Bill Johnson - A New Day of Miracles
Wow, wow, wow, Jeremy! Thank you, thank you, thank you for the years. Oh goodness! A little kid in children’s church didn’t quite get the Lord’s Prayer down correctly: «Our Father who does art in heaven, Harold is His name. Amen!» My wife invited some people to dinner, and at the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, «Would you like to say the blessing?» She responded, «I wouldn’t know what to say.» The mother said, «Just say what you hear Mommy say.» The daughter bowed her head and said, «Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?» Ouch! After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied, «That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys.» The Sunday school teacher asked her children, as they were on the way to church, «Why is it necessary to be quiet in church?» One bright little girl replied, «Because people are sleeping.»
«Don’t you open your Bibles to the book of Malachi, Malachi, the Italian prophet, and go to the fourth chapter?» I just got back last night from actually—I went to Germany, Switzerland, and Portugal, and had such a wonderful time. I had the wonderful privilege of speaking in a church in Switzerland. I forget the name of the city, but anyway, in 1850, there was a very ordinary, simple woman who just believed that Jesus still wanted to heal people. I forgot how to say her last name—forgive me—Dorothy Trudell? Yeah? Is it Trudeau? All right, I’ll stick with that then: Dorothy Trudeau. She, in many ways, is the mother or grandmother of the healing movement that we see today. It actually started then. She created healing rooms—healing homes, excuse me—where people would come who were dying or very sick, and she would spend time with them, ministering to them and praying for them. This was when it was unheard of, and she was the inspiration for John Alexander Dowie, who built his healing homes. I had somebody working for me for a season; I just hired them to do some research for me. She was reading through the records of John Alexander Dowie, who inspired John G. Lake and others. He had healing homes, and I forget the exact number, but I believe it was during a certain period of time—like seven to eight years—he had something like, oh goodness, five thousand or five thousand five hundred people come and stay in the healing rooms who needed a miracle. People who were dying, and I think only six died. They were all dying, and only six died in that period of time.
Truth has greater fruit when it moves from the head to the heart, and you burn with a conviction for something. Faith is the conviction of things hoped for. It’s really easy for all of us to hear truth spoken, even to read truths in scripture, and to say amen to those things, but it’s what you burn for that you’ll produce. In Switzerland, I was able to do a service in the church that was built at the location where Dorothy Trudeau started her ministry. Jean-Luc Traskell, who is a wonderful friend of ours, has been praying for this particular open door for 15 years, and there had been no opening at all for healing being practiced there; it was quite the opposite. So to be there when the doors were opened and to be able to stand in that pulpit and declare that Jesus still heals today, and then to begin ministering to people, was just such a great honor. It was only—it’s hard to describe—to get into a place that has been closed. I don’t know if they’ve had healing meetings there in light forever, and you know, it was 1850 when she was there, and so they’ve been closed to that for quite some time. For Jean-Luc to contend for that open door and to get in there and have that kind of meeting was a real treat, a real blessing, and the Lord is just opening doors where they’ve always been closed.
A few years ago, I was actually in Sweden and got to minister in a church that, as I understand it, had never had a healing meeting for 400 years; this was the first one. That was pretty exciting—to get in there and just to start praying for people and see what happens. It was just a great privilege to be there, and we had to be out by a certain time, so we just took it out onto the streets. There was a city square right around the corner, and we started praying for people out there. One of the guys who was in the meeting inside went out into the courtyard with us, and he had terminal cancer in the neck, the throat area, and he was healed. He was healed in the courtyard. He either contacted us later in the trip—we were in some other city—and he had gone back, and they examined him, and all the cancer was gone.
So these open doors in key places are supposed to signify something. I had a little change in direction tonight during worship, so I’m going to take just a few minutes to talk to you about a new day of miracles—a new day of miracles. I want to—oh, we’re going to read a portion of Scripture out of Malachi chapter 4, and then you might want to put a finger in Psalms 19, because we might do that one too. All right? And then if I’m in a really good mood, we might do Psalms 8. Actually, no, I’m teasing. I was actually going to teach out of Psalms 8 today, but I had a little change of heart. So, all right, you guys ready?
Malachi chapter 4, verse 2. «But to you who fear My name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in His wings. You will go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.» I’m so tempted to make a comment, but I won’t! «And you shall grow fat.» There’s a promise: you shall grow fat like stall-fed calves. «You shall trample the wicked, and there shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,» says the Lord of hosts. Let’s go ahead and read to the end of the chapter: «Remember the law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, for the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.»
