Bill Johnson - Waiting on God
Thanks, thanks. By the way, this Tuesday, how many of you are American citizens? Yes, Tuesday—vote! Vote! Don’t be stupid—vote! Don’t be stupid by not voting, because that’s voting. It’s a wrong vote. And then, don’t be stupid by voting stupid. In 2014, California’s governor was elected with 4.4 million votes; only 31% of California citizens voted that year—31%! And there are an estimated 15 million Christians in California. Silence is a vote. So we want to, uh, we want to be good. We want to vote smart, as you say. Vote smart! But somehow it came to smoting, and that would be a very bad tweet to encourage people to smote. All right, how many international guests do we have today? Put your hands up. Welcome to all of you! We love you. Glad you’re here! Always thrilled with our guests—all of them, even those down the road. We’re just glad you showed up! We had such a great conference this week. I’m assuming the question was already asked—how many of you were part of the conference this week? We had a leaders' conference and had such a great time. But this is in honor of our international guests. Bethel, this will be familiar to you. For those of you who watch what you eat, here’s the final word on nutrition and health: it’s a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.
Number one: the Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
Number two: the Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
Number three: the Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
Number four: the Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
Number five: the Germans drink a lot of beer, eat a lot of sausages and fats, and suffer fewer heart attacks than the English.
Conclusion: you didn’t drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you. My humorous stories work better if you have a third-grade sense of humor, so just work on that, and you’ll appreciate it more! I have a brand new book out. It just came out Friday of this week. It’s officially not released until December, but it’s one that Benny and I wanted to do forever. It’s been on our hearts so much. However it works, we finally got to the place where we could write a book. This is on raising children, and the title is called Raising Giant Killers. Raising Giant Killers! It has to do with raising children with their divine destiny in mind, and there is kind of a prophetic role that the Lord has put on every parent for this purpose. Anyway, this is available wherever books are sold. No, over here—sold! Yeah, wherever they’re sold. I want to give one of the three away to an international person who came. Like you, back over here—do you have children at home? Just take it to an international! Help me out, Chris—just take it back. And where they are—waving their hand? Oh, look at that! That’s fine, that’s fine. He’s a friend of mine; you can give it to him absolutely. And then these two go to reading people. And, uh, right here we have, uh, you—you are holding a child right there. You qualify! Right here! And then let’s go! I gotta go wait—okay, I need to take it into the back. Wait—take it away in the back, Theresa. Just find somebody who looks pitiful, like they need help. Apparently, I—there we go! Okay, thanks, thanks, Theresa. I’m trying to learn how to give away books the way Chris does. He’ll have a book on spiritual warfare and he’ll ask, «Anyone who’s demon-possessed here? This book is for you!» Or with his book on empowering women, he’ll ask, «How many of you abuse your wives or women? You’re abused by your husbands; raise your hand!» So I’m trying to learn that—that anointing. Actually, I’m trying not to; that’s one I’d like to avoid. But it is funny, it is funny!
All right, open your Bibles, if you would please, to Second Chronicles chapter 20. It will take me a few minutes to get there, but it would be great if you were ready to go in this wonderful, wonderful subject that we have for this morning. I notice that the Lord often, at least with me and I think with us, deals with us in themes. There will be—how many of you recognize there are times where it seems like every book you come across has a similar subject? Every conversation is a reminder of a particular theme or word? Sermons, podcasts, or whatever—the Lord just seems to repeat Himself over and over and over again for us. One of the recurring themes for me is the subject of waiting on God. Now, I had a chance to meet with our students here. Um, Chris, would you do me a favor? Just take one of those three books—just take one and give it to this couple right here on the front row—right here, right there! Yep, right there. Merry Christmas! All right—
The recurring themes—there’s been this theme on waiting on God. About two weeks ago, I got a chance to talk with our third-year students, and a part of what I talked about—a small part of that was this theme that I’m going to discuss with you a little today—because waiting on God is completely different than I thought it was. I thought it was just sitting on a recliner waiting for God to act—just kind of waiting for Him to show up and do something. I’ve been finding out—uh, in my experience as I look back over the history of my life, the times I’ve had breakthroughs and the times I haven’t—there have been seasons where, if I were—not to forgive me for the implication here—but just follow me—if I were not to read the Scripture at all and just look at my history, I would come to the conclusion that God is often not wanting to do something for me; He’s wanting to do something through me. He’s looking for me to act so that He joins His activity with mine.
