; I lift my head because I’m celebrated by a perfect Father who gave me grace. It was a gift; I couldn’t earn, I couldn’t qualify for it on my own, but Jesus qualified me! He qualified me; He took the exam for me and I passed! I wish I would have known that in school; I could have done a lot better! He took the exam for me and He passed on my behalf, and He gave me the grade! It’s called grace!
And because of that, the moment that seems, in my natural estimation, to be the most dangerous, cluttered, distracting, abusive, whatever it might be, is actually my finest moment because He prepared the table—the table of nourishment, the table of fellowship, the table of intimacy, the table of tenderness, the table of genuine friendship. He put the table, and He makes the devil watch, and the enemy can do nothing about it!
So I want you to stand! The picture that I see in my heart and my mind is like this chalkboard, you know, that’s got all kinds of writing on it, and the teacher comes along and he just, she just cleans it, and it’s just a clean, clean slate. And some of you, you carry the markings of this failure and this crisis and this difficulty and this problem and this temptation and this, whatever, and He’s just coming, and He’s just hosing down the board!
So let’s do clean slate stuff tonight! Let’s do a clean slate! Let’s, let’s—you say, «Well, I’ve tried this. I’ve tried this very thing so many times before, and I always keep falling back into fear! I always keep falling back into anxiety! I always keep falling back into something.» Yeah, but that was then! Today is a different day! Today is a day when—you are actually set up to be the one—just set your eyes, the God-given eyes, with the lens that protects you from the fiery eyes of God, but not the enemy who would try to follow you, and we just ride the thermals, if you will, of the challenges that we face into that glorious presence!
I’ve got a feeling some of you will actually, for the first time in your life, actually honestly be able to give thanks for a problem because it provided the thermals that just took you higher! Does that make sense? So put your hands in front of you; just I want to pray over you. Father, I ask that a gift of grace—first of all the clean slate thing. How many of you—you just, you need a clean slate; you need to start this thing over! And I’m not talking about your walk with Christ; I’m just talking about this part of our life where we become so anxious and fearful! I mean just say, «I want to start this one over.» Alright, so Lord, I pray right now that by the Holy Spirit, literally a tidal wave of Your presence, that You’d go through this place and that tonight would begin a clean slate. That we would just wake up tomorrow different—thinking different, living different—literally rising in the midst of difficulty, riding the thermals towards Your glorious presence, Your glorious face!
I pray this in Jesus' name! Give a courage to us tonight, I pray—courage! And that, uh, and that we would never again fall for that notion that because we can hear His voice, that He has any authority over us! The enemy has no authority! I pray for that right now! Turn! Put a hand on somebody next to you—just pray for them! God, give them this grace! Let there be great, great grace given to them right now in Jesus' name! Alright, now, in Jesus' wonderful name, a great grace to ride above these challenges, these difficulties, these accusations, temptations, whatever they might be!
In fact, pray for their heart attitude, God! Help them to be tender in heart! Help them to be courageous with their confession, courageous with their decree! We pray this in Jesus' wonderful name! Now put your hand on your own heart! Pray this famous prayer: «Help me, Jesus! I really mean it this time! Help me, Jesus!» Amen! Amen!