Bill Johnson - Don’t Tempt God By Forgetting His Power
We don’t limit God by failing to imagine what He’s capable of doing; we limit God when we lose the wonder for what He’s already done. Wow, well, good—uh, no, is it still morning? It is? No, no, it is not. Good afternoon! Good afternoon! Nice to see you. We only have a few minutes, and it was worth it just to spend that time. Wow, I just—I’m a mess. I hope a good one, but I know that’s what I am. I’m just an absolute mess. I’ve been a mess for a while, and it’s getting worse. It’s an interesting season. Tears are much like the kingdom; they’re always at hand, always within reach. But for me personally, tears are turning from tears of pain to tears of thankfulness, and I’m so glad. So glad! I’m just in this bubble of grace that is just unexplainable and really good, so I’m just thankful. That’s all I know to say. I should probably read some jokes so I can stop the tears.
You come from dust; you will return to dust. That’s why I don’t dust. It could be someone I know! Well, this one is true of me: How strong do you like your coffee? I want it to show up on a drug test! I tell people my coffee is so strong, you can walk on it without faith. I saw this one where this little girl comes to her mother and says, «Mommy, I’m confused. You said we were made in God’s image, but Dad says we came from monkeys.» And the mother said, «Well, honey, I was telling you about our side of the family!» Everyone has the right to be stupid; it’s just that some people abuse the privilege. This morning, I accidentally changed the GPS voice. Excuse me, I changed the GPS voice to male. Now it just says, «It’s around here somewhere. Keep driving.» One more: A friend suggested I put horse manure on my strawberries. I’m not doing that again; I’m going back to whipped cream! All right, yeah, yeah, yeah—I know, I know! I had to have at least one that met my third-grade sense of humor. You know, and that one did it!
I’ve got eight minutes, according to the clock. Is that right? Yeah? Eight minutes, and I’ll probably take ten. I can’t do even what I did in the other two services so far today; time doesn’t permit, so let me mess with what I have, and let’s just see what we can do. Here’s what I sense: I sense that the Lord is going to give us the opportunity to redefine probably many things, but specifically three words. Two of them are biblical words; biblical definition is accurate enough, but Christian culture has redefined them in a way that’s not healthy, and I believe He’s going to give us an opportunity to redefine them because He has intention and purpose.
The first one—the most offensive one—is prosperity. I believe the Lord’s going to enable us to redefine it because prosperity is basically more than enough. I tell people all the time, «Listen, if you’re not hungry for more than what you have, then you’re being selfish.» If you can exist in the middle of the world problems that we have right now that just are simply asking for a dollar, and you can look at that and not be moved to cry out for more, then you’re too self-centered. There is a pursuit of more that is holy—it’s true! I know why people are offended: because it’s been so abused, but it’s in the Bible, so get over it! It’s a biblical subject, and the Bible teaches pretty clearly the Lord’s intent. We tend to measure prosperity by what we have instead of by what we’ve given away.
I believe the second one is Holiness. Holiness, you know, is the absolute beauty of God—it’s the gorgeous essence of His person. Yes, I wrote something. Let me—I was thinking about this yesterday. I said, «There are attitudes, words, and behaviors that violate the essence of Holiness; they can and must be avoided at all costs. Yet Holiness is more about what you can do than what you can’t. Holiness is the beauty of God, and that beauty is to be explored with a childlike heart of adventure and curiosity. Holiness is the art of God, filled with color, contrast, and perfect design. To involve ourselves in these things is to return to our original purpose and design. It is in the pursuit of Holiness that we cannot get rid of self, but instead, self must be sanctified to His heart, which is, in part, consistent with our original design where we express Him accurately.» I hope that makes sense. It is the exploration of His person, His presence, His being, His nature. That is art itself. It is the essence of all beauty. All beauty stems from the nature of His own Holiness, and to reduce it to what we can’t do is an actual violation of the invitation of God to come and co-labor and partner with Him in such a way that He is represented well and accurately.
The third one is patriotism. This is the one I’ll have the most fun with, but not today—just enough to create a mess, and that’s just a gift that I have. The enemy is working to erase lines between male and female, between nation and nation, yes, between race and race. I don’t want all races to be the same; I want us to celebrate the uniqueness and beauty of each race. The other is a horrible counterfeit! Uniformity is not unity. Unity requires diversity, and if we don’t work to protect that, every nation should have a strong flow of patriotism. It’s not this nation versus another; it’s the responsibility we have to care for our nation.
