Bill Johnson - You Will Recover All
Amen, amen, amen. All right, well, good morning! Good to see you; glad you showed up. Merry Christmas! How many of you, uh, like to get your shopping done by October? I’ve met a few of you; you amaze me, and you scare me a little bit, but you amaze me. How many of you are last-minute shoppers? There are many more last-minute shoppers in this service than in the early service. Everybody there seemed to have done their shopping very early; I think there’s something about those people. How many of you are last-minute? Did anyone shop on Christmas Eve? I’m a last-minute guy usually. I saw a meme I liked this week that said, «If you’re going shopping, treat the workers kindly because it’s not their fault that you waited until Mary’s water broke before you went shopping.» Oh brother, I just think that’s funny!
All right, here’s another one: a family had another family over for dinner, and the mother asked one of the children to pray over the meal. The child, all nervous, said, «I don’t know what to say.» The mother said, «Well, just say what you hear your mother say.» So she bowed her head and said, «Why on earth did I invite all these people over for dinner?» Oh goodness.
All right, I want you to open your Bibles to First Samuel, chapter 30. I want to talk to you about something that I actually discuss fairly often over the years; I haven’t done it in quite a while, but that’s the whole issue of strengthening yourself in the Lord. So just a heads up; we’re going to head in that direction. I had a really interesting night last night, where I had certain scriptures going through my mind from three o’clock on, and I’m not sure if I’m going to go into those scriptures, even though they kept me active for several hours this morning.
There’s a theme involved, and it’s where it says Mary pondered these things in her heart. It’s the statements that were made concerning what the Lord had spoken about Jesus that had so deeply moved her. Simeon and these prophetic people, these intercessors, made announcements to Mary about what would happen to the Christ child, what he was like, and what he was there for, and the shepherds did the same thing. In Luke, it says this phrase a couple of times: she treasured them first of all, and then she pondered them. She protected them and would bring them out for review, but always in a safe place. If you have some valuable treasure, you don’t leave it on the front porch; you bring it out with careful examination in a secure location. And that’s exactly what she did. She valued what God had said enough to protect it, and the safest place for the word of the Lord is in your heart, not for public examination or public review—in your heart.
The level of anxiety that we live with reveals how often we subject ourselves to inferior things. The inferior will always raise our level of anxiety—our awareness of potential failures, problems, regrets, and all those kinds of things. So the enemy works hard to distract us with his words. Once God’s word has been spoken, one of the kind of awkward things in Scripture is that the word of the Lord actually attracts conflict. We’ve studied this over the years, but I warned you about six to eight months ago that I’m going to do a lot of review over this next period of time. So that’s what I’m doing again: the word of the Lord over your life attracts conflict, and it’s important that it does. Mary’s own experience in Luke, chapter two, says that she treasured the word God spoke to her through the shepherds about her son. She treasured them in her heart, and then Simeon came along and said the thoughts expressed in words by other people would pierce your soul. So here’s a word that God gave her, and the enemy would come with his stuff and pierce her soul—why? Because there’s always competition for what we’re going to believe. There’s always a battle over what we give our lives to, what we yield to, and what we give place to.
In Matthew 13, we find my favorite example of this—the parable of the seed and the sower. We have the different kinds of soil represented in that parable. The two things that I want to draw your attention to are, first of all, it says that the birds of the air came to steal the seed. So, number one, the enemy always wants to steal whatever word—the seed is the word—he wants to steal whatever word was spoken over our lives. Now I understand we have the Scripture, we have all the scriptures, but the Holy Spirit breathes on this and will highlight certain things to us. Sometimes we’ll receive prophetic words; if they’re consistent with Scripture, we should pay attention to them. But those prophetic words, the enemy will always try to come and steal the seed. Why? Because the power is in the seed. The power is not in the soil. The soil is necessary, but the power is in the seed. The power for the manifestation of who Jesus is in the earth is in the seed.
I feel faint; did I disappear or was it you? All right, we have musical lights; it’ll be fine. It’s Christmas, you know. I don’t know what that has to do with it, but it’s blinking. Yes, very slowly blinking.
