Bill Johnson - Stewards of the Divine
Beautiful, well, good morning! Good to see you. Glad you showed up. How many of you were a part of the Randy Clark Healing School and Conference this week? How many of you made it to that? We had such an outrageous time; I’m still a little bit rocked from the week. I was talking to Randy last night. There were somewhere around a thousand healings this week, with a number of notable miracles. My goodness, I got whacked. We need to have a new dictionary so people know what we mean by «whacked,» «blasted,» «hit hard.» Those are all very positive terms. «Wrecked,» «ruined,» those are all very positive words. Anyway, it was just that kind of week for me, and I know for quite a few others.
I have something I read a year or so ago that I found in my little file here on my iPad—something one of my grandsons wrote about his mother in a Mother’s Day card. Cruz is a fascinating child; he really is. He has an imagination, and I’m not sure if he knows when it’s reality or when it’s imagination. I’m not sure if he knows where that line is yet; we’re trying to help him. In the meantime, we’re wonderfully entertained by this child. I think it was a year or so ago when Leah came to pick him up at the Christian school here, and Teacher Salia said, «Oh, I’m so sorry to hear what happened.» He said, «What do you mean, what happened?» She said, «Well, Cruz told us that your house burned down.» He said, «Oh, he did?» So they are walking to the car and Leah turns to Cruz and says, «Hey Cruz, did you tell your teacher that our house burned down?» He said, «Yeah,» with no hesitancy at all, «Oh yeah, I did.» Leah asked, «Son, why did you do that?» He replied, «Oh mom, she loves a good story.» His dad, Gabe, says he’s lying. I say he’s just creative and he’s thinking.
At Christmas time, we had our whole family together and Brian asked him, «Hey Cruz, are those stories real?» because we’re all so fascinated by what he comes up with. Cruz looked at Brian and said, «They’re real in my head. I don’t know if they are in yours, but they are in mine.» So here is his Mother’s Day card from, I think, two years ago: «My mom is as pretty as a dancing princess. She is as sweet as a horse.» His imagery needs a little bit of work; here he is as sweet as a horse. «She is as smart as God.» We’ll have to work on his theology as well. «But most of all, she’s special like a dragon—a dragon that is nice and can shoot water out of its mouth.» So, I know that’s the goal of every woman in this room—to be recognized as a dragon that can shoot water out of its mouth. What a child!
Alright, we’re going to read a couple portions of Scripture. We’ll start with Exodus 33. Actually, today we’re going to focus on two portions of Scripture that, in some ways, have had— I hate to say the most influence, but certainly are at the top of the influence—in my life, in my thinking, over the last 20 years. Let me give you just a little bit of background.
First of all, I felt, towards the end of December around Christmas time, that the Lord spoke to me and said that this next year, 2018—the year we are in now—would be a year of new beginnings. I really felt the Lord on that. Benny and I went to Korea, and we actually spent New Year’s there. It was a mistake in my scheduling, but it ended up being a God mistake. It was a glorious time in Korea with some friends and then a conference that I do every year with Cheon. This year, one of the guest speakers was Chuck Pierce, who is a great prophet of the Lord and a good friend; I really love that guy. He’s just a real pure stream. Anyway, he gets up to speak one of the nights and starts talking about how this year is the year of new beginnings. So, it doesn’t have anything to do with the message I have for you today—it just needs to be said. It’s a year of new beginnings, and I think there are probably a whole bunch of things represented in the room that you would gladly see start over.
I feel like it’s a year for that, where the Lord is just going to add freshness to things, new life to things, and new beginnings. These last few weeks have been very tender for me. Many times throughout the day, whether I’m at home, whether I’m in the corporate gathering here, or in a conference, or at this Randy Clark event last week, I feel like I’m about this far away from tears almost all the time. It’s a kind of unexplainable feeling; I’m just overwhelmed by what I see God doing. For example, again this last week, we saw the beautiful testimony of PTSD healed, and Randy has a guy on his team now that has personally led 10,000 people into healing of PTSD. It’s one of the most extraordinary things; it’s literally off the charts. They’re now bringing them to military bases and places where it’s running so rampant that they need help, and there are no answers. But Jesus is the answer, and we watch people—I’ll try to remember in the next couple of weeks to show you a testimony of one of the miracles that actually happened here in Redding towards the beginning of this launch for them, seeing this horrible affliction of the heart healed.