I love this kind of chapter! We’re going to get into verse 2 here in a moment, but I love this kind of Scripture that uses all this different imagery of the Lord. He will arise with healing in His wings, calling Him the Son of Righteousness (S-U-N, not S-O-N). The Son of Righteousness rises with healing in His wings. You will go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves, trampling wickedness under your feet. There’s a great picture here of a last day’s promise or a promise to a last-days generation—the Son of Righteousness. I want you to see the connection between the bridegroom coming out of a stall and the Sun rising—righteousness and healing. Healing is connected to the holiness and purity of God. In the measure we value holiness and purity, in that measure we will see continuous displays of healing.
Healing is important to us because, in healing, the name of the Lord is vindicated. It is actually for Him! When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the church before his conversion, Jesus appeared to him and said, «Why are you persecuting Me?» He takes things personally. In Matthew 25, He says, «When you give a cup of cold water to one of these in My name, you’ve done it unto Me.» The servants of the Lord stood before Him on that day and said, «When did we give You water? When did we clothe You? When did we come to visit You?» He said, «When you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it to Me.» This is a very bizarre weaving of the romance of God for people—the demonstration of His purity. The Scripture says it’s in the beauty of holiness. Holiness is the essence of all beauty. All that you love in beauty in its purest form is an expression of the holiness of God.
The holiness of God has things that you do and things that you don’t do, but only to preserve love. God always opposes anything that is contrary to love. He opposes everything that would destroy your place in being loved. Holiness is such a glorious subject from God’s perspective; it’s the essence of His person. To not value holiness is to not value presence because the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. By nature, His very essence is absolute purity—undefiled in every possible way. There’s zero compromise, zero failure, zero deception, and zero anything that would contaminate this perfect expression of God’s heart and His nature towards humanity.
Healing is an expression of His holiness. Sickness is to my body what sin is to my soul. Jesus asked the question when they lowered this man through the roof—his friends lowered him into the room. When He saw their faith, referring to the men that lowered him into the room, He said to the man, «Your sins are forgiven.» It stirred up such controversy in the room because the people were getting accustomed to Him healing people, but this whole issue of Him forgiving sin crossed the line for many of them. So Jesus asked the question, «Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven, ' or 'Rise up, pick up your bed, and walk? '» Once again, He put these two subjects—like two sides of the same coin: the forgiveness of sin and the healing of disease. They are two different parts of the expression of God’s redemptive work.
The concept of salvation was brought from the back burner to the front burner in the Reformation. I don’t want to see it disappear through the church age, but it had been kind of swept to the back. When it was brought to the front burner again, for some reason, they didn’t include healing in salvation. It was viewed as something that God could do if He wanted to, but it wasn’t considered a part of the package. Yet the word salvation actually means deliverance, healing, and forgiveness. It actually refers to those three realms; these are three realms of the kingdom: forgiveness, deliverance, and healing. For that reason, the Apostle Paul said, «The kingdom of God is not meat or drink, but it’s righteousness» (because that deals with the sin issue), «peace» (because that deals with the torment issue), and «joy» (because that is the expression of healing). That’s why laughter is good medicine!
So healing is an expression of the righteousness of God. Here we have the kingdom of God—it’s not meat or drink, but it’s righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. When someone is healed… let me rephrase it: something that I’ve declared a number of times here through the years is that we pray for the sick because we want Jesus to get what He paid for. If I bought you a car—let’s have Bill Gates buying it, because then it would be a nicer car—so let’s say somebody buys you a car, and they go down to the dealership down here, and they buy the car of your dreams. Maybe there’s not a dealership nearby with the car of your dreams, so let’s get you down to the Bay Area. They go in there, write up the contract, and write a check for the entire amount of this very fine car that you want. They pay for the first… your income tax, because you’ve received such a large gift. The person pays for your insurance for the first five years. Everything’s covered; everything’s yours, but it’s at the dealership.
It would be kind of dumb to go down there and to pay for a car that’s already paid for, and yet a lot of people are trying to pay for what Jesus has already paid for. Here’s an illustration that I’ve given a number of times that is fun for me because it illustrates this thing so beautifully. When Chris and Kathy moved down here to be a part of the team, he owned a number of businesses and closed them down, moved here to help us, and he still had some debt because of closing these businesses down, but he didn’t announce it. He didn’t tell anyone, but we’re close friends, so I knew what he brought with him.
I remember standing back there just greeting people or saying goodbye to folks after they left a Sunday morning service. A lady came up to me and said, «Is Chris here?» She had a check folded in half, and she said, «Is Chris here?» I said, «No, he’s preaching; he was preaching somewhere else that morning, but he’ll be here tonight.» She said, «Would you give this to him?» I said, «Sure.» So I took it and waited until she walked around the corner. It wasn’t in a sealed envelope; it was like she wanted me to see it—that’s just the way I felt. She wanted me to see it, so after she walked around the corner, I flipped it open, and it said thirty thousand dollars. Then I looked to make sure it was his name, and it was. So I thought, «Well, that’s cool!» I put it in my Bible, knowing I’d see him in our pre-service prayer meeting.