As I read the Scripture, I find it’s actually a central theme in the subject of waiting on God, and I–I didn’t know that, and I don’t know why, but I just—I didn’t know it! I didn’t know it experientially. So here are these two words that are found in Psalms 37. I’m not even going to take you there; you can read it on your own, but there are two words. There’s one in verse 9 that talks about waiting on God, and it’s a word that’s very similar to the biblical word hope. I don’t know that they’re actually related, but the definition is very similar. In verse nine, it discusses waiting on God, and the word there describes great anticipation, great expectation. It would be, um—let’s say that you’re in a room with people, and there’s a lot of conversation going on, and there’s somebody that you really want to hear from on the other side of the room. And you try your best to shut down every other voice, and you may lean, you may move seats—you may cup your hand over your ear and lean in—because there’s this anticipation that they’re going to say something important for you to hear.
Waiting on God is that! It’s leaning into something that would normally be thought of as just another mundane activity, this conversation going on in the room. But somehow, there’s this refined focus. And what I’m finding is that the words I discover in Scripture for waiting on God actually have as much to do with refining our focus as anything. The word I really want to talk to you about is in verse 7, where it says «waiting on God.» In some biblical translations, you know, when they’re translated, you go back to the original language—every word, like «face,» for example, and the word «presence» for example, is literally the word «face.» They’re similar, but unique. However, some words are so diverse that you wonder how in the world they can translate this one word in so many different ways, and this word «waiting» in verse 7 is one of those words.
For example, the intellects that are experts in Hebrew language will look at this word, and in a certain setting, they actually translate the word to «whirl in the dance.» Now, that’s not what I think of when I think about waiting on God. Waiting on God is anything but whirling in the dance! And yet, that is actually an interesting translation of this very wonderful and beautiful word—whirling in the dance. Now, you won’t be seeing me whirl in the dance; I stopped whirling quite a few years ago in fear of losing body parts. So I just try to keep everything intact, and my dance is a jump. You know, I might turn to the side—that’s pretty much it. And, uh, what I just showed you right there is as much as you’ll ever get from me. I believe in the dance! Actually, my first time I danced before the Lord was a whirl in the dance. I didn’t know what to do. I just saw it in the Bible, and I was embarrassed. I was the only one home, and I was embarrassed. I literally made sure the curtains were drawn, and light—it’s nighttime, and I turned the lights out because I didn’t even want to see myself. I was embarrassed for me! But I saw it in the Bible, and I knew it was the appropriate thing to do.
So I jumped in the air, twisted, and turned, and landed—and I did it again, and again! The point was the whirling. And one thing I noticed is that when you are in the air and turning, you have one basic concern: where you’re going to land! You don’t want to land on the dog; you don’t want to land on the shoes that you forgot to put away; you don’t want to land on the coffee table—you want to land somewhere safe! So there’s this focus that you have in the whirl of the dance that I believe is implied in this word «to wait on God.»
If there could ever be another end of the spectrum that was extreme and diverse, it would be another way this word is translated. It’s actually translated «to give birth»: waiting on God to give birth. Strange! I was privileged and blessed to be in the room when all three of my children were born. The third one, Leah, when she was born, we had like 20 people in the room! I mean, during the delivery… just think, hippies! That’s what hippies do. It takes a commune to deliver a child, you know? So we had, oh goodness, at least 20 people in the room. My wife’s parents were there, and my mom got there right at the last minute. My sister was there, and we had family. My boys were there.