You see these extraordinary works of God in our lives, and you hear of the miracle of provision; you hear of the promotion that somebody got—sometimes it’s the simplest thing, and sometimes it’s the most crazy, bizarre thing. We see these things that God does and become unsettled with just standing back and giving a golf clap for a miracle that God has just done or a testimony given. We become provoked inside that we must know this one who does this on behalf of humanity.
I must know this Father who took this guy —we saw the video this week if you were there—who was locked up in PTSD, completely unable to function normally in life, and then, literally in moments, transformed into a person where he can now enjoy life. It was no magic wand; it was a person called Jesus who stepped into his life and sorted things out.
So, we hear about this and think, «You know, I don’t have PTSD, but I’ve got stuff, and I need to know this one who settles these issues.» So we look at the sign as an invitation to know the one who is behind it and to make Him known.
Here’s the verse that I want us to read; it’s here in Exodus 33, verse 13. It says, «Now therefore I pray, if I have found grace or favor in Your sight, show me now Your way that I may know You, that I might find grace in Your sight, and consider that this nation is Your people.» Go back to, at least for me, the heart of this verse: «Show me Your way that I might know You.» Say that with me: «Show me Your ways that I might know You.» Say it again: «Show me Your ways that I might know You.»
What’s the point? The point is the testimony reveals the nature, and the nature is the invitation to an encounter, but in the encounter, we come to know the one who works wonders. Once you see what the sign points to, you’re never satisfied with only a sign again. You hear about this wonderful restaurant when driving and see the sign; you don’t turn around and go home. You go to where the sign is pointing. The point is that the sign points to something greater than itself. It’s like the exit sign over the door; it’s real but points to something more real—that’s the exit.
You see the miracle of healing or deliverance, whatever it may be, and that’s a sign, but it takes you to a person. The whole purpose of this journey is to know Him. Israel stopped short; they were satisfied with miracles. Miracles do become boring. Look at Israel: manna every day. After a while, they ask, «What else is on the menu?» I’m in favor of the creation of food before them every day, but after a while, they feel they want some meat (which I understand; just between you and me, meat is a vital part of life, and I’ll leave that).
Let me know Your ways that I might know You.
Turn with me to the book of Mark, and we’ll read where we’re going to land today—Mark, chapter eight. This is a portion of Scripture I don’t know; maybe I’ve taught on it here more than any other portion. It wouldn’t surprise me if that’s true. The reason for that is it takes me a long time to learn things. I will open to the story on a somewhat regular basis and review it, specifically one particular verse, because I need to face the questions that Jesus asks.
He asks certain questions. You’ve heard it before, but whenever God is asking you a question, it’s never because He’s lacking information; He’s just trying to dial something up in you that you don’t know is there or trying to lead you into understanding something.
He asks these questions, and they are provoking questions. We’ll get to them in a moment. Imagine this with me: the disciples have a three-and-a-half-year relational journey with Jesus. During this time, they’ve watched things happen that just changed their thinking about life in general. They were all pretty insignificant people, from politicians to fishermen to whatever, and suddenly they caught a vision for their lives and were willing to die for something. Previous to that, they just wanted to catch fish, but now they want to change the world, and they did. They caught that by being with Jesus.
Jesus would use them; He would empower them to do the same things He did. It had to be absolutely frightening and glorious all at the same time. It’s kind of funny because Jesus used them so powerfully that they actually began to think they were important outside of their role. They began to think of their own significance in a strange way, arguing as to who was the greatest. «I’m greater than you; no, I’m better than you.» We’re too smart to argue with each other; we just do that by pointing to somebody else’s flaws—it’s the more subtle way of saying I’m better than you.
Anyway, back to the story. Jesus immersed them in this atmosphere of presence and power and used them in a significant, glorious way—the way He had designed for them to live. But in doing so, it dialed up stuff in their hearts they didn’t know was there. Peter was shocked to find that he would deny the Lord; he was convinced he would last when everybody else fell, yet he was the one who denied Jesus.
