Bill Johnson - The Issue of Trust
The enemy knows he cannot get me to deny the existence of God; I’m too far in for that one to work. However, what does work at times is when I find myself pondering a problem without the hope of a redemptive solution. Wisdom enables a person to rise against an insurmountable object and pull down strongholds in which they trust. That gives us a second clue: strongholds are whatever people trust in other than God. It has always been a trust issue. Everywhere you go in Scripture, there is a target of the Lord. In fact, I made a statement this week to some of our team that I’ll share with you: take whatever you know about trust and amplify it by about a thousand, and that’s how much it is on the heart of God. It is central to our relationship with God. The Scripture says that without faith, it is impossible to please Him. It doesn’t say without worship, without prayer, or without fasting. It doesn’t describe any of the other essential parts of our walk with the Lord. It doesn’t say without Bible reading, as critical as that is; it says without faith. Why? Because the element of trust is the focus of the Lord. Why? Because He is the most trustworthy individual in the universe, and it is a violation of creation to not trust the one who is worthy of trust. It is a debt that I owe Him; I am indebted to Him to reflect His faithfulness through my trust.
When you look at, um, there’s a great warning passage. I love Scripture; I appreciate the warning passages in Scripture because they help to cleanse me. They are important because they purge and refine, and it’s in Mark chapter 10 where the Lord says it is very hard for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples are stunned by His statement, as they consider themselves blessed. They wonder, then who can be saved? Jesus adds a word to clarify His statement: He said it is very hard for a man who trusts in riches to make it into the kingdom. The element, the issue, is trust. I’ve asked you the question before. There are various political groups and parties and movements on earth that try to define how much money a person should make or have. I’ll leave that subject alone because it makes me irate, but let me give you a kingdom answer instead of a worldly answer, which is always better anyway. How much money is too much money? There’s no specific amount; it’s whatever amount replaces trust. Trust is always the issue; it’s always the issue. To the rich young ruler, he had to sell everything to follow Jesus. Yet Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were very wealthy and did not have to, because their heart issue was elsewhere. Jesus always addresses the heart because the heart is where trust originates.
Trust, faith, does not come from the mind. It doesn’t say with the mind man believes unto righteousness; it says with the heart. So God is always dealing with the heart because there must be a reunification of a people made in His image that reflects His faithfulness through faith, through trust. That complete cycle must be recreated in the earth, and so the Lord seeks those who believe, those who have faith, those who trust. Trust is the issue. In Proverbs, we have this statement: a wise man scales the city and pulls down strongholds in which they trust. You can examine any culture, any city in our nation or any nation, and in a short amount of time, you’d be able to study that city and discern what people trust in other than God. For some, it’s an abuse of alcohol or drugs. That’s where they turn when they are in trouble, when they panic, when they become fearful—they reach for whatever it might be; it takes the place of God in their lives. They may believe in the existence of God, but their lifestyle testifies they do not depend on God. It’s a trust issue.
You can study that city; it may be sports, recreational activities, or any number of things—many wonderful blessings and additions to our lives, but when those become what we turn to and trust, they replace our dependency on the Lord. The Lord is targeting this issue of strongholds. What is a stronghold? If you go back to medieval times, to the walled cities or castles, these strongholds are places of huge carved stones stacked on top of each other. A stronghold is a hiding place—in this case, for the demonic. It is a hiding place created in a person’s life through their thoughts. Second Corinthians 10 tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and thoughts raised against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity. Here’s the deal: thinking incorrectly not only empowers the enemy; it gives him a safe place to hide in our thought patterns. Incorrect patterns of thought become dwelling places for the demonic. A bad thought is not a hiding place, but a lifestyle of bad thoughts creates a stronghold, a place where they’re not recognized.
If you could imagine a royal family hiding in the castle, you can’t see them behind the castle wall; they are hiding, safe. The demonic hides in the thought patterns and processes of people’s lives when those thoughts anchor in something other than God. The weapons of our warfare are not human in origin; they are not skills or talents. They are literally the weaponry of God Himself to deal with the hiding place of the enemy in thought processes of a person’s life. What is about those thoughts that gives the enemy a place to hide? These are things raised against the knowledge of God, not the existence of God. The enemy knows he cannot get me to deny the existence of God; I’m too far in for that. I couldn’t fall for that one—that’s like the devil wearing a red rubber suit with a pitchfork; he’s easy to spot.
What does work at times is when I find myself thinking about a problem without the hope of a redemptive solution. What idea am I pondering? I am thinking something that wars against the knowledge of God. There’s not a problem I face that He not only doesn’t have an answer for, but He is also prepared to release the solution. Does that make sense? So anytime I entertain fear or perhaps it’s a person, let me step back and say this: I’ve mentioned before that in this strange season we are in, fear will always attract whatever information is needed to legitimize its existence. Fear will always seek information to validate its existence. Here’s the crazy part: so does jealousy and resentment. Jealousy and resentment also attract whatever information is necessary to legitimize or validate their existence. However, they also bring with them the ability or capacity because we know so much spiritually—we give it a virtuous name.
