Bill Johnson - When in War, Create
You are nice. This couple was shopping, and they had gotten separated. The wife called her husband to find out where he was. She said, «Honey, where are you?» He replied, «You remember when we got engaged? We went to that jewelry store and got you a ring, but there was another one that we liked so much. It was so much bigger and so much nicer.» She started to tear up and said, «Yeah.» He said, «Well, I’m at the coffee shop right next to that. I’m just trying to advertise for a lamb, that’s all I’m trying to do.» I said, «That guy needs to go to a lamb.» I saw another one last week that said, «It’s my wife’s birthday this week.» She has been leaving jewelry catalogs all around the house, kind of leaving hints, so I bought her a magazine rack. If that guy is you, go to a lamb, that’s all I’m saying. Go ahead; they will fix you, I promise.
Grab your Bibles and open, if you would, to the book of Zechariah. Those of you who are regular members of the Bethel family here locally know that I’ve been doing a fair amount of repeating this spring and summer, and I’m going to continue, although some of this will be a bit new today. How many of you have figured out we are in a war? Some of you are sitting next to someone who’s clueless, so you need to elbow them and say, «We are in a war!» Or maybe I caught you off guard with that question—why, that’s probably what it was. How many of you realize we’re honestly in a spiritual war? Yes, there’s no question. In fact, there has never been a time in my life where it’s been more intense, and I would say probably ten times more than any other season of my life has been the last two years. Now, our strength in spiritual warfare is no greater than our ability to control our thoughts. Our effectiveness in spiritual warfare, you guys can make me work this morning; I’m going to get a workout; I can see it. Our effectiveness in spiritual warfare is no greater than our ability to control our thoughts. In 2 Corinthians 10, probably the greatest chapter on instruction for spiritual warfare, there is this phrase: «Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.»
Imagine being in a natural war, and you’ve got the number one terrorist on the planet opposing you. You take that person captive; he has now become a prisoner of war. But what happens if you take that captive prisoner of war and turn him into a soldier for the same cause as you? That’s what it means to take captive renegade thoughts to the obedience of Christ. What was once warring against me is now warring for me. It means when you have that little thing going on in your head where you’re arguing with somebody and you’re angry with them, you can turn it into a prayer blessing for them, and you’ll disarm the enemy. You’ll actually use a thought that was meant to be used against you, and it will now be used for you. God has some strange—probably strange—ways of winning wars. You know, anytime you send a choir into battle first, they don’t have weapons; they just sing and play instruments, and you send them into the heat of the battle. That’s an unusual way to go to war—unless you don’t like the worship team. Then the Lord shows up and delivers, and powerful things happen.
How about the time with Moses, where he had to lift his hands, and Aaron and Hur each held up an arm? As long as the arms were up, they won. Or what about the time when the prophet was surrounded by this enemy army, and the Lord blinded them all, and the king asked, «Can I kill him?» The prophet said, «No, feed them.» So they brought them into this big banquet, and then it says that army decided not to attack Israel anymore. That’s a strange way to win a war!
The Lord has unusual ways of leading us into war because the way a war is won is through relationship and trust, through obedience. It’s the raised hands; it’s the striking of the rock; it’s the proclamation; here’s the practice: it’s the natural obedience. Whatever God says to do—that’s what brings about the triumph of the victory. Did I tell you where to open your Bibles to?
Yes? No? Yes? Zechariah! Some of you heard it; some of you didn’t. Zechariah 1 is where you should be. If you’re not there, hurry and get there, and we’re going to read. Let me start by saying you’ll see the number four and the word horns. Four horns in the scripture often represents something that is global—north, south, east, west. It’s a global thing. Horns signify strength, authority, power. So when it talks about four horns influencing the earth, it’s a global demonstration of demonic power that enslaves people in wrong thinking.
Alright, let’s read this passage, and then I’ll see if we can make some sense out of it.
Verse 18: «Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were four horns.» I said to the angel who talked with me, «What are these?» He answered me and said, «These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.» Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. I said, «What are these coming to do?» He said, «These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could lift his head; but the craftsmen are coming to terrify them, to cast out the horns of the nations that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.»
Let’s read these verses again. I want you to think with me as we go through this because it’s almost like the Lord is saying, «When in war, I hope it’s a good show; when in war, create.»