What happens in these moments where there is pressure? Pressure isn’t always negative; it can be added because of miraculous ways God uses us or understanding we receive. The weightiness of God’s work in us reveals fractures. It doesn’t cause fractures; it reveals them.
The Lord never does this to shame us. He never does it as punishment. He does it so that we can see what He sees. If I can see what He sees, then I can confess. Confession basically means to agree with God.
So the weightiness of God’s work in my life reveals a fracture—maybe it’s a fracture of my thinking. Every time I get in this pressure situation, I just start criticizing myself; or every time I get in this pressure situation, I want to withdraw from people; or I blame others rather than take responsibility. Whatever it might be, that weightiness reveals these fractures, and it’s so that I can agree with God.
I see that, Lord. I see that I have that tendency to beat myself up when this pressure comes. Please forgive me because I believe things about myself You don’t believe about me, and it’s got to change.
What is He doing? He’s, in His mercy, revealing fractures so that we can come into agreement because once we see it and come into agreement, the confession releases the capacity to forsake. That was really good news right there! The confession—I see it—oh God, I beat myself up every time this pressure comes. I’m tired of it. I know You revealed that so I can confess it.
I agree that there’s a fracture in my makeup that blames me for everything. I know it’s not right, and I’m confessing my self-centeredness. Don’t think it’s anything other than that. You blame you every time there’s something wrong; it’s still a reverse arrogance and pride. Face it; call it for what it is. Because I’m still the focus of my attention now. Please forgive me for this subtle pride that has robbed me of so many things in my life.
I’m through with it. I’m finished with it. And by Your grace, I step into thinking differently about myself now because of what You said over me.
So, the disciples in this journey had two occasions where they were privileged to see food multiply and feed thousands of people. One time they fed five thousand men besides women and children. Another time they fed four thousand men besides women and children. It’s important to recognize that, before the death and resurrection of Christ, only men were counted in a crowd. A crowd was measured by how many men were there. The women who were there, they were fed in these miracles, but they weren’t counted.
After the Day of Pentecost, men, women, and children were counted. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit creates a level playing field, and it’s vital we recognize that grace that is released over the church. But back to the story here: the disciples are with Jesus on two occasions where they see food multiply, and they were used in the miracle. They would distribute the food, and it literally would increase as they passed it out.
Jesus didn’t throw the boy’s lunch in the air and go «shazam.» He could have, but that wasn’t the miracle. The miracle was that He took what there was and multiplied it.
So, let’s look at the disciples the day after. They had the major miracle of feeding four thousand men, besides women and children. They get in a boat; they’re going on a journey to have some time with Jesus. Alright, are you with me? The longest introduction ever, but we’re there.
Verse 14: «The disciples had forgotten to take bread. Actually, let’s start with verse 13. He left them, getting into the boat again, departed to the other side. The disciples had forgotten to take bread; they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. Then He charged them, saying, 'Take heed; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.'»
They reasoned among themselves, saying, «It’s because we have no bread.» But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, «Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?»
I’ll turn to verse 17 randomly on my own because those questions are piercing to me, and they expose my leaning into thinking differently than Jesus. To me, the prize of all prizes for us right now is the mind of Christ.
It is the great prize; it is the reward of repentance. It is the fruit of the result of repentance—the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is the great prize. I mean, we celebrate the presence; obviously, there’s no greater gift than the presence of God—Emmanuel, God with us.
We celebrate the anointings, that manifestation of presence that brings miracles, healing, deliverance—all the stuff we celebrate. We celebrate one another; we celebrate so many things that God has given us. But there is one thing that is more transformational than any other, and that is the mind of Christ—seeing and thinking the way He sees and the way He thinks.
There’s something different about Jesus. He can look at a boy’s lunch fearlessly, knowing that there are going to be leftovers, that there is going to be more than enough. This is going to be such a wonderful moment that we will have more at the end than what we started with. But that was the thinking.
We know there’s an oak tree in an acorn. Well, in circumstances that come up, He sees the possibility of the potential of a moment that divine reasoning provides. I get there eventually; I don’t always start there.