I was in there praying when Chris walked in. I walked over to him and said, «Hey Chris, someone gave this to me this morning for you.» He looked at it and said, «Does that say three thousand?» I replied, «No, it’s thirty thousand dollars. It’s for you.» He completely disrupted the entire prayer meeting. While people were praying, he was showing everyone the thirty-thousand-dollar check, which was a great answer to prayer for them. The crazy thing is, he never thanked me for all that money—not a single word of thanks—because I didn’t write the check; I just delivered it. When you pray for the sick, you’re just delivering a check that someone else wrote. It’s already bought and paid for.
It says the Son of Righteousness will rise. What I want you to see is Jesus becoming more manifest among his people like a sunrise, and there’s healing in his wings. The word «wings» can be translated as the edge of a garment. Habakkuk talks about the healing rays that come out of His hands. I’m not trying to make it spooky; I’m just saying that when He shows up, you have to expect things to happen.
The sunrise is the beginning of a new day. We are about to see power, not for entertainment’s sake, but power that illustrates and manifests the holiness of God against everything that contaminates His people. But that’s not the end of the story; it’s the beginning. The beginning is for the people of God to taste what He bought for us, so that we can take it to those who need it—those outside the church.
Last week in Portugal, I had such a wonderful time. After a meeting, Ben Fitzgerald and Jean-Luc found a man walking through the back of a restaurant area. They started a conversation with him, and moments later, I saw them kneeling around him, grabbing his knee and praying for him. They had some word of knowledge or something for him. He just seemed like an innocent guy walking through. They kneeled down, and I sat there watching them. They laid hands on him; they held his knee. Ben asked, «Man, did you feel that?» The guy said, «Yes, I did!» His knee was cracking and popping, and the Lord completely healed him. It was fun to watch!
Divine health is your inheritance. We don’t know a lot about it yet, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. You’ve got to ask questions and look in the book; there are insights that will unfold to us in the years to come. Don’t deny it just because you don’t understand it. The children of Israel had divine health in the wilderness. They weren’t born again; they were in rebellion against God and still experienced divine help. It would be tragic for the only generation to experience divine health to be a people who were not born again and were in rebellion against God.
In these matters, we need a burning conviction to contend for the purity, holiness, and righteousness of God to be displayed in every part of our lives. They shook hands with this gentleman, shared the Lord with him, and the guy said, «Hi, my name’s Bob.» They said, «It’s so good to meet you.» He replied, «It’s interesting because I have a friend in the United States named Bob Harrison.» He looked at me and said, «I didn’t tell you my last name. How did you know my last name?» That was fun to witness because Jean-Luc heard «Bob» and thought of Bob Harrison; it wasn’t until afterward that he found out Bob hadn’t shared his last name!
Needless to say, that got his attention. He got healed; the word of knowledge operated; God knows him and identified him. These are the normal expressions of the gospel. As long as we have hang-ups about experiencing what already belongs to us, it will be magnified as we try to take it out of the house to the people whose hearts could be won with a simple word, a simple gift, or a simple prayer.
The Son of Righteousness will arise with healing in his wings. There’s a result: you will go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. That might be an offensive picture to you, but there’s youth involved; fat means health—well-fed. Then you will trample the powers of darkness; you need a certain weight to trample. The Son of Righteousness arising, announcing a new day, holiness, purity, and power working in tandem will cause the people of God to rise up with a level of personal health and authority. Let me describe «fatness» as an expression of the anointing and authority that enables us to crush and destroy the powers of darkness that have afflicted and tormented people. You will see, in your own life, the opportunity to bring deliverance to people. It’s not just healing—people need to be set free from demons that have tormented them.
This hasn’t been popular in the American church, but they are real. Seeing people free is such a privilege for us. Recently, my former secretary Judy Franklin, how many of you remember her? Such a sweet woman, she was such a great help to me. She still works for me in the ministry, helping me out. Shortly after she started working for me, her husband came up to me and said, «Would you pray for Judy?» I said, «Yeah, what’s up?» She had a kidney infection and had to come in the back. He went back to get her and when she came out, I prayed for her. I asked, «How are you doing?» She said, «You want to know the truth?» I replied, «Yes, of course!» She said, «It’s worse.» I said, «That’s good, Amen, that’s awesome!» Because now we know what it is.