Now, I’m going to give you—I’ve never shared this till today among the previous two services and now. I had a dream maybe six months ago—could have been eight, but somewhere earlier this year. In this dream, I had an encounter with the Lord. I was asking Him a question; it was about something He did and didn’t do in His ministry. It wasn’t a question out of offense; it was a question out of curiosity. If I could reduce this moment to my own language, it would be like, «God, I know You’re absolutely perfect, but You didn’t do this. I’m not offended by it; You didn’t do this. Why are You with me?» All right? So the question had to do with slavery—probably the biggest black mark in American history, and many other nations is the whole issue of slavery. It’s such a horrible part of our history, and the atrocities that were done in that era. And yet, many believers use the fact that back in Civil War days, Jesus didn’t teach against slavery openly; they used the absence of His conversation on the subject as a validation of the subject.
So I was asking the Lord in this dream, and I said, «You didn’t teach against slavery.» And this is what He said, word for word: «Yes, but I put within you seeds of the Kingdom that would make slavery intolerable.» Come on, Sir! Now think with me for a minute. I realize dreams are subjective; I don’t ever want to equate that with Scripture, but I think there’s something there that really has rocked me, and I’ve carried it for six months: There are times where Jesus isn’t saying something now, but He’s doing a work in you that, if that work matures, you will be able to address that very thing that needs to be addressed at a later, more appropriate date. Does that make any sense? «I put within you seeds of the Kingdom that would make slavery intolerable.»
So what other seeds has He put in us? In John 16, Jesus made the statement: «I have so many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now.» Yeah, I’m not trying to add to Scripture. You know, we have folks out there that will read into that, and I’m not saying that. But I am saying He has created a momentum in our soul that as it comes to fruition, we will be able to address more accurately what loyalty to our own nation looks like. It will not be divisive, but it will not be completely inclusive. Solomon was inclusive as he made covenants with other nations and their gods—not doing that, not going there. So the Lord’s going to give us the opportunity, I believe, to redefine patriotism in a very, very powerful way.
All right, I just ran out of time. How did I do that? I’m going to read two Scriptures for you, and I will wrap this up. We tell all our speakers, «Do not go over,» because we create messes in our parking lot. When we first went to four services, the first Sunday we went over just a few minutes—five maybe—and we had friends that were stuck in the parking lot for 45 minutes. Yeah, we’ve been throwing ashes on ourselves ever since. Let me read this to you, and then I’m going to wrap it up with a statement.
It’s in Psalm 78:41–42: «Yet again and again—just listen carefully—yet again and again they tempted God; they limited the Holy One of Israel. They did not remember His power the day He redeemed them.» Okay, listen to what He says: they limited God by how? By not remembering His power. Here’s the statement: we don’t limit God by failing to imagine all that He’s capable of; that would be cruel for the one who is limitless to expect the limited to comprehend what He’s about to do, are you with me? Yeah, we don’t limit God by failing to imagine what He’s capable of doing; we limit God when we lose the wonder for what He’s already done. We limit God when we’ve lost the wonder. This is our hard drive. We’ve all got lots of memories in the hard drive right here— we have working knowledge. I can go back to events throughout my life, but working knowledge—my wife died eight and a half weeks ago. I don’t think about it all the time, but it’s right here. I’m remodeling my house, which I’ve been doing for four years. Actually, I’m not doing it; I’m paying people to do it, because I don’t want Jesus to return, destroy it, and say, «That was horrible!» If I did it, I’d have to hire an expert after I was through to fix what I fixed! Yeah, been flying at the speed of cash for four years; thus, the slowness. But I now have the money to finish—it’s the only reason I mention it. That’s not on my mind all the time, but it’s here; it’s working knowledge. I’ve got dreams, plans, things I’ve got going. I’ve got a dear friend who has touched me so deeply—that’s working knowledge. My family—some of the things we’ve been able to do in recent weeks—I don’t think about it all the time; it’s right here. It’s just working knowledge. The miraculous works of God have to stay in working knowledge to have their effect on us, to help us see the world around us correctly.
Let’s stand. All right. Oh, Jesus, help us. Fast. Help us fast! Why don’t you just come on up here and add a gorgeous face to this service? All right!