So we had about 20 people in the room, and this doctor—his office was actually a home, and the delivery room was a large bedroom. So if you could picture it—it was maybe a third or half the size of this stage—that was the bedroom. Benny is in a bed, and I’m next to her, and I like Chris’s story—women giving delivery need to have a focal point! Chris put a Snickers bar up there, and that was the focal point—then he ate the focal point! You don’t eat the focal point. There’s this intense focus, and it’s a Snickers bar, and then the next contraction, there’s no Snickers bar there! So that’s Chris’s story.
But I remember extending this to Benny, and our kids are here. I was having a conversation with somebody, and suddenly, I felt this death grip on my left arm! Literally, she grabbed my arm with such intensity, I wondered if I’d ever use it again! I mean, she grabbed that arm. Why? Because she was having a contraction! Now, writing a book is as close as I’ll ever get to giving birth. I can only imagine that in giving birth to a child, you don’t care who the president is. You don’t care about the next payment—uh, car payment! You don’t care about the angry neighbor; none of those things matter! You have one thing on your mind. I mean, if there were ever an illustration of intense focus, it would be giving birth. She grabbed my arm, and I ceased all conversation. I didn’t even end the conversation I was having; I just was there giving salute to the one I was not worthy to be married to! I mean, every time my wife would have a child, in my heart of hearts, quietly and never saying it out loud, I was just thankful it was her and not me.
She was more than a man than I was! So anyway, that doesn’t work, does it? Anyway, all right, you get the point. Whirling in the dance—you’ve got to land right! Giving birth—there’s just this intense focus! And somehow that word is used to describe waiting on God. It is not inactivity! It is not involving myself with a hundred other things hoping that God will somehow intervene. Obviously, He’s God; He can do whatever He wants, He can intervene anytime He wants. But what I’ve noticed is that He looks for my participation so that my feeble efforts are things that He can breathe upon, making them supernaturally effective.
The verse I use over and over again is that passage out of Proverbs, where it says, «The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.» I’ve got to do everything I know how to do—to feed the horse well, train it, to do everything to make sure the stage is set for victory. But when it comes, it was only because God breathed on my efforts, making them supernaturally effective. And that, I believe, is a key to this next season we’re coming into: learning how to surrender natural effort and focus for Him to breathe on—to bring about the breakthroughs that we’ve ached for and longed for.
One of my favorite individuals in church history is a man named George Müller. I love reading about him. He ran an orphanage in the UK and was such an extraordinary man of faith. His prayer life was just bizarre and unusual. One day he was praying, and the Lord just gave him either a word or a vision—I forget which now—about building a new building on his grounds. He leaves his time of prayer, and a child comes up to him and gives him a penny, saying, «This is for the new building.» Here’s the deal: when you’re waiting on God, the penny is like a million dollars, because you’re not intimidated by its size or lack of size!
He took the penny, literally lifted it before the Lord, and said, «Thank you for the confirmation!» Thank you. I prefer I prefer confirmations of a hundred thousand dollars or, you know, those kinds. But he took the penny and said, «Thank you for the confirmation.»
Here’s the deal: when I’m biblically waiting on God, the size of the confirmation does not matter because I’m leaning into expecting Him to do something, and the penny is enough! Two of my favorite characters in the Old Testament are Elijah and Elisha. Elisha was the understudy. He was just—say hello to Jesus for me! Yes, Elisha is the understudy to Elijah. One day, Elijah asked Elisha, «What can I do for you?» He says, «I want a double portion of what you have.» Elijah said, «Man, that’s hard. That’s a rough one.»
And you have to imagine: you can’t give twice of what you have! Somebody says, «I want two hundred dollars,» you say, «I only have one hundred; I can’t give you two hundred.» You can’t give what you don’t have. So here, the question is being asked. The request is being made of Elijah about this desire for double-portion anointing, and he said, «Man, that’s a hard one.» He finally comes to the conclusion and says, «If you see me when I am taken…»
If you see me when I’m taken, then you can have it. So here’s this challenge: our biggest tests are when we don’t know we’re being tested, because the Lord is looking for heart response to a given situation. There’s not time to think, there’s not time to pray, there’s not time to do anything. There’s a reaction! Either the reaction is a correct one or it’s not. It’s not a test for judgment; it’s a test to see what weightiness of what this man or woman can carry of the things of God into the earth. And so the Lord is constantly examining and testing us to see what we can carry!