Let’s read verse 20 and 21 again: «Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.» I said, «What are these coming to do?» He said, «These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could lift up his head; but the craftsmen are coming to terrify them.» What a very unusual way to win a war—to raise up artists, craftsmen, skilled laborers, skilled workers. It says these horns—these four powers or authorities, these realms of darkness—have been released to number one, scatter the people of God, and number two, scatter them so that they can no longer lift their heads.
Sometimes we are separated not because of division but because we’ve just not fought to be together, especially in this season—very unusual season. The scripture says, «Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the habit of some, especially as you see the day drawing near.» What is it saying? As you see things intensify in the earth, do what is not natural for you. Go against the grain and fight to be together. We are members of a body, all of us; we are members of one another. While there are times when we are forced to stand alone, that’s a season; it’s not a lifestyle ever. Sometimes we’re forced to stand alone to fight something that seems at times like on our own, the best we know how, just to prove our own faithfulness to the Lord. But we are actually joined together, members of one another, and the enemy works to separate and scatter to cause a loss of identity.
If there’s anything we can see happening in the world right now, we have men who don’t know they’re men; they think they’re women. We have women who don’t know they’re women; they think they’re men or one of the other 58 options. People say, «Well, Bill, we’ve got to show compassion.» I do believe we’ve got some troubled people we just need to love and serve. But I’m tired of seeing the church show compassion to demons. We’re not going to go easy on the powers of darkness and then call that compassion. We’ve got to know where to fight, where to stand strong, where to embrace, where to love, where to be patient, where to be kind. God’s giving the church a backbone right now.
So here we’ve got this unusual story where the Lord says there are these powers released into the earth, and it’s global. If I’ve ever seen something that was out of order, demonic, that was global, it’s right now. I do believe this is a right now word. So I’m going to ask you, with that kind of certainty and intentionality, to listen to this very, very simple exhortation— that global insanity, sponsored by many different movements and political leaders, has an opponent it can’t stand up to: the people of God coming into their authentic self to give a creative expression of who God made them to be.
Are artisans and craftsmen? I don’t think it’s just referring to those who carve wood or those who paint beautiful paintings or those who sing beautiful songs or dance or act. Those are the arts, and they are highly valued by us, but there is an artistic expression that a single mom needs with that one child who is different from the rest. To be able to communicate well to that child and to bring that child to their place of destiny needs a grace of wisdom, an artistic flair. It’s the lawyer who has a case he doesn’t know how to win, but he knows he must, and the Lord gives him creative expression ideas. It’s the accountant who has a challenge in helping this one business to prosper, and they get that insight. There’s that artistic flair that comes out of fellowship with the Lord that is in great, great need.
I want to read to you—I plan anyway to read out of several books to you today, which I don’t always do, but I really felt strongly today that’s what I needed to do. Erwin McManus wrote a great book called «The Genius of Jesus.» In that book, he quotes from a book called «Breakpoint and Beyond,» published in 1993. In this book, they did studies on children and on genius and on creativity. Here’s what they found. They studied 1,600 children aged three to five years old. They retested the same children at the age of ten and then again at the age of fifteen. What they found was that among the five-year-olds, 98 percent of them were creative geniuses. Ninety-eight! When they retested the same children a few years later, five years later, 30 percent at the age of ten were creative geniuses. When they retested the same 1,600 students at the age of fifteen, they found ten percent were creative geniuses.
The author of that particular book came to a conclusion: «This, we have concluded, is that non-creative behavior is learned.» I actually bought the book because I wanted to study this for myself. The book that Erwin McManus quoted had a crazy part: only 2 percent of 280,000 adults tested were found to be creative geniuses! So from 98 percent to 2 percent, non-creative behavior is learned. It says our proficiency in expressing our creativity gradually drops off as we learn to accept others' opinions, evaluations, and beliefs.
What we have seen in our work with adults is that the five-year-old creative genius is still lurking inside, waiting to break free. Now, if there is any group of people on the planet that should be able to tap into that, it should be those for whom Jesus says, «You are free indeed!» Liberty and freedom are actually the access to live unencumbered—yes, by sin, of course—but many people are free from sin in their habits, but they’re not free to think creatively. They’re not free to think according to their design. We’re all designed uniquely; that’s the whole point.
What they find, especially among senior citizens who are very close to the end of their days here on earth, is that the number one influence, or a high level of influence in their life, is that of regret—regret for making decisions throughout their lifetime that were shaped by the opinions and values of what others expected from them, when in fact we were designed to be unique.
