Bill Johnson - Birthing Prayer
Go ahead and sit down. Thanks, thanks so much. Um, well, I love you too. Thank you. I just feel so much love in the room here. There we go. It’s too high; I can’t see you well on the floor. It was months ago we weren’t able to meet in here, so we met out in a tent, and these guys pitched a couple of huge tents out there. We were there in horrible weather. I remember seeing some of our team kneeling, and the rain was pouring right where they were kneeling. I thought, «That’s good,» and the kids were there, all bundled up on blankets, playing with their toys, making a difference in Jesus' name—anointed toys. Since then, we have been able to meet. We’ve kept this going, but we have wanted to maintain some of what the Lord really—I don’t want to say birthed, because it’s been around for a long time—but really began to develop in us, and that is a real mission of prayer.
The whole concept Mike Bickle and iHope has capitalized on it well, taught it well, and modeled it well. It’s out of Revelation—excuse me, Revelation chapter five. I was looking at it just a moment ago; in fact, I was reading Revelation right now, and there’s this verse in chapter five where it says, «The 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.» A bowl of incense—you heard it talked about just a moment ago as being the prayers of the saints. I was thinking earlier today, in anticipation of being able to be with you tonight, about one of my favorite stories. It’s in the book of Numbers. If you want to turn there, I’m not going to talk long, which is a miracle, but I do believe in miracles. I want you to turn, if you would, to Numbers chapter 16. I’ve got several verses; we’ll just see what we have time for because I’m not going to do a full teaching since He wants to get back into worship and prayer.
There’s this situation in Numbers 16. I love reading Numbers and all these bizarre stories, and here’s this plague that is just killing—I don’t remember how many now, thousands of people, if I recall correctly. It says in verse 46, Moses said to Aaron, «Take a censer; put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, take it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.» Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, ran into the midst of the assembly, and already the plague had begun among the people. So he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. Here’s a phrase: he stood between the dead and the living, so the plague was stopped. What does the incense represent biblically? Prayer. He stood between the living and the dying and the dead. If there was ever a time when we needed the people of God to rise to our potential, to our call, to our place in prayer, it’s right now—to stand between the living and the dead.
There are times when the measure of sin, etc., that exists in a given situation requires judgment, but the Lord looks for mercy, and He looks for those who will intercede and pray, and that’s really our role. So many would look at this and say, «Well, God sent the plague; just let it go. It’s supposed to discipline everybody and put them in their place,» and that’s not the heart of the Lord. The heart of the Lord is that there are times or circumstances that demand a response, but He’s looking for someone who will simply pray. This harpooning bowl concept, once again, that iHope does so well, is a mixture of intercession and worship. It’s what has been going on here for months now. I’m very, very grateful and thankful. I haven’t been a part of it recently due to my need to take care of my wife, but I love the picture here of taking incense—or let’s just put it this way—the cry of your heart and running into the middle of a battle.
Prayers of convenience get answers of convenience; token prayers get token answers, and prayers that are costly—prayers that are literally put on the line—are the ones that shape the course of history. With Hannah, we see that when she was wanting a son and had prayed and prayed and prayed, nothing had happened. She finally comes before the Lord, and she is beside herself in the way she is praying. In fact, Eli, the priest, comes to her and says, «You shouldn’t come to the temple drunk.» She said, «I’m not drunk; I’m just grieved in heart.» She is praying outside of her norm. Sometimes it takes prayers outside of our norm. Sometimes we get a religious muscle developed where we have a norm, and then there’s outside of the norm. You just make lights go on and off; it’s amazing.
Praying outside of yourself puts your reputation, your thoughts, your self-esteem—all of who you are—on the line, and there is a summons before the Lord to see something changed. It’s not an everyday prayer, to be honest; it’s too exhausting. Jesus talked about those of you who, when you fast, put oil on your face and do all this to ensure that your countenance doesn’t carry the heaviness of battle in the prayer time. Ensure that when you get in public you’re not that person. Many of us were turned off at an early age to intercession because everyone we knew who was an intercessor was depressed; they were the sourest-looking people on the planet. Why? We didn’t want to be like them. But the Lord is really calling us into a place of intense prayer. Fasting is not an act that we do to get brownie points; it doesn’t increase our favor. Fasting is because we’re hungrier for something that we can’t see than for what we can see. Fasting is simply one of the ways you refine focus, and refined focus is where there’s the greatest display of God’s given authority. Refined focus is that laser beam of effective service in prayer.