So, number one: the enemy—the birds—work to steal the seed. Any seed that is left in the open and untended, sometimes God speaks a word, and we ignore it or say we’ll take care of it later. Receiving the word deeply into our hearts is what ensures that the word will take root and have impact. So, number one: the enemy works to steal seeds. Secondly, if he can’t steal it, he will try to plant his seed next to God’s seed. So we have the weeds. I know this is really complicated; I’m no expert in gardening; I need my wife here. But finally, I said there are two main things. The outcome is that when the enemy plants contrary words or seeds, it’s to strangle the life out of what God said.
Now let’s be honest: God’s word has how much power? All power. The devil’s word has how much power? Zero authority, except what I give it. The moment I embrace, consider, or meditate on the enemy’s seed—his word, his thought, his idea—in that moment, I lend it my authority, so it only has an impact on me to the measure I make agreement. When you believe a lie, you empower the liar; believing a lie empowers the liar. Why is this critical? Because the Lord is working on raising up a family of sons and daughters of God that know how to steward what he says.
All right, the word of the Lord is all-powerful; yes, he spoke the worlds into being—all-powerful. The enemy’s word is just a contrary idea that has no power except what I give it. If I listen to it, then I have empowered it. The Bible says that tribulation and persecution come because of the word. Every time you and I hear something that the Lord is declaring over our life—maybe you’re just in your daily devotion and reading through something, let’s say Ephesians chapter four—and he begins to speak to you about the strength of grace that you impart to the people around you. You’re reading that, and it highlights to you; you feel this sense of purpose and identity, a sense of responsibility, and he highlights that to you. The enemy will always work to undermine that word so that it doesn’t take deep root in us, and he does that by getting us to question what God has said.
Perhaps the best example of this for me is, let’s say the Lord gives a promise to one of you that you are going to see blind eyes opened, and it will become normal for you to see blind eyes open. Then you have a friend with blind eyes, and you pray, and they don’t open. So what do you have now? You have a promise and you have a conflict. What are you going to give your heart to? It’s easy to say the promise when you’ve fasted and prayed and the blind eyes are still blind. What are you going to give your heart to? Because the more we use, «Well, they’re just not opening; I must not have heard from the Lord,» what have I just done? I just empowered the inferior. Right? I’ve just empowered the inferior seed.
Why does he allow tribulation and persecution to come? Because of the word! Because he’s a Father who gives rewards, and if there’s no option, there can’t be a reward. He can freely give gifts, but rewards are based on performance—based on obedience is a better word—based on obedience. Does that make any sense at all? All right, to five of you, that’s all I needed. It’s all right. Sorry!
All right, so I want to take you into First Samuel, chapter 30. This is David. He’s got a bunch of guys with him; they were the rejects of society. They are being mentored and discipled out of stupidity into responsibility. They eventually become what’s called the mighty men of David, and they were just scary. I don’t think anyone has the nerve to make a movie about the mighty men because it would be too gruesome—Old Testament standards, of course—but the mighty men of David actually became this incredible force in the earth under David’s reign. This is before he is king; he has been anointed king, but he’s not king yet; Saul is still in place. David goes and he’s been rejected by Saul’s household; he’s the king but has been rejected by Israel—the people of God have rejected him. He is now living among the Philistines, and he does this crazy thing: he has all these warriors he’s discipling, and he takes them out at night to go to war with the enemies of Israel. Now he’s living with the Philistines—the Philistines think he’s going out to fight their enemies, but in actuality, he’s fighting the enemies of Israel.
So they come back in the morning, after fighting all night or whatever they do, killing and plundering and all that glorious stuff. I watched a movie yesterday that was slower than «Driving Miss Daisy.» It almost went backwards. Random, and I don’t even remember the title—God’s healed my memories. And if you loved «Driving Miss Daisy,» bless you, because it was a highly regarded movie, and I don’t mean to speak evil against any movie. All right, where was I before I stepped into that hole?