There is a uniqueness where people are fighting to be unique, and they just cause problems and draw attention to themselves. That’s not unique; that’s just stupid. But there is an authentic «you» that needs to be creatively expressed. I believe that part of what is being addressed in this unusual passage in Zechariah is that the Lord’s answer for this terrifying movement that covers the earth, the four corners of the earth, this oppressive, oppressive thing that separates the people of God to the point where they can’t even lift their heads anymore—there’s no courage to face a challenge, a problem, in the hour that we live in; it’s not there anymore. The discouragement has gripped them so deeply that their eyes are cast down. How did it happen? It happened by these four horns and powers that brought about a global movement of insanity.
The answer of the Lord is four craftsmen—the same global release of people that refuse to bow to the insanity of the moment and stand up in authentic expression of who Christ is in me. Why would that so disarm the powers of darkness? How is it that people come into an artistic expression? Yes, it may be painting or singing, but it also may be the way you intentionally live, raising your children. It’s the way that you form sentences; you work hard to use the best words, and you work hard to be excellent in what you do.
You write those notes for people. You just have that grace to write notes, and you take the time to think of the wording so you can impart the most life possible. That excellence seen in that moment is actually divine wisdom, and it imparts life. It doesn’t just tickle people’s ears; it actually inspires and encourages them for life.
I heard of one soldier who died, I believe, in the Iraqi war. In his wallet was an encouraging word that his class had given him. I think it was like in the eighth grade. All the students in the class picked one student, and they wrote down an encouraging word for them. Each student got one of what the other classmates thought of them, and it was all encouraging words. He had that folded up in his wallet as an adult from something he got in school because it was an encouraging word. Sometimes those words shape, and it’s the excellence, the intentionality.
One of the things I’ve written about a couple of times that really, really moves me is the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. All of these kings would come, and they’d sit at his feet, but for some reason, the Queen of Sheba had access into his inner working at a level that none of the others did. At least it’s not recorded.
She would ask him all the hard questions. The Bible doesn’t bother listing the questions or his answers, probably because it’s somewhere else in the book. What we need to know is already in there. I would love to have seen those questions. It says that the Queen of Sheba listened to his answers, and when it was all said and done, she said, «I thought it was an exaggeration when they told me about your wisdom, but the half wasn’t told me. Your wisdom is far superior. Your servants around you—I’m putting in my words now—but your servants around you are better off than the kings elsewhere because they get to sit at the feet of this kind of wisdom.»
She was stunned; she was struck. The Bible doesn’t bother listing what it was that he said, but it does give us a list that is very strange. She was moved by the stairs that went from his house to God’s house. She was rocked by the clothing of the servants. She was deeply moved by the place settings. These are all everyday mundane things.
See, great wealth isn’t needed for artistic expression; just intentionality. It’s in us to push beyond what is just acceptable and normal, to push beyond into realms of excellence so we literally go from glory to glory.
I’ve imagined—in fact, I was reading this part of a book. I think it was «The Way of Life,» a book I wrote. I was reading part of a chapter to my wife. I was in the dining room; she was in the kitchen. I just teared up as I read through this because this kind of storyline moves me so deeply.
Just imagine what it would have been like to be the woodworker who built the stairs. You can imagine Solomon talking with his team and saying, «I’ve got an idea for these stairs. I want to build from my house to the house of God.» They’d say, «Well, there’s a guy in town. He’s the best woodworker there is. He knows woods; he knows grains; he knows stains. He knows his stuff; he’s the best.»
Solomon says, «Bring him to me.» So you can imagine they knock on his door. «The king wants to see you!» You’re terrified. You make it into the palace, and Solomon is there. He says, «Come with me.» They walk over, and he says, «Listen, see, I live here, and the house of God’s there, and I want stairs to go from here to there. I was thinking maybe we could take it something like this and incorporate these kinds of colors and these kinds of woods.»
Here’s the craftsman, here’s the artist. He looks and says, «Yeah, what we could do is use the grain of this wood, and it mirrors the grain of this one so beautifully. We could use this stain and this one.» They talk together, and they come up with a design for this stairway that goes from his house to the house of God.
