Bill Johnson - Proving the Will of God
But the word here to prove is a very interesting word; it actually is a word some of your translations have. It means to approve the will of God. It doesn’t mean that somehow you and I are the ones who give approval for what God is doing on the earth; it doesn’t mean that at all. But let me illustrate it this way: do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. When there’s a verse like this that is so familiar, the temptation for me, if I’m sitting where you are, is I know it by heart, so I don’t need to look at it. But I will often go the extra mile because I want to be re-exposed to what I might be overly familiar with, sometimes intentionally looking it up in a different translation. I want it to rattle my thinking so I don’t get stuck in my mindset.
So he says, «Don’t be conformed to this world; be transformed.» I think maybe my favorite illustration of this word transformed is found in Luke chapter 9, where Jesus takes a few of the guys and they go up on a mountain. The Bible says he is transfigured before them. Imagine going to a prayer meeting and you’re dozing off—it’s a long prayer meeting; it’s one of those all-nighters Jesus loves. And all of a sudden, Jesus turns into this transformed person. It says that he looks different; not only that, it says his clothing is like lightning. So you’re sitting here dozing off, and all of a sudden, Jesus is dressed in lightning. How many think that might wake you up from a boring prayer meeting? That’s what happened to the guys. They are in this moment where suddenly they see, and that’s why they’re so inspired to build tabernacles for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. It’s this moment where they are electrified literally by what they are seeing—Jesus clothed in lightning.
That word «transfigured,» where Jesus is transfigured, is this word here transformed. It’s just an idea, but it’s my personal conviction; the renewed mind looks like Jesus dressed in lightning. In the spirit world and the unseen world, the renewed mind is so unique and so distinct. It’s not passive; it’s not subtle. It is brilliant as it illustrates the heart and the mind of God for planet Earth. He still has a plan for this planet, and you’re a part of it. So here it is: don’t be conformed to this world; be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove the will of God, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. What is the will of God? Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Say it with me: your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Say it again: your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
What does the renewed mind do? It proves the will of God—heaven on earth. That’s amazing! The renewed mind sees some of what we think is going to come at the return of Christ; it’s supposed to come in the renewed mind of Christ. The transformation of a person’s life is no greater than the transformation of their mind. It’s the reason the word «repent» means to change the way you think. He’s targeting not just merely the discipline of right thoughts, which has value; he’s talking about living from the perception of reality that is greater than everything you can see, which is inferior. This world, Paul teaches in Romans, is temporal; what you can’t see is eternal. Faith functions out of the eternal towards the temporal, towards that which is the greater reality, towards the inferior reality. The renewed mind lives conscious of that.
Now this word here says that you may prove the will of God, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. I remember growing up; I would hear people teach on the good, acceptable, perfect will of God. There was a perfect, there was a good, and there was an acceptable will. No, no, those are three terms for the same thing. Don’t try to skim by; I’m going to do the acceptable will of God. It’s just permissible—now slap yourself—that’s stupid. But the word here, to prove, is a very interesting word; it actually is a word some of your translations have. It means to approve the will of God.
It doesn’t mean that somehow you and I are the ones who give approval for what God is doing on the earth; it doesn’t mean that at all. But let me illustrate it this way: let’s say that you just received an inheritance of a great estate in Europe somewhere. This should make you happy—start fantasizing with me here—you just received notice that you’ve inherited this vast estate, a big castle, lots of acreage, lots of animals for hunting. You hear the news and you arrange to fly back, and we come to the estate. The people in charge take us and show us what belongs to us. We stayed there for several weeks, just kind of processing what’s ours, scouring over the grounds, and what’s in the castle. You go up into this attic area, and you see that there’s a lot of stuff there that’s been stored.
You look over in the corner and see about six to eight different pieces of art—paintings. You start peeling through them, and one stands out to you so noticeably. You look down in the corner, and there’s a signature that says «Van Gogh.» You don’t know if this is a copy, a counterfeit; you don’t know if it’s real. You look at this or pull it out and think, «Man, I need to find out if this is the real deal.» So you call me because in this story, I’m the Van Gogh expert. When you tell the story, you can be whoever you want, but I am the Van Gogh expert. So you call me and say, «I’ve just inherited this estate and found a bunch of paintings; some may have value, I’m not sure, but there’s one that has the signature 'Van Gogh' on the lower right-hand corner of that painting.»
And I say, «Well, what does it look like?» So you describe the painting, and you know there’s no record of a Van Gogh painting with that subject in it and so tell me more. Finally, we arrange to have a meeting, and you bring it to my studio, where there’s great safety and protection for all the art that’s there. I take four weeks and study every brushstroke of Van Gogh, every known painting. I study the medium; I study the oils that he used, the colors he would use, and the subject matter. I know his life backward and forward. I truly fluff myself up in this one—I know I’m feeling so good about myself in this moment—and I’m going to go buy an art book when we’re done.
I’ve studied literally every brush stroke, every bit of his personality displayed in every one of his paintings. I do the carbon tests on the canvas, on the paint, everything. I call you to my studio and say, «This is what I’ve done for the last four weeks, and I am 100% certain this is an authentic Van Gogh painting, one that nobody knew existed.» Suddenly, the piece of art that might be worth a hundred dollars is now worth in excess of 100 million dollars. What happened? After thorough examination, I approved.