What happens in prayer so often is prayers of convenience. I’ve got to be careful here because some of those powerful prayers in the Bible were one-sentence prayers. If you read the book of Nehemiah, you’ll see them. But they weren’t prayers of convenience; they cost him. They followed pretty radical obedience and pursuit of the will of God. Yet he prayed these one-sentence prayers. We sometimes think in terms of long hours of religious activity and prayers, which have their place, but there are times when we pray, pray, pray, and then we pray again, and something happens. There are times when we keep ourselves busy in the activity of prayer, and then there’s an insight, then there’s a word that comes to mind, and then someone walks over to you, and there’s a partnership—the agreement in prayer. Sometimes the breakthrough is waiting for a moment, and we position ourselves to embrace our assignment to pray until we see a breakthrough. There’s a kind of moment that comes upon the people of God where we pray, but we continuously position ourselves to ask God what else needs to be done because sometimes the breakthrough comes at the end of a simple decree. Sometimes it’s an act of obedience. Sometimes, quite honestly, I’ve seen situations where we pray and pray, and finally we just leave it and say it’s done; we just walk away. I refuse to wrestle in this one anymore; it’s because there’s a sense of confidence from the presence of God that it’s a done deal.
Sometimes inactivity is your greatest activity; sometimes, the position of rest is your strongest position. Sometimes it’s violence—violence in a Christian sense. Let me redefine that because this will be reposted, I’m sure, but not my explanation—just the violence part. Violence in the kingdom is faith, and it’s faith that’s followed by activity. Faith is violent because it requires action, and you can’t take biblical action and have nothing happen. You can be busy and have nothing happen; you can be busy with Christian activities and have nothing happen. But this response to the Spirit of God, where we make that decree and give that gift, or march from the building—goodness, I remember so many interesting stories in my own history of learning this, and I’m still learning this, by the way.
I remember what would be called our level of maturity. Going back 40 some years ago, our level of maturity was quite small, but our prayers were very sincere, and they were prayers of a spiritual child, and they moved heaven. I mean, I could take you to a location here in town where drugs were pretty much dealt in the open, and there would just be a line of people there. You could get anything. One Friday night, about 25 of us went down there, and we just cried out to God. We formed a big circle, and the guy at that location came out and mocked us and called the police. The police came and said, «What are you doing?» Our leader said, «We’re praying for you.» He said, «Keep it up,» and left. But that place, which had been a center of drug dealing in the area, never was again. It actually ended that night. I don’t know what happened, but I was able to compare notes with a friend of mine who was a heavy drug user during that time; he later got saved. We were talking about this particular location, and he said, «Yeah, the strangest thing happened. I went there one Saturday night, and now we had prayed there Friday night.» He said, «I went there one Saturday night to buy what I normally buy, and I couldn’t find anybody there.» I said, «Yeah, we were there Friday night; that’s why. We were there, friend,» and something happened. The Lord just took the simple prayers of about 25 of us who cried out to God, «God, do something different here.»
Sometimes, you just have to step outside of convenience. Sometimes you have to go somewhere; sometimes you have to walk on that property. Sometimes you have to find the verse that God is breathing on, and you camp there and make the decree of that particular passage. You pray that verse, and you just have to be unwilling to back off from that assignment because heaven has not yet invaded earth in that particular location. There’s an aspect of prayer that is the easiest aspect in the world to avoid. In fact, why don’t you do this: go to Galatians 4 and Colossians 4. Galatians 4 is what we’ll read first. Verse 18: «It is good to be zealous in good things always and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.» There’s the phrase: «I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.» That’s a very strange statement for a man to say, «I’m in labor pains, I’m having labor pains until Christ is formed in you.» That’s what leaders do. See, the weightier responsibility, the weight of your prayers, they’re not easy prayers; they’re not prayers of convenience. But you have to remember, when you get into prayer, to put the oil on your face, so to speak. Walk out to be with people, and don’t carry that heaviness with you as you love and care for them. That’s the big deal; it’s not very complicated, but it is challenging.
It’s very simple, but it’s challenging to carry out where you get alone with the Lord, and you do business with God. I don’t know how else to say it. Nobody feels like they know what they’re doing. Nobody gets before the Lord and says, «Well, I know what to do; I’ll do steps one, two, and three, and then I’ll get the breakthrough.» No, it’s a relational journey, and you don’t know what you’re doing. So you get before your Father, you bring along His word, and somehow you make it work until there’s a breakthrough. You read to get insight; you cry out to God to make your heart known, and in that place of vulnerability, He’s able to adjust your heart when it needs to be adjusted. Sometimes He’ll refine the focus; sometimes He’ll intensify it. But it’s the prayer that says, «I am unwilling to be satisfied with the discipline of prayer; I must be satisfied with the breakthroughs of prayer.» See, many people have faith in prayer; it’s kind of weird; it’s faith in God.