So David and his men would go out and plunder the enemies of Israel, and then they would come back, and the Philistine leaders thought they were doing it for them. One day, they want to go out to fight against Israel; David and his guys go along, and the leaders of the Philistines say, «This isn’t good because he’ll turn on us in the middle of the war, and then all the Jews will know David is our king.» So there’s this big conflict that goes on. David gets rejected by the Philistines. So he’s rejected by Saul, rejected by the Israelites, and rejected by the Philistines. You’ve had a bad day when the devil rejects you!
So he rejects them; they go back to their own town, Ziklag. When they come to the outskirts of town, they see that there’s a fire. Let’s pick it up in verse one; we’ve got several verses to read, so I hope that you have your Bibles open to First Samuel 30.
«It happened when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south of Ziklag, attacked Ziklag, burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great. They did not kill anyone but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire. Their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power or strength to weep.»
David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitis and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive. Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved—every man for his sons and daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. That’s the hinge of the chapter; everything changes from this point on.
Then David said to Abiathar the priest, «Ahimelech’s son, please bring me the ephod here to me.» Abiathar brought the ephod to David, and David inquired of the Lord, saying, «Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?» And he answered, «Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them without fail, and recover all.» That last phrase, «You will recover all,» is the reason I want to talk to you this morning. I have this growing sense that we are being given an opportunity to co-labor with the Lord and to see an actual recovery of everything lost. Coming into this new year is supposed to be a year of recovery.
Now, some of you have had a tremendous last couple of years; some have had real hellish experiences, and some of you have just coasted along and aren’t even certain if anything’s happened. So we have everything in between, but regardless, each of us lives in a world full of conflict. Each of us has had expectations that have been fulfilled and others that have led to great disappointment. I have this—I’m going to call it a prophetic sense—that the Lord wants to invite us into a moment where we engage with him over a promise.
There are times in our lives when the Lord speaks to us and says, «As he spoke several times in the Old Testament, stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today.» There are moments when you don’t do anything. You literally will mess it up if you do anything. So just be still and watch, and that’s kind of what he tells us: just stand by and watch because I’m going to do something for you on your behalf.
Yet there are other times where that’s not at all what happens. Here, David inquires of the Lord. When did he inquire of the Lord? It was after he strengthened himself. I know that God brings us promises when we’re at our lowest point; I get that. But sometimes the greatest exploits come from a promise we received after we strengthened ourselves. I’m not sure exactly how to explain this, but I hope there’s a grace available to see this.
It’s like the Lord is a good steward, and he gives some of his grandest seed—his greatest promises—to those who have stewarded their hearts well. He imparts to them a promise: «You will recover all.» When did he give that to David? It was only after David strengthened himself. There are times where I’m glad the Lord rescues us; I’m thankful that there’s a good percentage of times in our lives where we didn’t do anything; he just showed up and turned it around for us. I’m thankful for those moments because they teach us about his heart as a Father—his compassions, his greatness, his grace, and his kindness—all those things are revealed in those moments. But he’s also a Father who wants sons and daughters to mature, to re-manifest what Jesus is like, and that isn’t seen in rescue; it’s seen in used authority and the demonstration of what God has imparted to us.
We have one of these moments here where David strengthened himself in the Lord, his God. It doesn’t tell us what he did. I think if you read through the Psalms, you’ll find a lot of what he did. I remember as a young pastor—I’m still a very young pastor, but I was a lot younger back then—I remember having real battles over what I was thinking. My hunger for the Lord was strong, but I was so disappointed; what I ached for and what I saw were worlds apart. That tension brought about seasons in my heart and mind where I became very self-critical. And when you become self-critical, you become dangerous because you will love your neighbor as you love yourself. Be careful around self-critical people because you may be next—that’s a good word!
I remember feeling that internal struggle and fighting my way to the top again so I could minister life on Sunday, encourage people, love people, but I would just get so discouraged and self-critical. I remember it felt like I was being forced—kindly forced—into learning tools that he placed in my life that I knew little about. Number one, I found that abandonment in worship changed me. I don’t think there’s any other process that we experience in life where we experience more personal transformation than when we come into his glory. That glorious presence is so transformative that we come in one way and leave another.