Let’s say you get a report from the doctor, and you’ve got something going on that’s just not good—not good news, not a good report. A really good friend of yours, a strong, pure, living, passionate lover of Jesus, calls you one day and says, «Hey, I had a dream last night. Jesus came to me in the dream and told me to tell you he’s given you this affliction for a brief season; he will then heal you, and it will be glorious.» Two weeks later, you get another dream from a friend who calls you and says, «I had a dream last night. Jesus came to me and told me to tell you this disease is not from him, and he will set you free.»
What just happened? You were given two pieces of art, both with Van Gogh written on the bottom, but they’re not both authentic paintings. So what you do is you go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you examine every brushstroke. Without rejecting the individual that had the contrary dream, without shaming or spitefully speaking to them, we embrace one and we put down the other. We say, «After thorough examination by the word of God and the spirit of God who lives in me, I would like to declare I approve; this is the will of God; this is the authentic painting.» That’s what it means. You and I have the opportunity and responsibility to illustrate the heart and mind of God.
I have pastors come to me fairly often, and they’ll ask me a question or they’ll write to me, call me, or whatever. They’ll say, «Bill, I want to increase the miracle level in my own life. I want to increase the level of miracles in our church. What do I do?» There are several things that I’ve practiced and still practice to see greater and greater breakthrough. I’ll tell them just about my own journey. I’ll talk to them oftentimes about just being in the environment of the Anaheim Vineyard in 1987, and how I came home with something I didn’t go with. I came home with an anointing that began to display itself that next week, and I had never seen it before in my life.
It wasn’t through laying on hands, but being in the atmosphere. I’ll tell them my story, but then I’ll say at the end, «If you want the shortcut,» and who doesn’t like shortcuts, «if you want the shortcut, just go with Randy Clark to Brazil. Just go with Randy Clark to Brazil; you will see in a week more miracles than Holy Ghost-filled, faith-filled, believing believers see sometimes in a lifetime. You’ll see it in a week.» I remember one time I got there like two days after this thing had started. Randy met with me, and we were talking about what had been happening. He said, «Man, we’re in this meeting; there are like 9,000 people in this coliseum stadium, and 8,000 of them got healed—8,000!»
And one of the stories he said—he said, «I think it was me doing the praying; I just prayed, 'God, let the wind of the Spirit or something like that just fall upon the deaf.'» There’s a deaf section in this big tent, and the wind blew. It lifted the flap of the tent, and rain from outside came into the tent and landed on the deaf section, and a whole bunch of deaf people just got healed just like that! Now let’s put this in practical terms, you and me. You go to the first meeting, and you prayed specifically, «God, I want to see tumors disappear, only to see cancer disappear.»
So you go to the first meeting; somebody comes up to you with a big old growth on their neck. You pray, and it disappears. Then somebody comes up to you—a woman—informs you, «I was just diagnosed with breast cancer.» She lays her hand on her own breast; you put your hand on top and pray a simple prayer. She begins to probe and finds out it’s completely gone. The next day, the same thing. The next day, and the next day, and the next day, the same thing happened. How many know after about ten of those experiences, you’re looking for tumors? You didn’t look for them before you went, but since you entered into a flow of the mind of Christ, I could call any number of things the flow of the Spirit of God, the demonstration of the power of God, and it would all be true.
But for this illustration, you stepped into a demonstration of the mind of Christ, and suddenly you are thinking differently. Why? Because the word of God, the spirit of God, and your personal experience illustrate what it is to have a renewed mind, and all three of those things are necessary for you and for me to live with a renewed mind. Yes, amen! Amen! I think that’s pretty much it. Why don’t you stand? The renewed mind illustrates, demonstrates, manifests, and approves of heaven on earth. We see it with the deaf ears that open; we see it with the new idea for an expansion of a business; we see it in the key to reconciliation in that broken family. He manifests in so many different ways, but it’s always to his glory and to our strength.
Don’t be conformed to this world. I don’t like when people try to stand out, but if you’re going to have the mind of Christ, you will stand out. I don’t like the attention thing, you know—but maybe that’s why in James he said wisdom comes with meekness. Maybe that’s why he said with wisdom, «Listen, with wisdom, you’re going to be brokering my world into this one; just stay low as you do it.» Restrain strength, regulated or directed strength. So Father, that’s my prayer for us. Put your hands out in front of you or on your heart or something, but let’s just take a moment to pray. Father, that’s our cry together for our family online who watches from all over the world. We bless them. We pray that together there would be this corporate illustration, this corporate experience of the mind of Christ in ways we’ve never known, the true wisdom of God in ways we’ve never known. We do pray, «On earth as it is in heaven.» God, we love your will. We pray, «On earth as it is in heaven.» Inspire the dreams; help us to deal with the little offenses and the things that just seem to creep up now and then. Just help us to be a people that give up our right to be offended—give up our right to be offended. We want to embrace fully the mind of Christ. I pray this in Jesus' name.