Bill Johnson - The Power of Choosing Joy
And there’s something about the joy of God that is not subject to circumstances; it is not subject to world conditions. It is not dependent on whether or not my dreams have been answered. It lives because the Spirit of the resurrected Christ lives in me, and His nature is a nature of joy. Well, it’s nice to see you; I’m glad you showed up. I have something to read here that I haven’t read in quite a while. It’s an oldie but a goodie, so just pretend it’s new. By the way, bless you all, our online family community too; we just love that we get to do this together.
Several men are in the locker room of a golf club when a cell phone begins to ring on the bench. A man engages the hands-free speaker function and begins to talk. Everyone else in the room stops to listen.
«Hello,» he says.
«Hi, honey, it’s me. Are you at the club?»
He responds, «Yes, I’m at the shops now, and I found this beautiful leather coat. It’s only two thousand dollars. Is it okay if I buy it?»
«Sure, go ahead if you like it that much,» she continues. «I also stopped by the Mercedes dealership and saw the new models. I found one I really liked.»
He asks, «Well, how much?»
She replies, «It’s two hundred thousand dollars.»
He says, «Well, okay, but for that price, I want it with all the options.»
She responds, «Great! And one more thing: I was just talking to Janie and found out the house I wanted last year is back on the market. They’re asking 2.2 million dollars for it.»
He replies, «Well, go ahead; make an offer of 2 million. They’ll probably take it. If not, we can go the extra 200,000 if it’s really what you want.»
She says, «Okay, I’ll see you later. I love you so much.»
He responds, «I love you too.» The man hangs up the phone, and the other men in the locker room are staring at him in astonishment, mouths wide open. He turns and asks, «Anyone know who this phone belongs to?»
To me, this is a perfect story. It’s just a perfect story.
Oh boy! All right, open your Bibles, if you would, to Nehemiah chapter 8. There’s a story I love; I love the whole book of Nehemiah. I remember, oh goodness, almost 50 years ago, I took a period of time of months—I think it was six months—where I studied that book over and over again, every day for six months, because I felt a real prompting from the Lord through a word that my aunt had given me to look at that book. Anyway, it has been a favorite ever since. The Lord spoke to me out of chapter eight some time ago in a way that really has marked my thinking, and I hope to pass it on as we study this together. I don’t know; it’s probably been 10 years now. But every once in a while, I like to bring it up and talk about it again.
But before we actually read this, I want to talk to you about three words that have unfortunately been redefined by Christian culture instead of kingdom culture. They’re biblical terms, but when they’re not understood according to biblical definition, we end up creating a culture that lowers our standard of living to create explanations for the absence of breakthrough instead of launching us into pursuing greater breakthrough. The church often creates theology around what didn’t happen instead of what the Scripture says did happen. The Pool of Bethesda is a great example. History tells us there were probably 900 to a thousand people there, and Jesus healed one person. The Bible celebrates the healing of the one, but if it were to happen today, all the interviewers would be talking to the 900 that didn’t get healed: «How did it feel for Jesus to walk past you?» and theology would be created around what didn’t happen.
So I want to talk to you about these four words, counting the word «joy» that we’re going to look at in chapter eight, but three words set us up for them. The first one is the word «hope.» We talked about it last week. I spoke about the issue of hope, the nature of hope, and the requirement for me to maintain a heart of hope. The word hope in our culture is basically a wish: «Man, I wish that would happen,» or «I hope that happens.» It sounds like, «You know, if things work out well, maybe this will come about.» That is not the biblical definition of hope. The biblical word hope actually means the joyful anticipation of good. Hope gives you permission to enjoy the emotional benefits of an answered prayer before it ever happens. That was better than your response; that was a lot better! Hope gives us permission to experience the joy of a breakthrough before the breakthrough comes.
The joyful anticipation of good is actually my favorite definition. Watching my wife’s family’s Christmas time, I remember the video cameras and some of the older people remember the spotlights that could peel paint off the wall; they were so hot and bright! My father-in-law would set up the camera, and Benny, my wife, and her siblings would be at the end of the hall just jumping up and down on Christmas morning, waiting for them to say, «Merry Christmas!» As soon as he said, «Merry Christmas!» they would come running down that hall, turn around that corner, dive into the Christmas tree, and begin to open gifts. That excitement at the end of the hall—that’s hope. That bouncing up and down back there—that’s actually the best definition I know of hope. They didn’t know what was there; they just knew it was good. That’s the biblical word hope.