When you give a dysfunction a virtuous name, you not only give it permission to remain; you give it permission to set down roots and transform personality. This is where extreme tenderness to the Lord is vital. The farther you go with God, the more you are capable of giving a virtuous name to a problem because you know more. Knowledge puffs up. The Bible doesn’t say carnal knowledge; it just says knowledge puffs up. So the answer isn’t to ignore learning, understanding, or wisdom. The requirement of the Lord for us is that what we learn takes us to the person. In encountering the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we don’t walk away strutting about all the great things we’re going to do with our life. There’s something significant the Lord wants to work into the heart of the church right now. I feel strongly that we are about to witness both the goodness and kindness of the Lord as well as His severity.
This whole issue of first love is about absolute sensitivity to the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is central to my life, to who we are. There’s a reminder that it is the Lamb of God who sits on the throne for eternity. Why the Lamb and not the Lion? Because we will live with a continuous remembrance, not of our sin but of our need for grace, our need for constant dependency on God. So throughout all eternity, a hundred billion years from now, the Lamb will still be on the throne, and we will celebrate the fact that we are saved, celebrating that we are a new creation. We are absolutely new and consistently live in joyful gratitude for having been redeemed.
Back to the subject at hand: the weapons of our warfare are not carnal; they are not natural. They are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. What are the strongholds? They are places of trust in us and others, casting down arguments. I’m glad there’s none of that happening right now. Listen to me: once you gain victory in pulling down strongholds here, you are positioned to confront them in culture, but you must first do it here. What you win here positions you to influence there because there is a demonic power behind so many, if not all, the lies that war against the knowledge of God. There is a demonic power; it is the fiery darts. When a person has dealt well with their own thought life and has perceived the battle so to speak, they become positioned to recognize it in others—not to point it out.
It’s not about that; it’s a prayer job. God, there seems to be this pattern in my neighborhood—I’ll give you an example. I remember in the house we moved into in Weaverville, as soon as we settled in, a lady across the street came over and said, «Just so you know, everyone on your side of the street gets a divorce when they move in here.» That’s good! Good to be in your neighborhood. Yeah. It wasn’t that everyone did, but it was this house, that house, that house—those who moved into this neighborhood ended up getting divorced. I said, «Well, it stops here.» Whatever power was behind that doesn’t have authority here. So when you attain personal victory in an area, it positions you to pray—not to point fingers or accuse. In prayer, we ask, «God, we ask right now that the spirit of revelation be released to counter the lie that our community or my neighborhood has believed, that there’s a solution by leaving our spouse.»
Why do you think praise is a weapon of warfare? Praise is a weapon of war! I know that if there’s a struggle in health, I will exalt Him as the healer. What’s happening? The battle is first here. Once I engage in praise by declaring who He is and the knowledge of God, casting down thoughts and ideas raised against that knowledge, I deal with it first here, positioning myself to bring about transformation in my location. I declare His greatness; there’s presence and power exercised against the lies raised against the knowledge of God. The battle won here positions you to win the same battle out there.
This passage in Nahum is a personal favorite. Nahum chapter 1, verse 7: «The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.» Look at it again: «The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who trust in Him.» I want you to make a mental note once again that stronghold—this time, it’s a stronghold of the revelation of the goodness of God. Another place in Scripture says that the name of the Lord is a hiding place, a tower of strength—where we hide ourselves. So if you can picture it this way: a people who have a true heartfelt understanding of the goodness of God automatically have a hiding place, a stronghold in which they dwell, and it’s evidenced by what we trust in.
When problems arise, it’s easy to view an individual or a repeated difficulty with hopelessness and blame the lack of character in that individual, declaring, essentially, «Father, this one is out of Your reach.» What happens when I do that? I create a stronghold of thought that removes me from being a part of a redemptive solution. I have categorized that individual, and in that moment, I have fallen into a trap, believing that things are unredeemable. Nobody would ever say that because we know that God can do anything, but it’s not your theology; it’s your lifestyle.
It’s not your theology. Every believer says God can do anything, but when faced with a problem, they don’t believe He’ll fix it. So the theology is right, but the lifestyle is wrong. The lifestyle is fueled by thought life. Therefore, thought life must not only focus on identifying the lie and removing it, as He says to take every thought into the obedience of Christ, but a thought pattern is only transformed when I see a situation through the eyes of Jesus, contemplating the redemptive solutions He envisions. Until then, I remain in a place of need, not in a position to bring about change. The Lord is good; He is a stronghold. He knows those who trust in Him.