Look at Colossians 4, and this is the one that illustrates it best, however you say his name; I never get it right—Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Do you see that? Always laboring fervently, and the word here is labor as in giving birth in case you were thinking it was just diligence. Laboring—I was with my wife when she had all three of my kids. If I weren’t born again, I would probably worship her, I mean, look at what she went through. My goodness gracious! Honestly, that’s a joke, but you get the point—it’s stunning what they go through. I remember when she was giving birth to our last child, Leah; there were others in the room, and I turned to have a conversation, and I felt this grip on my arm that caused me to repent. I did not know we were in a moment and that she needed my complete undivided attention in that moment. That’s what laboring prayers do; they are always unto something. Laboring prayers are not glamorous; they are not anything you want to talk about afterward, but you are certainly ready and willing to celebrate the breakthrough.
I remember when we first got married; Benny wanted seven children, and right after Eric was born, she wanted one. It completely rearranged her perspective, but it took a little while, and then she was ready to go again. Here’s this interesting statement: it says, «Always laboring fervently for you in prayers so that labor of Galatians could easily be described as efforts in prayer that you may stand perfect and complete.»
I want to read one more verse; it’s going to seem somewhat out of place, but I want to tie this up because I’d rather get us back to worship and prayer. Look with me, if you would, to 1 Peter chapter 4. I actually had about six or seven passages that I wanted us to study tonight, but I just don’t want to now. I don’t want to now, but I do want to end with this passage that is very unusual. How many of you remember the verse in Colossians—I think it’s chapter one—where Paul’s writing to the church at Colossae, and he says, «I’m suffering to make up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ»? That verse has bothered me forever. Paul says he’s going to suffer because he’s going to make up for what was lacking.
Let’s make something clear: the redemptive suffering of Jesus—there was nothing lacking. The only thing lacking in the sufferings of Christ is the sufferings that only you and I can carry. It’s not that His was deficient; it’s that our «yes» requires—excuse me, our «yes» subjects us to difficulty. All right, I can tell some of you haven’t read 1 Peter in a while. 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 1: «Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.» Pretty cool outcome: he has suffered in the flesh; she ceases a lifestyle of sin. Many people still struggle with certain sin parts of their life because they’ve never said a bold enough «yes» to God that would attract conflict and difficulty.
It’s the conflict and difficulty that refines the focus where sin becomes unappealing—a bold «yes» that attracts opposition. It’s not the attempt to attract opposition; it’s not being obnoxious. It’s just being bold enough in your «yes» to follow Jesus that people pick it up and oppose you, and that journey is part of what helps us if we can say with Paul makes up for what is lacking. The part that was lacking was Jesus couldn’t do what I needed to do, and suddenly it refines focus to where things that were once appealing no longer have appeal. Why? Because I’ve walked through fire. I’ve walked through the water; I’ve walked through the war; I’ve walked through the battle, and the things that may have been mildly attractive a year ago are no longer attractive at all. Why? Because there’s been a fire, and it’s nothing to glorify; it’s just a fact of life. Arm yourself with this mentality that says, «My yes will bring opposition, and I’m okay.»
I’ve told you many, many times over the years, if I don’t live by the praises of men, I won’t die by their criticisms. Arm yourself with the realization that an absolute «yes» to Jesus brings breakthrough, creates eternal friendships, partnerships, and occasions for opposition. You don’t get to pick and choose; they all come in one glorious package. That was pretty cool, huh? Why don’t you stand? Let’s get our team back up here, and I don’t know if there’s something you want to do. I’m going to lead you in prayer, and then I’m going to turn it over to these people because they’re smart; they’re in charge.
Jesus said in John 16, which is a portion of scripture that has stood out to me for quite a few years, and I’ve actually taught on it several times too, so this will be perhaps a reminder for many of you. Jesus said, «Whatever you ask for in John 16 will be given to you that your joy may be full.» I know this sounds strange, but in some ways, we have to take responsibility to get answered prayers. Oftentimes, we pray carelessly and blame the lack of breakthrough on Him, saying it just wasn’t His will, when in fact, He was inviting us into a place with refined focus where we’re unwilling to settle for anything but the will of God. Strangely, He describes this as one of several times in scripture where He says, «This is your access point to fullness of joy.» See, I’m either going to have joy from the discipline of prayer or the breakthroughs that prayer brings, and the fullness of joy only comes from breakthrough. In other words, you were born to get answers; you were designed—we were designed to see things happen, to have the ache of God work in us where we relentlessly pray and lift our voices to see things happen.
I want you to take a moment just to put a hand on someone next to you. Grab their hand, do something, and I want you just to ask the Lord to release over them a real spirit of prayer, a real anointing for prayer, that John 16 would be fulfilled in them. Lord, keep us from just the tokenism that often happens in prayer, but move us into the kind of prayers that Aaron did with that incense where he stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. God, we want the plague to stop because we stand between the living and the dead. We stand in that place. Pray for that mantle of prayer to come upon those around you. I want to hear you pray; I want to hear you pray out loud. Breakthroughs, Lord God, breakthroughs.