I don’t mean just singing songs—I believe in that. I would turn the music up and worship by myself at the church sanctuary in Weaverville. I would sit at the piano and play and enter into a real, real sacrifice—a real offering. It wasn’t done out of convenience; it was done out of necessity. It wasn’t warfare, in a sense; it wasn’t devil-focused. Worship should never be devil-focused. I don’t care if it destroys the powers of darkness; it still is not the focus.
So I remember coming in and singing; I generally had to rejoice before I saw breakthrough. Because it’s amazing how easy it is to hang your head and sing of his worth and leave unchanged. It doesn’t take faith to sing of his worth; it takes faith to rejoice. Because you actually have to believe you’re accepted! I remember doing that; that thing would break, and I’d come into a place of greater strength again. Then I would find certain portions of Scripture. You know, when you walk with Jesus, one of the cool things is that you have history with God in his word. I have seasons; I can take you to physical locations where I walked and wept, and I remember exactly where the Lord spoke to me out of his word and ministered to me there. It’s like that verse is my personal real estate. I own that lot; I’ll loan it to you. You can read it, you can celebrate it, but it is mine. And there are certain places like that—I think hopefully all of us have those kinds of places—where we just feel at home.
So in the times of praise and thanksgiving, something about a grateful heart changes things. It changes the focus and the priority, and giving those offerings to the Lord has been huge for me; it brings strength to me. Another thing has been getting into his word specifically. For example, I’ll go to Joshua chapter one and read verses one through nine over and over again. I’ll go to Psalm 25 because I had a tough situation years ago where the Lord ministered to me out of that Psalm, and it was life to me. I would just sit there and have tears in my eyes reading it over and over again as he healed my soul. So I have history there with God, and it may mean nothing to you, but it’s not as personal for you.
Another portion of Scripture— forgive me for making light of that—but I have blood, sweat, and tears, in a sense, over that portion of Scripture. I’ll go back there. Sometimes I’ll go to the prophets. For example, I read in Zechariah chapter nine this morning where the Lord spoke and said, «I will restore double to you.» I’ll take a chapter like that and wade into it. I’m not studying; I’m praying. I’m engaging with the author of the word. I read those promises, and he replenishes my soul.
I’m doing what I know to do to strengthen myself, taking responsibility. See, every one of us, especially anyone who has known Jesus for over a year, has to take responsibility for your own strength. Stop waiting for somebody else to make you strong. They will add to your strength, but it’s like supplements to a meal. Take the vitamin C, but drink orange juice too, you know? It’s not the meal; it’s the supplements that people provide for us.
I found that these different places have history with God in this book. Another thing I do when reading Scripture is I’ll just start in a Psalm because that’s a place of healing for me. In the book of Psalms, there’s every emotion you can imagine. I read until I hear my voice. I read until I can find on the page something I can relate to, something I identify with. I may read 20 Psalms in one sitting; I just keep reading. But once I find my voice, something begins to activate inside of me. What is it? I believe it’s a faith thing. I don’t stop and analyze it, but something’s coming alive in me, and I’m being restored in my confidence in what God has said over my life. I’m restored in my confidence in what God has said over my family or over this city or over this ministry—whatever it might be.
There’s a restoration of hope, a promise, a refined focus. Yes, this is what the Lord said! I’ve forgotten that I allowed all these inferior things to steal my strength, and I’m not doing that now. I’m refocusing. Something happens in my soul where it feels like I’ve been sitting down waiting for something to happen, and I realize, «Oh, I think I’ll just get up!» You know, that might be what he said when he said, «Arise, shine; your light has come.» It’s already happened! Get up and begin to implement what he’s already put in our arsenal, and that is this chapter: for David strengthened himself in the Lord.
But then he went to the Lord. This is probably my biggest mistake that I make in life. At this point, I know how to strengthen myself pretty well; I know how to radically obey and take risks. The biggest mistake I make is assuming he wants me to recover all. I didn’t ask him, «Do I pursue? Shall I recover all?»
I don’t know if that made that clear or not—sometimes I know too much about the potential will of God, and it drowns out my sensitivity to the particular will of God. So in this moment, instead of assuming I’m to recover all, he says, «Should I pursue them?» And if I pursue them, «Will I overtake them?» That’s a good question. There’s one place in the Bible where the Lord said to pursue, and Israel was defeated. I’ve been wanting to teach on that one because it’s so confusing. I love that; I love the bewildering stories—it’s true!