You remember the king who was told by the prophet to «strike the ground with the arrows»? So he hit the ground three times, and the prophet got mad at him and said, «Man, if you would have hit the ground five or six times, you would have annihilated the enemy, but now you’re only going to have three temporary victories.» How many understand the king probably wanted to take the test over? He didn’t know he was being tested! And our greatest tests are when the Lord is looking to see what’s in the heart, and we don’t know what’s in there until it comes out!
So, this was the test for Elisha. Elijah said, «If you see me when I’m taken…» So Elisha wouldn’t let Elijah out of his sight. He literally wouldn’t let him go to the bathroom by himself! The guy’s got—you’ve got somebody watching you all the time, which is weird! And so this goes on for a while, and suddenly, there is a chariot of fire! If you can imagine, horses on fire! A chariot on fire comes down out of heaven! And it comes in between Elisha and Elijah. Remember, Elijah’s mandate here is to see Elijah when he’s taken. And so he’s got one responsibility.
Now remember, he’s asking for a double portion! A double-portion anointing is extremely demanding, and there’s very little wiggle room for error. Why do I say that? The farther you go in God, the more casualties you cause by your failure. That’s life! So he’s trying to measure the metal, if you will, the heart of this man Elisha. Here comes this chariot of fire—it comes in between the two, and Elisha goes, «My father!» Speaking to Elijah, he says, «My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and their horsemen.» What is he doing? He’s acknowledging something supernatural is happening, but he has this amazing ability to keep his eyes on his assignment, which was Elijah!
So here’s the chariots of Israel and horsemen. Elisha has his eyes on Elijah! And then a whirlwind comes and takes Elijah up! Interestingly, the whirlwind takes Elijah up and, after it takes him up a ways, the mantle that represents the anointing that was dropped by Elijah fell to the ground, and Elisha picked it up! Elijah couldn’t give him the double-portion anointing, but God could! When God took the mantle for a moment, when He released it again, it had twice what he needed!
And so, in this moment, he goes to the water, strikes the river, and says, «Where’s the God of Elijah?» The river parts! The point is what Elisha illustrates: waiting on God is not inactivity! It is intensely focused on the mandate of God; it is intensely focused on the assignment. This theme recurs throughout Scripture. This is one I mentioned last week, where Jesus said, «If your eye is single, your body will be full of light.»
The word «single» there is two words: it’s the number one and the word «voyage.» If your heart, the eyes of your heart, are set on the one reason for being alive, you’re on one journey that will actually release the light of God to shine on every aspect and part of your life! Everything about you will be enlightened by the presence and the glory of God! Focus—refined focus!
Here we have a story—a great story. It would warrant a much deeper study than we’re going to do today. I’m just going to read a couple of highlighted verses. If you could go to Second Chronicles chapter 20 and look at verse 1. We’ll skim around a bit and come to a conclusion here.
Verse 1 says, «It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites, came to battle against Jehoshaphat.» Then some came and told Jehoshaphat saying, «A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea.» Verse 3: «Then Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.»
Stop there for just a moment. My wife and I recently bought another home and we’re remodeling it; it’s gutted. We’re just having so much fun in the process of building something that’s been in our hearts. We’ve got this really nice deck. Sometimes, I don’t know if this happens for you, sometimes my favorite room in the house is the deck outside! I just love to be able to sit outside. We love to eat outside. All food tastes better outside; usually, unless it’s snowing, then it does not. But we have this really nice deck, and Benny bought this umbrella. It’s one of those 11-foot wide umbrellas. It’s on a stand, and then it has this arm that lingers on the whole thing. It’s this massive device!
