Bill Johnson - Becoming God's Partner in Prayer
Learn to pray out of abiding. Learn to pray out of the presence. Learn to touch and tap into the heart of God, express that in prayer and decree, and let’s do what we’re supposed to do: make a difference on the earth. It’s from our knees that we have the greatest effect on the world around us. It’s from our knees and from our place of prayer, of intercession, that we become actual partners with God. God’s not looking for people who know how to stay busy; He’s looking for people who know how to represent His heart. I’m not going to represent in action what I’ve not found in prayer. It’s the connection with the heart of God that gives me the authority to represent Him with absolute confidence in action.
Prayer without action is incomplete in the same way that faith without works is dead. We’ve been called to a lifestyle of prayer, and I hope and pray that everyone listening, everybody who is here, can feel that particular stream deepening in your own soul, as I believe the Lord is, to be honest, trying to get us to repent our way back into the place of righteous influence that God has called us to, and that is from the place of prayer. He says, «If my people, the ones I gave my name to, will humble themselves.» Chris, one of the first words we had in the beginning of this unusual season, Chris Broad, made a statement: I think it was something like this: «The way forward is humility. Humility is the way forward.»
Perfect and timely word; humility is the way forward at a time when it’s easy to be hurt, offended, angry, zealous, withdraw, and do all the stupid things that we as humans know how to do. Humility is the way forward. And so the Lord said, «If my people, the ones that I gave my name to,» those have actual responsibility. I think it was John Wesley who said that God does nothing in the affairs of man except in response to prayer. That’s something that I have actually believed and tried to live aware of for the last 40-some years: that God looks for partnership. Without Him, we can’t; without us, He won’t. It’s another statement I’ve heard through the years: without Him, we can’t; without us, He won’t. And so that place of prayer is a place of coming into agreement with the heart and mind of God to exercise His authority on the earth so that His will is done here as it is in heaven.
There is the prayer; there is the contract, the request that is made. I also made a statement a couple of weeks ago that really moved me. I said something like this: «The key to answers to prayer—98% of answers to prayer is from abiding in Christ.» It’s living in the conscious presence of Almighty God that is the strength of the answers to prayer. It’s the two or three gathered in my name—I’m there. So the whole issue of breakthroughs in the earth comes out of living in that awareness, that awareness of the presence of God with me and upon me to make a difference in the world around me. That is the connection for answers to prayer. And so He says, «If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray,» and pray—it’s foolish to be given such a transformational tool as prayer and not use it.
It’s foolish to face an impossible situation. Everybody knows how to lift up a panic prayer. I’m not opposed to that; I’m glad He sometimes answers those. But transformational praying is more like giving birth. Paul actually talked about that; he used the concept of giving birth to illustrate prayer. He was referring to one of his associates, and he said, «He is praying; he is laboring in prayer.» The word labor is physical labor of a woman laboring in prayer until Christ is formed in you, was the phrase he used. It’s a different kind of praying; it’s digging in. I know the heart of God, I know the will of God, and I know there’s opposition. I don’t know necessarily what the problem is; I just know I have nothing better to do with my life than to abide in Him until the presence of God—His own faith—becomes my faith, and I learn in prayer to petition God but also to represent Him as I make decrees to stand against opposition.
Sometimes I think people avoid times of prayer because they think it will take hours. And you know, sometimes I’ve been in moments of prayer where you just lose track of time. Those are glorious moments. But history has been shaped by people who prayed simple prayers but were all in. In the history of our nation, we’re celebrating Independence Weekend; the history of our nation has been shaped by the prayers of a general in an army where it looked like they would certainly lose, and they just took the knee and prayed a simple prayer, and everything changed. Simple prayer: a president, a governor, different ones who just simply take the knee and pray, acknowledging Almighty God.
This is something that we have the privilege of doing throughout the day. It’s not just a two-hour block of time; it’s the five minutes of surrender here, the ten minutes of praise and exalting Him there. It’s that woven throughout my day. I never want to escape the fact I carry His name, and I carry it for a reason. I’m here to make a difference, and in the abiding presence of God, I’ve been finding that the prayer meeting never stops. It never stops. It started while I was sleeping. I found myself praying, «If my people were called by my name.»
I would wake up, bring that prayer, get up in the morning, I would grab my Bible, sit out on my deck. It would continue; it continued throughout the day. It just doesn’t stop because the abiding presence of Almighty God is upon me as a testimony to me that you hear, son, to make a difference. Learn to pray out of abiding, learn to pray out of the presence, learn to touch and tap into the heart of God, express that in prayer and decree, and let’s do what we’re supposed to do: make a difference on the earth. This is what we are assigned to do; this is who we are: people who have been given this name.