They said, «Should we pursue the enemy?» God says, «Go after it!» They do, and they lose. So they come back the next day, and they ask, «God, do we pursue?» He says, «Yes, pursue,» and they get defeated again! He never explains why. Sometimes, we just have to be reduced to our real point of strength.
The third time, they say, «Do we pursue?» and «Will we overtake?» He says, «Yes, pursue and you will overtake.» Here’s that moment for David; the Lord speaks and says, «You will recover all.» I have a sense— I believe this promise is for everybody in the room. I think, you know, for the believer, every year is the year of jubilee, so we’re always in a moment where the Lord desires to recover lost things. I believe that wholeheartedly, but there are moments when he’s breathing on a theme. When he does, there seems to be, at least in my estimation, such an exponential increase of power in that moment.
For example, the Lord can say, «This is the day of the harvest of souls.» Well, so was yesterday! But when he says it, suddenly a message that would have gotten two people saved now gets 50 people saved. Does that make sense? It’s like when he says it, there’s this accelerated activity of God involved in that moment. And while it’s true yesterday, it is even more true today.
That’s my personal sense about this verse—"Pursue and you will recover all.» My sense is that he’s looking for a church family of believers that will stand confidently in the middle of a very unusual season and say, «Father, do we pursue?» And if we do, «Will we recover all?» And he says, «Pursue, for you shall recover all.» This story unfolds, and they do recover all. It’s an extraordinary thing that none of the children or wives—none of them—were killed. All the possessions were saved; they recovered everything for the glory of God.
This passage that was actually sent to me this week—a friend of mine sent it to me as a personal promise for me and for our family—comes from Zechariah chapter 9, I think it’s verse 12, where the Lord says, «And I will restore double to you what was taken, what was stolen.» We see this in Job’s life: he lost everything, and the Lord restored twofold after he prayed for his friends. The amazing thing about the restoration of the Lord is that he restores to a better place than before. He doesn’t restore to the same place; when he restores, it’s to a place of greater strength.
They tell me that when a bone is broken and it heals, that place of the break is actually stronger than the rest of the bone. He wrote it into nature so we would know that our Creator, our Father, restores to a place of even greater strength. It’s the beauty of deep repentance; the person in this room who would have made the biggest mess of their life—when God forgives, heals, and restores, that place of greatest weakness becomes the place of great strength, of exemplary strength, strength illustrated through the repentance of that one.
So we’re in a season always, but I i just anticipate coming into 2022—I saw somebody say the other day, «2020 is just 2020 with a T-W-O.» Bad joke, bad joke—sorry! Jesus redeems all; the devil doesn’t get any holidays! I don’t care what he thinks; he doesn’t claim any year. It’s the day of the Lord, the year of the Lord for the believer; every year is a year of jubilee for the believer. Every day is the Sabbath, and for the believer, every hour is happy hour!
So here’s what I sense: we’re going to pray together because I think this is not one that you will have the opportunity to sit by and watch. I think this one is the invitation to co-labor. This requirement includes the «yes» and «Shall I pursue?» He says yes! «Will I overtake?» He says you’ll overtake! There are some of you who have lost loved ones—family members—to this whole crazy pandemic. I have a number of friends who are in heaven today as a result of that disease. I hate disease, and I remember somebody came here years ago and told us, «Whatever you tolerate will dominate.»
There has to be this—I don’t mean to verbalize it all the time; you don’t have to be obnoxious—but this internal disgust over what becomes normal. It’s not about pointing a finger or blaming someone; it’s about refusing to be okay with the disease taking so many citizens of our city and our nation. I’m not okay with it. I’m going to smile with you and celebrate the goodness of God but when I get alone with the Lord, it’s time to pray; it’s time to get serious. It was not God’s idea to destroy people’s lives with disease; that’s not him!