We found that the little puny stand that came with it—you breathe on it, and the whole thing falls over. It wouldn’t do! So we bought this massive stand that you fill with water. I actually wanted to fill it with lead, just to ensure that it wouldn’t move until Jesus comes—that’s basically where it is, and it’s going to stay there. But we filled it with water, and man, nothing’s rough to move. I couldn’t get the umbrella where I wanted it! You know, once I filled it with water.
So Eric came over, and together, we moved it. Actually, by himself, he could have, but I wanted to be involved in the journey. So I got my hands down there too and moved this massive base, you know, for this umbrella so the wind could blow, and it just wouldn’t fall over. Well, if you can picture this, the table’s here, but the umbrella is hanging over here. And, but you want it over the table when you have guests. We had guests yesterday! So you go down, unscrew the things that tighten it, lock it in place, and then you lift the pole out of the other pole, and you turn it.
Because it’s got two metal bolts or studs sticking out, you turn it until it falls into preset grooves, and those grooves— the reason I needed Eric’s help is to get the base moved so that when the umbrella was in those grooves, it would be over the table. You follow? Amen! It’s the end of the meeting—go home!
So, um, so we lift it up, put it down—it’s set in a particular place. When you were born again, you were given the nature of Christ that is set on the face of the Father. It is set! So when we set our face to seek God, we are actually saying yes to the divine nature that Jesus gave us at our conversion! We are locking into the one reason I’m alive. It’s, once again, the reinforced focus on the one thing.
So Jehoshaphat is surrounded—who knows? I don’t even remember the numbers now—100 to 1 or something crazy. His armies are so far out. Nobody’s scared to death! But he sets himself to seek the Lord. I love this so much about the Lord. It doesn’t matter if I’m afraid, if I’m anxious, if I’m stressed, if I’m angry. It doesn’t matter what condition I’m in. Just pray! Prayer is always a good thing! And what I found is that when you pray, if I encounter the Lord and lift up my voice, and I leave the same way I came before Him, then I wasn’t praying! I was complaining. But when you come and truly engage with the Lord, there’s always a transformation of heart and mind that takes place!
So let’s move on into the story and jump down to verse 7. I love this verse: «Are you not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever?» Here’s the only thing I want to point out here: I would encourage you to repeat Bible history or your own personal history in your prayers more often. It may sound like religious routine, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s vital! Nehemiah did this. He stood before the Lord and said, «God, I don’t take the governor’s allowance it’s given to me, but I don’t take it. And all the workers on this project—I feed them out of my own salary!» Did God not know that? No, of course He knew it! But it was important for Nehemiah to recount it.
It’s important to step into divine protocol, where you rehearse in your mind what is, to do it. It is loving God with your mind! It’s using your mind to recall facts, to bring up situations in the past, or in this case, to bring a biblical context and situation. So here is Joshua praying: «God, you brought us out of Egypt! You were the one who did all this, and you did it for your friend Abraham!» He’s reminding God, not because God forgets, but because we need to be in His economy of recalling the events of history. Because they set a prophetic prototype of what’s to happen in our day! It’s important for us to use our minds!
This is a bit off subject, but not. I remember years ago—many years ago, in fact, I was thinking this last week of trying this again—I was in a prayer meeting in Weaverville, and I told everybody in the room, «Just pick one characteristic of God’s nature, like His liberty, His power, beauty, holiness, judgment, or whatever. Just pick something—His love, His goodness.» And so everybody picked something. I said, «Now, let’s do this. Let’s give God praise—I want you to praise Him with understanding, and I want you to use in praise everything you can think of about that subject!» Everything!
So now this is a mental exercise! Now, «God, I thank you that your goodness is so much better than I thought! You forgive people who don’t deserve it! I didn’t deserve it! Yet, that’s just how you are! You’re just a forgiver!» And so what we do is we recall to mind: «God, I remember in Scripture when you were so kind to Manasseh when he deserved your judgment, and yet he turned his heart towards you, and you forgave him!» And your goodness!