Hope is something that I can set myself up to increase in my life. I talked about this last week; I don’t want to repeat that, but I can’t create faith, but I can engage with God in a way that builds hope, and hope is the atmosphere that faith grows in. Hope is like the soil in a pot; then you plant the seed of faith, and it grows in that atmosphere of hope. Hope is the expectation of good; it is something that should actually drive the heart, the thoughts, and the prayers of every believer. What would happen if we prayed in expectation of good and not just took a shot in the dark hoping something will happen?
The second word that I want to share is «wait.» The phrase «wait on the Lord» for most of us means to sit down and do nothing and make room for Him to do something. I hear leaders say, «Well, God knows we want revival; He knows where our address is.» If that thought ever comes to mind, slap yourself, or ask your friend to do it because they’ll gladly do it! Is anybody else glad the wise men didn’t stay in the Middle East, but they actually traveled toward something? They were in pursuit of something. The word «wait» on the Lord—especially like in Psalms 37—actually means to lie in wait; to lie in wait like setting up an ambush. It is reducing my options and refining my focus because I’m about to enter a God moment, and I don’t want to miss it.
That’s what waiting on the Lord is. I’m a deer hunter—if you don’t like that, just pretend I take pictures because all my hunts end with pictures! I would never go down to Mount Shasta mall to hunt deer; there aren’t any there. The whole point in lying in wait is to discover where He’s at. Well, God is everywhere, but I watched in the early '90s as people traveled from all over the world because they heard a rumor that God was moving powerfully in Toronto. Entire plane loads of people from England would be loaded with seekers just going because they heard God was doing something. One of the greatest acts of arrogance in the life of a believer is to sit back, do nothing, and say, «If God wants me to have it, He knows where I’m at.» Absolute arrogance! It’s normal to hunt and pursue. I’m liberally using my favorite words here, but you get the point. You position yourself with a refined focus for a potential God moment because they don’t all come with blazing horns and angelic crowds. Most of the God moments that change people’s lives start very subtly.
So waiting on the Lord is to lie in wait. It’s anything but sitting back and doing nothing. It’s actually positioning myself for what God is about to do.
The third word is «patience.» I’m not going to ask how many of you want to increase in patience because you know what that’ll do! But here’s my friend Joe McIntyre; he’s home with the Lord now, but he did a word study. He has a number of wonderful books, and he took an old book from many years ago called «Throne Life» and brought it up to date through his own experience. Tremendous book! In James chapter one, verses two through four, let me read these for you: «My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect, complete, lacking nothing.»
Does anybody want the perfect, complete, lacking-nothing realm? Well, it’s on the other side of the door called patience, and it’s literally going through that realm, which is a fruit of the Spirit, and that means it’s evidence of His working in a person. Now here’s what I never understood, though: how the word is actually translated and what it actually means. Patience in our world is often viewed as passive toleration of things we don’t like.
Amen, Bill—good point!
All right, the word translated as «patience» two times in these verses is defined as independent, unyielding, defiant perseverance in the face of aggressive misfortune, and thus, to a kind of courageousness. Just in case you were daydreaming, let me read this to you again. This is patience—not the passive toleration of things we don’t like. Independent: many of you may already qualify for that one, right? There’s a joke! Unyielding—here’s my favorite part: defiant perseverance in the face of aggressive misfortune that provokes in us a kind of courageousness. What is patience? It is the intolerance of the enemy’s work to kill, steal, and destroy, and it provokes and builds in us a kind of courageousness that just says «Enough!» That’s patience!
Now, Nehemiah 8. Are you still there? I hope so! Nehemiah chapter 8—let me give you the context. Ezra and Nehemiah were at one time one book; they have since been divided because they deal with two separate focuses and subjects. Ezra deals with the rebuilding of the temple. What happened for Israel is that through their sins, first of all, they followed the Lord into the promised land. They inherited all this land through their sin and rebellion; they lost their inheritance and became exiles outside their own land. The Lord, in responding to their repentance, sent them back to restore and rebuild what had been destroyed. The first thing they did was move back into Jerusalem and rebuild the temple—the dwelling place of God. It’s very much like an individual. No matter what kind of a mess your life has been, when we come to Christ, the first thing that takes place is that you get born again, and the Spirit of God comes and dwells in you, and then begins the rebuilding process of the walls of our own city, our own hearts, our own lifestyles, etc.