In fact, just between you and me (don’t tell anyone this), it seems like I hardly ever start there. I get there, but starting with His perception is a gift that I long for.
I mean, we biblically have the mind of Christ. By the way, it says we have; it doesn’t say I have. It’s collectively—we have the mind of Christ. But anyway, I know we have the mind of Christ, but I want what’s in my account to be in my possession.
In other words, I want it to influence my initial reaction. I get there, but I want my initial reaction to be the mind of Christ. I do believe that that is the great prize.
So He says, «Take heed; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, the leaven of Herod.» He’s not warning them about bad bread. He’s not saying, «Don’t go to Herod’s bakery because it’s bad. Don’t go to the Pharisees. Stay away from their bread.»
He’s warning them about perceptions shaped by a value system other than the Kingdom of God. It’s counterfeit perception; it’s anchoring our hearts into the inferior instead of living from the reality of God’s rule and dominion towards the circumstances of life.
Every believer has the amazing privilege of living from heaven towards earth. That’s the call; that’s the privilege of God. That’s what it is to abide in Christ.
Here we have this warning: «Beware of the leaven of Herod and the leaven of the Pharisees.» Herod represents the political system, which is humanistic in nature. It doesn’t mind you believing in God; just don’t bring that into the everyday affairs of life.
It’s okay that you confess to be a Christian; it’s alright. Just don’t bring Him into the political office. Don’t bring Him into the classroom.
It’s the humanistic—man at the center of everything, and man as God is a real letdown. The Pharisees' leaven is no better. While it believes in God, He is impersonal and powerless.
It’s in form; it’s in shape; it’s in ritual; it’s in routine. It’s not in relationship; it’s not anchored in knowing; it’s not anchored in encountering. It’s just this routine that we follow.
So Jesus says, «Don’t fall into either of these two ditches. This ditch here will kill you (it’s called humanism), and this ditch will kill you (it’s called religious routine and form without relationship). Both of these things are dangerous, and they’re both cancers to your soul.»
He’s warning them, and they completely miss it. He asks them these questions, and this is what I review on a somewhat regular basis.
Verse 17: «Why do you reason because you have no bread?»
Why does your reasoning start with what you don’t have? Why does your reasoning start with what you don’t have? Why? Why are you doing that?
You get to see— I feel like I’m in the boat. Honestly, often I feel like I need you to ask me those questions again. You know, «Why do you reason that you have no bread? Is it because we have no bread?»
Somehow I know that’s the wrong answer, so I’m not going to say anything. He says, «How is it that you don’t perceive or understand?» I don’t know. He says, «Is your heart still hard?»
I didn’t know it was, but apparently it is. I mean, He just takes it through these questions, and all He’s trying to do is expose the fracture so we can make agreement.
When you’ve experienced supernatural supply, I’ll ask you this question: how many of you have had God provide for you in an absolutely supernatural way?
All of us have. How many of you, after you experienced that supernatural provision, had another financial problem?
How many of you were as afraid and as nervous the second time as you were the first time? That’s the point—is that I learned nothing.
It was like I know He provided; He’s so good. He took care of me last time, but the problem that I’m facing right now, I don’t know if He’s going to do it again. You know, it’s just that Russian roulette thing. I just happened to hit the right cylinder and I got the answer of God, but you know, He just doesn’t always work like that, and I don’t know—I may be on my own.
It could be that I earned this mess, and I prove my devotion by just sucking it up and bearing under the pressure of this financial thing. And He’s looking at us like, «Don’t you understand what forgiveness is?»
So He asks a series of questions, saying, «Why do you reason that you have no bread?»
Because once you’ve experienced the miracle of God’s provision, you’ve lost the right to begin any thought process with what you don’t have. That shouldn’t be part of the equation.
It fascinates me that in these two stories, Jesus didn’t create food out of nothing. I mean, He could have, but that wasn’t the miracle. The miracle was that He took what there was and multiplied it.
Let’s look at the rest of the story here—verse 18: «Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?»
That verse has helped me so much. Let me tell you why—He’s asking the questions again, and I need the questions of Jesus.