And so we just start recounting these things, and what happened in this room—let’s just say it’s this front row here—at the end of this time, I don’t remember now; I’d guess maybe 15 or 20 minutes, I asked each person, and every person had the exact same experience, which stunned me! Every single person exhausted everything they knew about the subject. They could no longer think of anything else, and then fresh understanding came!
Every single person! Why? They were a steward of what they had! It’s like money, right? They were a steward of what they had in insight about the nature of God! They used it in praise, and when they exhausted what they had, He removed the veil and let them see a deeper perception of that aspect of His nature! Wow! Wow! It’s the intentional exercise, using the mind with which to love God!
This is not a small little side point! We’ve been called by God in Scripture to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength! We’re to use our intellectual capacity to draw things back to the surface that we can use in giving an offering! Yes, Bill! Amen! Very good point! Let’s move on. How are we doing? Yeah, we’ve got 10 minutes!
Verse 13: I love it—it says, «All Judah with their little ones, their wives, and their children stood before the Lord.» Some things just have to be done in family units! You don’t do it saying, «Well, I’m bored!» Who cares if you’re bored? I didn’t ask if you’re bored or excited! This is what we’re going to do! I don’t live for your excitement; I live for your destiny! Stop letting the tail wag the dog! I happen to have a book out there about raising giant killers. That was an unintentional promotion, but I just felt the anointing on it! I don’t know what to say!
All right, let’s move on. I’m sorry! I actually am not sorry, but let’s move on. Verse 14: «Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of the son of the son.» Verse 15: «Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude! The battle is not yours, but God’s! '»
Say that with me: «The battle is not yours, it’s God’s!» Let’s personalize it: «The battle is not mine, it’s God’s!» Say it again: «The battle is not mine; it’s God’s!» Do you know that that’s true even if you’ve been called to fight in the battle? That does not give permission for inactivity! And that’s the whole point! I’ve got one point today, and I’m going to get to it eventually: refined focus is the activity of waiting on God.
So let’s move on a couple more verses. It says, «Tomorrow…» verse 16. «Tomorrow, go down against them. They will come up by the ascents.» Verse 17: «You don’t need to fight in this battle! Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem! Do not fear or be dismayed! Tomorrow, go out against them, for the Lord is with you!»
Here’s the thing that you can’t miss: it all came down to this one phrase—"Stand still!» Tomorrow go—stand still! It may seem like the permanent posture of someone who wants to see God unfold His will. It’s not «stand still"—adjust your perception of your situation! Jesus tried this with His disciples in John 4. In John 4, we have what I think is the greatest revelation in the Bible on worship, and that is that you worship God in spirit and in truth! But what He did is He followed that word on worship with the greatest revelation on evangelism: the fields are all white unto harvest!
It’s not an accident that those two things work together in tandem. Worship revelation, evangelism revelation, because evangelism, in its purest form, is an overflow of worship! So here’s this statement on evangelism. Jesus says, «Lift up your eyes and look on the fields!» Lift up your eyes; look up before you look down! Gain divine perception so that when you look at the harvest, you see it through divine perception!
So there’s this cause-and-effect thing! He’s got «Lift up your eyes, look on the fields.» In this passage, it’s «stand still; go regroup; obtain divine focus.» Because then, your activity will be the activity of anticipation! It won’t be just rote, busy Christian activity; it will be divine activity based on what you anticipate God doing! That’s waiting on God! That’s waiting on God!
That’s the leap in the air, making sure I land safely! That’s the giving birth—keeping all my attention on the only thing that matters! That’s waiting on God! And I have said all of this because I have felt that we’re entering into a 90-day period of time where we have the possibility of seeing some promises fulfilled—those that some of us have carried for years and years and years and years!
We could say that any day of the week, any day of the year—in a year of our lifetime, it would be true! But there are also moments in God that are not repeatable, where He is breathing on a thought, an idea, or an activity. I’ve had two prophets minister to me of late, and they both described the same thing, but they used two completely different analogies. One said, «I see the heavens containing these blessings, these breakthrough areas, but the heavens are frozen.» Then he described the thaw.