Jesus, when he went to clarify that issue, said, «The Son of Man came to give life.» That’s why I came! So I want to invite you; in fact, I want you to stand because we’re going to pray. I’m inviting you into a covenant—an agreement—with the Father. How many of you can think of at least one thing you would like to see recovered from the last couple of years? Yeah, I mentioned the health issue; some businesses were completely obliterated; other businesses have multiplied, and others still are literally waiting for certain things to take place because of promises.
I believe he wants to bring us into that season of fulfillment! I love praying like this, but I hate creating a lottery mentality in Christians. I don’t like that because it breeds carelessness. Instead, I want to invite you to step up to the plate and say, «Shall I pursue?» He says yes! «Will I overtake?» He says, «You’ll overtake!» I want you to be able to hear that in your own soul and your own spirit—the resonating word that says «Yes, you will recover all.»
Because then, I’m going to enlist you in an army! We have people from the Bethel family all over the world joining us right now, and I’m enlisting all of you to join us in this moment that just says, «Okay, it is time to recover.» All right, say that with me: it is time to recover! Grab a hand with the person next to you. Put a hand on their shoulder or connect with the people around you, and I want you to sacrificially pray that they would recover all. There’s something about everybody’s life in this room where we need recovery of stuff that maybe nobody else knows, but He knows. So I’m asking you right now, lift your voices and let’s pray for recovery!
All right, you did good! Go ahead and drop hands—I want to pray over you. There’s a strange part of the story that I don’t remember ever teaching on when I do this lesson. When David and his men go out to war, there are a couple hundred of his guys that are so exhausted they’re afraid if they go out to war, they’ll just die because they can’t function—they’re absolutely exhausted. David and his men that are strong enough to go to war go, and the others stay behind and guard whatever remains. After they got the victory and came back to town, it says that the worthless men among David—he still had some worthless, not-yet-delivered followers—disciple they were in process.
Those guys said, «All the spoil belongs to the guys that went to war; the guys who stayed behind get nothing.» David said, «The spoil goes equally to the guys who went to war and the guys who guarded the baggage.» Everybody in this room has a role! Some of you may just be guarding baggage because of what you’ve gone through. I’m telling you, that’s legal! Just face the right direction! I’m very serious. It’s not time to be careless; it’s time to recognize, «Okay, I can’t do the 40-day fast right now, but I can skip breakfast.» I’m going to guard my heart; I’m going to guard my relationships; I’m going to protect what I entertain.
Sometimes you can be exposed to so many things, and it doesn’t have any effect. Other times, it’s very sensitive. My wife right now cannot watch any kind of hard-hitting television. We are Hallmark Christmas people right now, watching the great mystery of romance. Within five minutes, I know what’s going to happen. But I watch it anyway because I want to!
But very seriously, we’re all in different moments, recognizing, «Okay, normally I could watch a car chase if I can use a TV example, but not today.» Just be aimed in the right direction! I am set on not only my recovery but everyone around me. We recover all! And should I gain strength where I can fast for 40 days or engage in battle or go on the streets and minister to the lost, I can, but until then, I’m at least leaning in the right direction. Does that make sense?
All right, so Father, I pray that for us as a family. Thank you so much for all who have said yes! I want you to say this with me: I will pursue; I will recover all. Father, that is our confession, and I pray that everything that happens in this next season, every measure of breakthrough that takes place, is for your glory—your glory. I am so thankful you are exalted in the fulfillment of your word! I pray that now, in Jesus' name. Amen.
One quick question before I turn things over to Dan—there’s always a high chance, because of the number of people in the room, that there may be somebody here who doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. You simply don’t know what it is to be born again, to be forgiven, to be a true disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ. Yet you feel that tug on your heart where God is literally inviting you to come into the family of God. If there’s anybody here in that place and you would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know that I’m forgiven, that I have found peace with God. I want to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus.» If that’s you, put a hand up quickly because I want to acknowledge you right where you are and make that agreement so that the miracle of salvation will begin in your life today. Put a hand up real fast if there’s anyone.
For those online, we’ve had many people come to Christ watching services. I invite you right in the box; we’ve got pastors on call there to minister to you. So just do that online—say, «I want to know Jesus; I want to receive Jesus.»
All right, so Father, let us bring a great blessing as a restorative people to our city today, in Jesus' name.