So Ezra was a rebuilding of the temple, while Nehemiah is the rebuilding of the walls of the city itself. Interestingly, Israel had been working on rebuilding the walls for over 70 years. I forget the exact number, but over 70 years! They would build something at night; then the enemy would come and tear it down, and they just had this hopeless approach to their assignment. Nehemiah came and helped them rebuild in 52 or 54 days (I forget the exact number). They were able to achieve what they couldn’t do in 70 years—what they couldn’t do in a lifetime—with the Holy Spirit, they could do in under two months! The name Nehemiah means «comforter,» and it’s a picture of the partnership with the Spirit of God that enables us to get things done in us that we can never do on our own. It really is the picture of the prophetic story behind the book of Nehemiah.
They have found the Scriptures, which they had lost, and now Israel is standing, if you can imagine, in this walled city—a great community. They find the Scriptures, and the entire group of people shows up. There’s a mass of people, and they’re standing on their feet, with infants and children, for five to six hours at the reading of Scripture. They’re reading Scripture, priests are running out among the crowd explaining what is being read, and also translating because of language issues. Hebrew and Aramaic were the languages in the culture they were in. If you can imagine the reading of Scripture, there’s a pause, and priests would run out to explain to different groups so that everybody could understand.
So here they are, standing in this pregnant moment for five to six hours at the reading of Scripture. That’s where we’ll pick up in verse six of Nehemiah eight. «Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, 'Amen! Amen! ' while lifting up their hands, and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.» The last part of verse 7 says, «The Levites helped the people to understand the law, and the people stood in their place.» Verse 8: «They read distinctly from the book, the law of God, and they gave sense and helped them to understand the reading.»
Verse 9: «Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people: 'This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep, ' for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.»
Here’s the picture: Excuse me for a second… Oh my! You ever have a tickle that’s way down there that touches places? Let’s not go there.
All right, wow! But I feel new; I feel better!
At the reading of the Word, the people saw. If you can imagine, they’ve never heard the Scriptures before; they’ve heard statements, made principles, concepts, but never the Word of God read to them. Then suddenly, it’s read. Here is the standard of God for our lives, and here is our present experience. The people were so overwhelmed by the distance between those two realities—they didn’t just get misty-eyed; they began to sob as a crowd. They began to weep and weep, and the most amazing thing—this is an evangelist’s dream! As you read the Scripture, and everybody is already weeping before you’ve preached, they are ready to make a decision.
And the Holy Spirit speaks to the leaders and says, «Tell them to stop crying!» Why? «This day is holy!»
Now there’s a conflict right there because most of us were raised in an environment where holiness is often evidenced by weeping and mournfulness over sin. And that’s right; I don’t ever want to get rid of that, but there’s a God moment here for the nation of Israel that redefines how He works in this thing called grace. There are many glimpses of grace in the Old Testament, and this is one of them.
So they run up among the people and say, «Stop weeping!» «This is a holy day; stop mourning, stop weeping!» Then he goes on in verse 10, saying: «Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.»
Let me put it in my terms; it’s as though these men of God are declaring to the people of God, «You’re in a place where you need incredible strength, and you will not get it through mourning. Mourning will only take you so far. You will have to experience undeserved joy. You will have to experience what you can never earn for yourself to understand the grace that will empower you from this day on.»
Much of Christian culture in the Western world is a me-centric culture. So much of it is focused on just our individual walk and individual experience. There are aspects of that that are true—God has no grandchildren; it’s all personal, one-on-one. Each one of us has a moment where we surrender to Christ; it’s one-on-one. But at the same time, we are also made members of a body. We are part of an «us» that is beyond anything any single one of us could ever accomplish, achieve, or become. We’re part of a much bigger picture, and because of that, sometimes we miss one thing that I don’t know who instituted. I think it goes back to David’s life. If it was before him, I’ve missed it, but he would say, for example, «All right, this section here, you guys; you’ll be responsible to come into the tabernacle of worship tonight at 2 a.m. You will have the 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. shift, and your assignment is to give thanks.»
I thought thankfulness was what you did when you had a thankful heart, but he said, «No, you’re to go give thanks!»