Another prophet said, «I see these semi-trucks loaded with breakthroughs—the resources of heaven—and they’re as far as the eye can see, but they’re in a traffic jam!» So in both prophets' eyes, something has obstructed the flow of what God has intended. Now I don’t get demon-focused, but what I do is I want to become extremely focused on divine purpose, on what He has said for my life! I don’t want to come to the end and find out that I waited and did nothing when He was anticipating my weight with divine focus.
Does that make sense to you? Because that really is the entire lesson! Waiting on God is that expectation; it’s that refined focus that says, «I am all in, and I have no Plan B!» When God is number one, there is no number two; there is not another option! This is it! And I believe that the Lord is positioning us for extraordinary things in the next—I’m personally thinking into the first of February that we have this season of breakthrough that I just want to be all in on. And what happens when you’re all in? The penny prophesies!
How many of you have been believing something for years? How many of you—let’s be honest now—have found it hard to get encouraged about what you’ve been believing in for years? When you’re waiting, the penny prophesies! Leaning in, waiting biblically—anticipating, leaning into just to hear that voice that brings the anticipation! When I’m leaning, everything has meaning! It’s crazy! Does that make sense to you?
I remember there’d be these seasons—these moments, where, you know, I’d check into a hotel and I’d get room 308. Then, at the next hotel, 308! I’d wake up at 3:00 in the morning, go, «What are you trying to…» It’s as if everything had meaning! Everything! You know? Everything was prophetic!
I understand you can abuse it, but the biggest abuse we have is to ignore it! God is often talking when we’re expecting Him to do something else! So, amen! Amen!
The greatest miracle of all, without question, is the actual conversion of a person’s soul. I have to wait until the movement stops, please. No more moving around the room, please! You don’t want to distract somebody who needs to get right with God, because you need to get to lunch!
The most important thing that could happen today, among the 100,000 things we could do that are wonderful and glorious, is the fact that there would be somebody here. Maybe you got brought by a friend, maybe you wandered in, or maybe you’ve been here for years—but there’s never been that personal commitment to receiving and following the Lord Jesus Christ! He is Lord of all! There aren’t many ways to God! If there were many ways to God, then God was cruel to require Jesus to die!
He solved the issue over humanity: the curse of humanity, and that was the curse of sin! He dealt with the issue! And I just want to encourage anybody who would be in this room and say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know that I have peace with God; that I know what it is to be forgiven; that I know what it is to start my life of following Jesus.» If that’s anybody here, then I want you to just acknowledge by saying, «Bill, that’s me. I don’t want to leave the building until I know I’m right with God!»
Right here is one! We bless you for that! Anyone else? Put your hand up; right here’s another one! Yep, beautiful! Anyone else? We also have people watching week after week after week online! We speak the same word to you on Bethel TV! This is just a day, a time, to come to Jesus! There’s just no time to waste! So is there anyone else? Just real quickly, I want to give opportunity for anyone else who would say, «I want to follow Jesus! I want to give my life to follow Him.»
Anyone else? Okay, I want you to all stand, if you would please! What I’m going to ask is— we had at least two that I saw that put their hands up to receive Jesus! So I’m going to ask this: I want the ministry team to come to the front right now. If those two who raised your hands do me and yourself a favor by coming to these friends of ours to my left, I want them simply to talk and pray with you. It’s not about Bethel; it’s not about any of those things. It’s about a personal relationship with Jesus.
We have these people to help you, so come right over here, if you would! Just leave your seat, come on down! I want to pray over the rest of you just real quickly to pray concerning this thing of waiting on the Lord. Why don’t you put your hands in front of you? Are you ready to wait? That’s five! Five is all I need! I’m very encouraged with five people saying yes!
All right, Father, I do pray for a great, great grace that would rest upon us as a church family, especially in light of these next 90 days. That breakthroughs would happen that are beyond anything we’ve known to expect before! And I ask that this breakthrough would come in our waiting, in our anticipation, our refined focus! Let it be in a way that exalts and glorifies You! Everybody said, «Amen!» Amen!