Bill Johnson - Character and Impartation, Why You Need Both
It’s that character that can carry the weightiness of what God is doing in the Earth. He’s looking for people He can entrust Himself to. One of the most significant truths to be embraced and taught in the last 20 plus years has been the whole concept of impartation. It’s such a rich truth because there can be a grace, an anointing, a gifting on one person’s life; they can pray for someone else, and that person may actually start functioning in that area. But what’s kind of humorous to me—please forgive my sense of humor—is that oftentimes people come and ask for prayer for something that is actually a mark of maturity, and you can’t achieve maturity through impartation.
If only that were true! Man, we could just line up and be like Paul tomorrow. Maturity comes from choices and making decisions. You can pray for someone; you can be one minute old in Jesus and pray for somebody who has cancer, and they can be healed. The gifting didn’t come from maturity; it just came from grace. Maturity comes when you are faced with decisions. What will you do with the fact that somebody just got healed through you? Do you think it’s your significance? Do you think you are the source of the gift? Do you think you’re the source of the faith? How is the story shared? Is it shared with you at the center or with Jesus? All we do in those moments is allow the Lord to measure what realm or measure of glory we can carry.
See, the original target of the Lord for every person was to actually live in the glory of God, and just for simplicity’s sake, we will define the glory as the manifested presence of Jesus—it’s the actualized presence of God. So the scripture says all have fallen short of the glory of God. So sin means to miss the mark. Sin causes people to miss God’s intended target; what was the intended target? The glory of God—to live in the manifested presence of Christ, not just as a point of theology, not just as a point of doctrine, «I am in Christ; He is in me,» but more than that, an actualized, realized reality that we live from, where we see the God of scripture appear in unusual ways and rest upon people in unusual ways.
The manifestations in the temple or tabernacle are actually the manifestations that are potentially a part of everybody in this life who has a personal relationship with Jesus. So all have sinned and fall short of the glory. Mr. Martin, what does salvation do? It restores us to the target; it doesn’t restore halfway to the target so that in heaven we can get the rest. When Jesus said it was enough, He actually meant He did everything needed to accomplish the original plan. So Jesus intends to live among us, live in us, and rest upon us. But there are measures of presence that are yet to be discovered, that have been discovered in prior generations. This isn’t the subject of this, so I have to be careful not to get too lost in that, but let me just say this: His desire is to fully reveal Himself—who He is—upon His people.
However, the weightiness of that revelation would crush many people who are following the Lord because there are fractures in their thinking and fractures in their values. It’s not that they don’t genuinely love Jesus; it’s just that they have a weakness in their foundation that needs to be revealed gently and carefully so that the Lord can bring healing there. It is true; the Lord’s not afraid of bringing junk up in our life and bringing it to the surface, but He brings it to the surface so it can be dealt with. He never brings it to the surface to shame us or to mock us. He only brings it out so that we will see what He’s been seeing all along. What confession is, is we just make an agreement with what He already knows to be true. «Oh God, forgive me; I’m so arrogant and proud.» He says, «Yeah, I knew that; that’s not a shock to me. I just allowed you to see it in this situation that you’re just very self-centered.» So, we’re going to break that. What happens? He brings it to the surface so that we can acknowledge it. Because once we deeply confess and repent, He gives us the grace to forsake that which kept us in bondage.
All right, back to the subject. So the choices that we have throughout life are where the muscle of integrity, the muscle of character, is developed. In lifting weights, for example, if you lift a light weight 100 times, it’s not going to build muscle. It’s when you lift something that really pushes your capacity. Maybe you can only lift that thing three times, but it’s the third time that requires the most effort. It’s the hardest lift that actually accomplishes the most. When we have difficult situations arise in our life, it’s always for the purpose of building character—never to shame, never to mock, never to intimidate or humiliate. It’s always the invitation to come into Christ, into a place of greater strength. That’s why, in 1 Thessalonians 5, He says, «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will in Christ Jesus concerning you.» Think through this now: rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will in Christ concerning you.
One of the most frequently repeated prayers or requests from this family of believers, especially including our school, is this heart to know God’s will for our life. Generally, what that is reduced to is: «God, do You want me to be a missionary, a veterinarian, a school teacher, a pastor, or whatever?» What does He want us to do? It’s a legitimate prayer; it’s a legitimate request. I’m not sure God is as concerned about that as He is about this: «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.» For this is the will of God for my life.
I remember as a young man, just after starting to pastor in Weaverville, I was reading through Thessalonians, going through these verses, and these phrases just jumped out at me: «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.» I came face to face with the fact that I could have those three verses, and it would take the rest of my life for me to learn them. If I had nothing else to read but those three verses, I’d have a full-time job ahead of me. To rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks means you have disciplined responses to various difficulties, challenges, and opportunities that you face. You have disciplined responses that help form and shape the character in us. Remember, it’s that character that can carry the weightiness of what God is doing in the Earth. He’s looking for people He can entrust Himself to. The whole impartation idea came as I’ve been thinking for years: if there’s one thing I could ask of the Lord to impart to people, it would be a thankful heart. You just don’t get it through impartation; you get it through choices.