«Yeah, but shouldn’t we cultivate a thankful heart first?»
You can obey your way into a thankful heart. Just give thanks! It’s the part of the gospel that is often overlooked in this kind of a culture where it’s about my call, my ministry, my assignment, my whatever, my family, my— instead of realizing that there is a corporate expression that is necessary. Sometimes the greatest way to personal liberty is saying yes to the corporate expression!
You’re assigned to give thanks. «Well, what should I be thankful for?» I don’t care; make a list! «Yes, God, I thank You for bringing our forefathers out of Egypt and into the promised land.» All right, sounds hollow, sounds empty, but guess what? When you begin to join your heart, your mind, your words, and your physical expression to that mandate of God, something begins to work inside!
And this right here is the same thing. You can rejoice your way into joy! «Well, I don’t want to be phony.» Or you’re phony if you don’t! You call yourself a believer, but you only do what you feel? Not you; it’s them other folks!
There’s a reality in God that you don’t grab hold of because you try hard—you grab hold of it because you said yes! And He did what He said He would do, and you find yourself holding the very thing you were hungry for but didn’t know how it happened.
«Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!» That’s fascinating because I grew up in a good environment, but joy was not a part of the expression. You know, God forbid people who are so offended at Toronto ask, «Where’s laughter in the Bible?» I’m thinking, «Ever hear the word joy?» Psalm 16 says, «In His presence is fullness of joy.» Is there a remote chance that one small portion of joy includes laughter?
The complaint was those people should be weeping and repenting. I agree—unless that’s not what God is doing! Sometimes He’ll take you through the back door through an undeserved joy into a lifestyle change, and we have watched it time after time after time.
So here it is: «Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.»
Verse 11: «The Levites quieted all the people, saying, 'Be still, for the day is holy! Do not be grieved.'» All the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions, and rejoice greatly because they understood the words that were declared to them. We’re going to read that again in just a second.
«Send portions!» How many know when the last thing you feel like doing is being happy, to receive the assignment to make sure everybody else is happy—is to send portions? If you have a lot on your plate, share! Make sure that everybody around you has something to be thankful for.
«Send the fat!» That’s the more than you need part of meat. I remind you, for those of you who were not here, that Proverbs says, «The vegetables where love is are better than a fattened ox where hatred is.» It takes hatred to make meat less than vegetables.
I’m just quoting Scripture now! I’m just trying to help! Send portions of fat, drink the sweet, to those who don’t have any because this is about a corporate expression!
But then look at this: Verse 12: «Send portions! Rejoice greatly because they understood the words!» I don’t know if that stands out to you or not, but that wrecked me some years ago—it changed the way I have thought about this journey with the Lord!
Here it is: The word of God is read, the standard is here, their lifestyle is here, and yet God says, «Because you understand the difference, it’s time to rejoice!»
You don’t rejoice because you finally met the requirements; you rejoice because you understand! Something happens to the person who rejoices in response to biblical understanding that actually launches them into the very thing they ache for!
Joy is—I was going to call it the back door; maybe it’s the front door. It’s the entrance into the things of God that for so many have seemed out of reach! Yet there’s something about the obedience of rejoicing that does such transformational work in us that we find ourselves living life at a level that we thought was out of reach.
Joy is such a large commodity in heaven that the Father took joy, and it says Jesus endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. Joy was such a priceless commodity that Jesus could endure the most horrific thing to ever happen in all of human history—He could endure that—because on this side was the reward, and it was called joy.
So when the Bible says, «The joy of the Lord is your strength,» it’s not just a smile; it’s not just a giggle. It’s that internal combustion of the presence and the activity of God that makes everything else bow! Everything else is inferior to that reality of the Spirit of God inside of me! It gives me an emotional and mental encounter with the heart and mind of God at a level I’ve never known before, and rejoicing introduces me to that!
Rejoicing is oftentimes the act of faith; it’s the act of surrender that engages me to that heartbeat of God. Joy is not just the fruit of things working well; it’s actually the expression that causes things to work well!
Suddenly, when you see these glimpses of grace in the Old Testament like this, things in the New Testament, at least to me, start making more sense: «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.»
If the people of God without the Spirit of God resident in them could step into that dimension of reality in God, then how much more can those who have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside enable us to live with extreme, extraordinary joy?