Then sometime later, we don’t know if it’s weeks or months or maybe years later, the artist, the craftsman hears the story that the Queen of Sheba came to town. She saw your stairs, and she said, «There’s a God in Israel.» Why? Because wisdom touched the mundane.
See, anybody can throw a lot of money at something and put gold on the toilet seat and call it excellence; it’s not excellent. But something was done with intentionality. It may be that you walk to your car today and the plastic cap came off the lid of somebody’s water bottle, and they didn’t notice. It’s on your way, and you just pick it up. You don’t take an Instagram photo to let everybody know you picked it up. You just pick it up because it’s what you do.
It’s the fact that there’s intentionality. Every place I go into, I want to leave looking better than when I arrived. I want to make sure that I’ve done what I can to leave a mark of excellence and beauty.
In my personal quest, which continues for wisdom, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are three terms that represent wisdom for me the clearest: creativity, excellence, and integrity. Those three words are woven throughout the book of Proverbs. So here we are, a people that I believe the Lord is trying to awaken the five-year-old in us. The five-year-old that actually knows how to dream without the limitations, without the distractions of adulthood.
Why do you think Jesus said we had to become like children? Is it possible He was looking for that authentic creative expression in the earth? You say, «Well, how is that eternally significant?» It’s significant because when you become who God designed you to be, when I become who God designed me to be, it reveals a perfect Father to an orphaned planet—a planet of orphans. It awakens something in them. How in the world could the release of creativity help to stop this global insanity?
I don’t have a good plan, except this one: «He answered the four horns with four artists.» He answered the four horns of demonic torment and division and depression. His answer was to release the craftsmen—those who could prophetically illustrate He’s a perfect Father. He’s got the perfect design; you can discover who He made you to be, not who somebody else says you are!
I was moved by a story, which I actually borrowed and gave credit to, from Brian Zand’s book «The Beauty That Saved the World.» Listen to this story: A thousand years ago, Prince Vladimir the Great, the pagan monarch of Kiev, was looking for a new religion to unify the Russian people. To this end, Prince Vladimir sent out envoys to investigate the great faiths of the neighboring realms.
When the delegation returned, they gave the prince their report. Some had discovered religions that were dour and austere; others encountered faiths that were abstract and theoretical. But the envoys who had investigated Christianity in the Byzantine capital of Constantinople reported finding a faith characterized by such transcendent beauty that they did not know if they were in heaven or on earth.
This is their report: «Then we went to Constantinople, and they led us to the place where they worshiped their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or earth, for on earth, there is no such vision nor beauty, and we do not know how to describe it. We only know that God dwells among men. We cannot forget that beauty.»
They saw a cathedral! I mean, my goodness! How much was Robert Schuller crucified for building the Crystal Cathedral so many years ago? Nobody bothered to find out that he gave a million dollars a year to missions after that building was built; it was just the extravagance. Because it’s so easy to say, «In a time of war, especially, what we don’t need is art; what we need is to be serious.» Yet, there’s something about the artistic and playful approach to life that disarms the powers of darkness. His strategies are different than ours! Sometimes when we think it’s where we need to be the most serious and the most intense and whatever, sometimes it’s the time we need to go down to the park and take a nap or something. I mean, it’s different than you think; He knows how this thing works.
I’m going to read one more story; I hope you’ll indulge me. There’s this book by Peter Gray called «Free to Learn.» He says that learning, problem-solving, and creativity are worsened by interventions that interfere with playfulness; they are improved by interventions that promote playfulness.
In one experiment, researchers presented real physicians with a case history of a difficult-to-diagnose liver disease. The case included some misleading information, creating a barrier to identify the relevant information and arrive at a correct solution. Mood manipulation was accomplished by giving some of the doctors a little bag of candy (thank you, Jesus!), and before presenting them with the problem. Those who got the bag of candy arrived at the correct diagnosis more quickly than those who didn’t.
They reasoned more flexibly, took into account all the information more readily, and were less likely to get stuck on false leads than were those who had not received the candy. A positive mood improves creative, insightful reasoning. The particular type of positive mood that is most effective is a playful one.
In subsequent experiments conducted in England, they found that young children could solve logic problems in the context of play that they seemed unable to solve in a serious context. Four-year-olds in play easily solved logic problems that they were not supposed to be able to solve until they were ten or eleven years old. In fact, subsequent experiments showed that to a lesser degree, even two-year-olds solved such problems when presented