Anytime an affliction gets more painful under prayer, it’s because the anointing is tormenting a demon. The reason the pain may increase is to try to instill fear in the person who is sick and the person who is praying. Remember when the disciples tried to cast demons out of a child? The father in Mark 9 brought his child to the disciples to be healed and delivered. The demon threw him into the fire and into the water, trying to kill him while he was foaming at the mouth on the ground. Why did he create such a scene? To instill fear in those doing the ministry.
The devil’s last effort is to instigate fear in people, and extreme manifestations may arise when he is out in the open. The disciples couldn’t deliver the child, and they were experienced in deliverance. The father saw Jesus, brought the child to Him, and as soon as He delivered him, the disciples took Jesus aside and asked, «How come we couldn’t do it?» It was a legitimate question; they had a history of success. Jesus said, «This kind only comes out with prayer and fasting.»
It’s a profound lesson that some obstacles are only removed with prayer and fasting. For me, the bigger lesson is that when the disciples didn’t get an answer, they took Jesus aside. They were not willing to live with unanswered prayer. The lack of conviction and the lack of a burning heart enables us to coexist with unanswered prayers without caring. The Lord is stirring up a zeal based on the righteousness and purity of God—a zeal to usher in a new day, a new day of miracles and the demonstration of God for the people. Delivery will become much more pronounced, so get ready!
My prayer is that the Lord helps us see the beauty of His holiness. Anytime you think of holiness, remember He has made us holy; think of the beauty of God. Everything in creation that is beautiful, that is not perverted and distorted, is based on the beauty of God Himself.
Tonight, we’re going to pray for people. Yes, we are again, but we’re going to do it now. Over the years, we’ve seen quite a few miracles. I was walking through the sanctuary early this morning, praying for the release of what we’ve witnessed God do here. I remember a gentleman visiting who had such severe dyslexia that he almost didn’t become a pastor because he couldn’t read. He had to study by listening to the Bible being read. He came to our church from a place that has a good history of miracles but hadn’t seen any for quite some time. People encouraged him to visit us, and he said he came just to get it off his list to stop people from asking him about it.
On that Sunday morning, he sat right over there. I mentioned God healing head trauma and learning disorders. I said there’s someone here whose thinking is cloudy due to an injury or some disease. I believe the Lord’s going to lift that. As I mentioned this, he almost found himself mocking what was happening in the meeting, but then I mentioned his condition. He thought, «Oh God, don’t let my hardness of heart ruin this chance for my miracle!» He felt the presence and power of God come upon his head and realized his heart condition was inconsistent with what God was doing. It wasn’t his faith but the sovereign touch of God. The Lord completely healed him; he went from not being able to read to reading six to eight hours a day!
I feel like the Lord is healing cloudiness in the brain. Is that you? If so, raise your hand. Are there others? Let me ask just for my curiosity, how many of you that raised your hand have it due to an injury or an accident? Raise your hand. And how many of you is it due to some sort of disease, a chemical imbalance, or something like that? Quite a few—this will be good because the Lord is going to heal the brain!
I was in Dallas and was on stage during a gathering. They brought a guy to me who had eaten some bad meat that had worms in it. The worms had made their way to his brain and created nests around it. He was so heavily medicated that they had to walk him around like a zombie because he was in such bad shape. They were able to kill the worms but couldn’t get rid of the nesting that had crystallized in his brain, and he was dying. When I prayed for him, I felt something lift off him. He was still heavily medicated, but I was able to communicate with him and I asked, «Did you feel that leave?» He slowly nodded yes.
Three days later, we heard he was completely in his right mind and everything was gone. I believe Jesus is healing the brain. If you have a learning disorder, anything—bipolar, you might as well get in on it! There’s someone who has an injury—a tendon in the right leg. Is that you? There’s still lingering effects from that.
Someone has an issue with their eye—maybe a detached retina or something damaging your eyesight? Is that here? There’s someone with a torn right shoulder—torn muscle or cartilage. Anyone? A lot of hands over there. And someone has back issues, seizing muscles, making it tight. Does that make sense? I see people pointing right here. Excellent.
There are several here. We have quite a few standing now. Anyone with cancer or a terminal disease—please stand as well. I just heard the word «palate.» Is there anyone with an issue with that? Deviated septum, blockage in a nostril, who has that?
We’ve got a lot of people standing asking for an overhaul tonight. If you aren’t standing, get in on this one; we’re going to have Jesus remove whatever’s blocking your hearing. People are standing, and they’re standing for healing, not just prayer. Those of you who are sitting, I want you to pay attention to the Holy Spirit as you minister to them. Speak with authority, and when you pray, speak directly to the condition.