I personally think, in some ways, joy is the great evidence of conversion! And if you think about it, it’s not just because things always work well. Otherwise, you could say, «They’re just good at their job,» or «They have a good family line,» or whatever you can trace back to natural things. But oftentimes, His most brilliant displays of joy are in people who have just experienced the most horrific loss!
It doesn’t mean you have to experience it first, but it just shows the contrast! It’s like the diamond against black velvet on the jeweler’s counter; there’s a backdrop that makes this thing pop!
And there’s something about the joy of God that is not subject to circumstances; it is not subject to world conditions; it is not subject to whether or not I got my dream answered or not! It lives because the Spirit of the resurrected Christ lives in me, and His nature is a nature of joy. His nature is a nature of delight.
So they rejoiced greatly because they understood the words! I especially want new believers to get that one because sometimes it just seems like there are certain parts of life that are insurmountable—so far out of reach. And yet He invites us into this rapid growth process that starts because of joy! It runs at the pace of joy!
It doesn’t run at the pace of self-determination; it runs at the pace of joy! And the person who just has such a hard time with whatever part of life—you see what the Lord looks for and requires and anticipates from our life, and it feels so overwhelming!
And yet when you start to see it from His perspective and you choose joy, you find yourself in joy, doing out of your nature what seemed to be impossible and insurmountable! There’s something that takes place in the heart of a person that yields in joy.
In many ways, the life of joy—you’re just kind of stuck with it! It’s your birthright; it was designed for you!
A lifestyle of joy isn’t living in denial that hard things are happening; that’s not an answer. Pretending is not good for us, but neither should I subject my heart, my mind, my personhood to the difficulties going on around me—otherwise, they define me.
I was just sharing this with the group down here when we took communion—one of my all-time favorite quotes of George and Ben. Actually, it’s one of my all-time favorite quotes ever, and it’s from George Benoff that Tom was quoting earlier. He made this statement: «If you’re not free from sin until death, then Jesus isn’t your Savior; death is!»
That’s amazing!
But think how that pertains to joy, how that pertains to every other aspect of life! These things are ours because Jesus bought them, not because we earned them! We didn’t prove ourselves good enough, and somehow rejoicing before I earned the right to be happy transforms me into a person that becomes qualified to live at a dimension in Christ that is otherwise unobtainable!
All right, stand up. I’m done.
So, Father, we give You thanks for the inheritance that we can never earn—joy, peace, delight—all the things that are just a part of Your kingdom that we could never earn on our own, yet they belong to us because Jesus went to battle for us.
So we just give thanks; we give You thanks that rejoicing is not empty—it’s not in vain. Our decision to celebrate Your goodness, Your promise, all that You are— to celebrate it before we experience breakthrough. God, I thank You for that privilege.
I pray for a special grace on this family of believers, our friends online from around the world—that You would release over us a grace to rejoice at the understanding of Your Word, that somehow there would be a connection—a personal breakthrough according to our surrender to Your purposes through joy. I pray this in Jesus' name.
Anytime there’s a crowd this size, there’s always a high chance that there are people here who don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus; it’s why you’re here. Jesus set the stage for all of us to taste of eternal life in the future, which is called being born again. It’s where the Holy Spirit comes and changes and transforms who we are because of our yes—because of our surrender.
I just want to invite anybody in the room that would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know what it is to have peace with God; until I know what it is to be forgiven and brought into His family.»
If there’s anybody in the room like that, I want you just to put a hand up where you are. You’re just saying, by doing so, «Bill, I want to know Jesus; I want to surrender my life to Jesus.» If there’s anybody, put your hand up real quick because I’m just going to wait a moment; I don’t want to miss anyone here.
Yeah, amen!
All right, is there somebody over here? I’m sorry; I didn’t see; I see people pointing over here. Is there somebody over here waving their hands? I missed it. If there is right down here, all right, wonderful!
I want this individual and any others that would say, «You know what? I can’t leave until I know what it is to be born again; to know what it is to be a follower of Jesus!» We’ve got a group of people over here that we know and trust, and I’m going to ask you to please make your way to talk with them. It’s not about Bethel; it’s not about anything like that; it’s about your relationship with Jesus.
And I want to encourage you to come on down over here. I’d like for a ministry team to come to the front. Everybody else, just hold your place. Dante, tell them what they want!