So He says, «Having eyes, do you not see?» and I say, «You know, I’ll be really honest. There are a whole bunch of situations throughout my average week or month where no, I’m totally clueless. I don’t see at all what You’re doing. I don’t know; it’s just not working.»
So He follows up on the second question: «Can you hear?»
Well, the reality is I do hear better than I see, so He follows the second question: «Can you hear me?»
And then there are times I go, «Nope, I hate to say it, but I don’t see, and I don’t hear.» He follows with the next one, and I’m so thankful for it: «What do you remember?»
You want to activate your hearing? Meditate on what you remember of the works of God.
I don’t care if you have to go back to the days of Moses. You have to go back to your parents and grandparents, or you have to go back to last week. Go back to something that you watched God do!
Don’t just take it at surface level. God, show me the nature of a Father who would cause that metal bar in the arm to dissolve—that would take a son that was so tormented by combat fatigue in his heart and mind that You would heal him in moments to where he contributes to the well-being of his family.
Show me what kind of Father You are, because I’m afraid I could just see the surface and never tap into the heartbeat of a Father who loves people like You do, God. Take me beyond the obvious.
Take me beyond the testimonies, as they can activate my hearing, because I want to hear better. What I’ve noticed is that remembering activates my hearing, and hearing activates my seeing.
So, He has some more questions. He says in verse 19, «When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?» They said, «Twelve.»
«Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?» They said, «Seven.»
And He said, «How is it that you don’t understand?»
Look what He just did! He asked them about the numbers of people they fed. Five thousand and four thousand—what did they start with? They started with five loaves and seven loaves.
So when they fed the larger group, five thousand people, they started with fewer loaves—five loaves instead of seven—and they had more leftovers—twelve!
When they started with more—the seven loaves—they fed a smaller crowd and had fewer leftovers—seven baskets.
It’s divine math. Why did God choose Israel? He said, «Because they were the least.» Don’t be surprised that He chooses to work in a way where he receives the most glory.
When you start thinking you’re pretty cool because God chose you, just remember—I love a statement Chambols made. I don’t know when he made this, but I read it last year sometime, and it goes something like this:
«The Lord makes sure that all of our friends, our closest friends, see our idiosyncrasies and our broken areas of life and the things that don’t always work well in us so that when God uses us, they all know it’s by the grace of God.»
They all know it’s by the grace of God, and that’s the reason many people will not come close in relationship, because they don’t want anyone to know that.
When they do this, they withhold glory from God because people never really discover how much that work was by the grace of God. You see, these miracles that they were exposed to were supposed to have a greater effect on them.
This won’t sound right probably, but give me a moment: it was to have a greater effect on them than merely inspiring them to give God praise.
Now, I buy into that completely. I love us responding to God’s works and giving Him the honor, giving Him credit. He was looking for more.
He was looking for their history with Him—feeding five thousand, feeding four thousand. He was looking for their history with Him to become the lenses through which they saw their present situation.
He was looking for them to be so impacted by the multiplying of food that when He starts talking to them about leaven, they don’t go into fear mode about what they don’t have—their initial response instead is, «I serve the God of the impossible. He did it before; He’ll do it again.»
I mentioned all of that today because I felt so strongly in getting ready for today that the reminder, perhaps, of what we steward—what we actually give oversight to, what we take charge of in our own lives—is that we steward the testimony of the Lord.
We steward—we remember. We’ve been trying harder and harder as a staff to write these things down. We’ve hired someone to record them. We now have a team that does background research to get medical verification.
We’ve got a great story we’re going to show you. Bethel media is working on it right now, and we’ll be able to show you in a couple weeks one of the most extraordinary miracles we’ve ever seen—medical evidence, medical proof of this miracle.
So we want to collect these things that truly bring God glory, but they have to be more than moments in our life together where we just applaud and give God thanks for what He’s done.
We actually need to see where the sign is pointing—to come to know a Father who treats a son that’s been so destroyed through combat in moments as though he was never in a war.
Where there’s such peace on his mind and heart, that’s the kind of Father we have. So we steward the testimony; it’s important that we hold it as a treasure.