I’m asking an unusual favor; I don’t want you to pray with your spouse. You’ve already been doing that. I want fresh targets. Everyone who’s standing, put a hand up. Those of you who are sitting, go to someone with their hand up, but listen to me—don’t start talking or praying yet. Just go to them and put their hand down, because I’ve got further instructions.
Now that it’s quiet, have them put their hands down when you get to them. We still have folks in the middle and in the back; if you’re about to pray for someone and they still have their hand up, please pull it down for them since they forgot!
You need to find out what the problem is, but those of you wanting prayer, keep it brief. They don’t need to know every detail. Just give a quick overview—an accident, a blow to the head resulting in confusion. That’s all that’s needed. Lay a hand on them and begin to pray.
As soon as you feel that confidence, that faith rise in your heart, address the situation. Speak to it. Jesus never asked the Father to heal anyone; He always spoke to the problem. So, Holy Spirit, we invite you to come now with great power and glorify the name of Jesus through miracles, signs, and wonders. Let the righteousness of God be seen in this room!
Now, go ahead and pray for them the best you know how. You should be praying by now! You have about thirty seconds left to pray.
Please end your prayers, but stay with the person—don’t leave them. Now, I want everyone to do something. You need to put faith into action by doing something you couldn’t do, or examine yourself. I consider this next moment as crucial as the prayer itself. I’ve seen miracles happen when individuals took action, while others did not experience recovery at all.
So, I encourage you, without pretending or creating hype, check to see what Jesus has done for you. If you’re at least 80% better in any condition, wave both your hands over your head! Let’s see your hand. Yes, there you go! Wonderful, beautiful!
If you were healed, wave your hand high! Thank you, Lord! We celebrate with you! Beautiful! Alright, Jesus ministered to a blind man twice before he could see perfectly, so we owe it to each other to be ready to minister to one another multiple times if necessary.
Turn and pray again if needed! If they are fully healed, you might leave them be; don’t mess them up. Others are being healed online too.
Take another minute to pray for them; if you’re praying for someone with plugged ears, just pull the plug—seriously!
You have about thirty seconds left. Thank you, Lord! As we wrap this up, examine yourself again and wave your hands over your head if you’re at least 80% better. Yes, there we go! Celebrating!
Let’s get seated if you were healed. Thank you for running around to pray for others! I appreciate it so much!
Now, I want to take this time for about three quick testimonies of what just happened. If you have a testimony, come on up. Yes, come on up!
Chris, would you assist me? Yes, come up here! This time, let me hand this to you. Alright, who will be the first?
The last meeting I was in had all men testifying, now it’s all women. Were any men healed tonight?
Alright! What did Jesus do for you?
Bill called out about being deaf. I had been deaf since I was a kid for a long time. When they prayed for me, I felt the pressure and then my ear popped! I could hear!
Yes, come on!
I had a severe knee injury, and I couldn’t do things I used to do because of it. I raised my hand during prayer, and when they laid hands on me, I felt warmth flow through my knee, totally healed!
That’s fantastic! What else did Jesus do?
I was petrified of public speaking, and during worship, I felt the Lord pressing me to speak out. I did, and He healed my heart. I have full confidence now.
Amazing! Another great testimony!
This is all part of the story—through the years, people would come here to us even during the week. For instance, one secretary was praying for deliverance for someone who was very tormented. As she left to answer the ringing phone, she unintentionally said, «I plead the blood of Jesus,» and the power of God hit the person on the phone, leaving them laid out!
In our office, you could see bodies all over the floor, completely hammered by God. One church member spotted the bodies, realized she had to return to work, and didn’t want to join in.
Over the years, people have been healed while waiting in line for meetings.
I want to announce that the Lord is releasing a corporate anointing over us—not just an individual one, but a collective one. I don’t know when yet, but I’ve been hoping to take some time for a series on healing on successive Sundays, believing the Lord is preparing us to witness more of this as a church family.
Soon we will have a fire tunnel, but before that, let’s pray for each other. We want to ask for the healing anointing to minister to people and for it to increase. I want an upgrade!
We have seen far more than we ever thought possible. However, my dreams indicate we need to see more! Tonight, let’s pray for a corporate mantle and an increase for those we’re praying with.
Grab a hand together, and let’s pray. Ask the Lord to increase the anointing upon each of us and the entire house. Let everyone who enters be blessed with healing and deliverance.
Increase this, Lord—an anointing for healing.
Pray for the person on your right and left, asking God for a profound affection for His holiness and beauty. Pray that they receive the wisdom and grace to enter into divine health!
Let’s stir up that hunger together! Amen!