We steward the knowledge of His ways. What is He like? Because there are a lot of people out there.
Let’s be honest; we’re the ones who taught the insurance companies to call hurricanes and floods «acts of God.» They got their theology from the church.
Let’s teach them something new this next season of what He’s like as a Father. He’s the one who heals; He’s the one who restores; He’s the one who protects; He’s the one who delivers— not just as a point of theology but out of our own rich experience with the Father who loves us so tenderly and so carefully.
So I steward the testimony, and I steward the knowledge of His ways, but the greatest gift of all is that I steward His presence—He who has chosen to identify Himself with me.
I close with this thought: Moses asked the Lord at the beginning of his call, God called him to deliver Israel out of Egypt, and Moses asked this great question: he said, «Who am I?»
God said, «I’ll be with you.» I don’t know if I’m Moses, and I’m going, «That’s awesome, but you skipped my question: Who am I?»
Certainly, I will be with you. All right?
I used to think God just ignored his question because He had something better to show him, which in part is true. But what did He actually tell Moses?
How did He—let’s look at it this way—who was Moses? God says, «You’re the one I want to be with.» That’s who you are!
Your identity is in the one who has chosen to walk with you. That’s who you are. You are the one over whom God says, «I am not ashamed to be called their God.»
That’s who you are! You are the one I am not ashamed to display myself upon. That’s who you are!
I do love the privilege of being together, and I especially want to make sure that everyone in the room has an opportunity to know what it is to be forgiven of sin—to turn from the self-centered lifestyle that everybody lives before meeting Jesus—turn from that one thing that condemns every one of us, and that is sin.
There’s only one possible solution. God made this statement: «There’s only one name under heaven by which a person must be saved.»
It’s foolish to think there are many ways to God—absolutely foolishness! If there were many ways to God, then He was cruel to Jesus to make Him suffer and die the way He did.
If there were any other way to get people to be at peace with God, then that was absolute cruelty! It was done because it was the only possible solution; there had to be the shedding of innocent blood for the forgiveness of sin, and Jesus volunteered to die in my place, in your place.
With a crowd this size, there’s always opportunity—there’s always a chance that there are people here who have never said yes to Jesus.
You’ve never said, «I want to follow Jesus. I want to turn from my life. I want to know what it is to be forgiven. I want to know what it is to be born again.»
And if that’s anybody in the room, just quickly, right where you are sitting, put a hand up. We’re just going to make wonderful agreement with you that you would know what it is to be forgiven of sin—to be brought into the Kingdom of God—to be adopted into God’s family.
I’ll wait about 15 seconds; that’s about it—10 seconds maybe. But if there’s anyone at all, please put your hand up.
If you’re in the overflow room, please do it there so the people there can see you. Is there a hand up? I didn’t see it; I’m sorry.
Yes, right over here—yes—wonderful! I bless you, sir, in Jesus' name. God bless you! Anyone else? Real quickly—anyone else?
Alright, let’s go ahead and stand if you’ll hold your places, please. It will help us tremendously if you would give opportunity for this to happen.
I want this: I want the ministry team to quickly come to the front. To the gentleman that put your hand up, if you wouldn’t mind doing us all a favor for your own self-care, come down here. I want you to talk and pray with the people to my left.
There’s a banner over here; it’s called a Freedom banner. It’s a place where some folks that we know and love will help you.
Now, the rest of you, as the ministry team is coming, just put your hands in front of you. I just want to pray over you concerning this mind of Christ.
Maybe I should have you lay hands on one another’s heads—no, don’t do that; it shakes it too much!
Let’s just pray together. I want to pray for this mind of Christ thing, and then I’m going to turn it over to Chris and Tom.
If you hold your places, please—it’s very important that we give place to what the Holy Spirit is doing first and foremost.
So Father, I ask for the glory of the name of Jesus, that You would help us to adjust and shift with everything You do so that we see the beautiful opportunities to know You, to love You, and to make You known.
We devote ourselves as stewards of testimony, the knowledge of Your ways, and Your presence. I ask for this grace to rest more powerfully on us this year. In Jesus' name, amen.