Bill Johnson - Divine Health Is Your Inheritance
It would be tragic to come to the end of time and have the only generations that experience divine health be people who were not born again in rebellion against God. In these matters, this is the knowledge that leads to the burning conviction where we contend for the purity, holiness, and righteousness of God to actually be on display in every part of our lives. This past week in Portugal, I had such a wonderful time. We went out to hang out for a few minutes following a meeting, and Ben Fitzgerald and Jean-Luc found a man walking into the back of this restaurant area. They went over, started a conversation with him, and moments later, I saw them kneeling down around his knee, grabbing his knee, and praying for him. They had some word of knowledge or something for this guy; you know, just an innocent guy walking through to them. He had neon lights, you know? «Yeah, me, me, pick me!»
So they kneel. It was fun to watch; I just sat there and observed them. They laid hands on him and held his knee, and Ben said, «Man, did you feel that?» The guy replied, «Yes, I did,» and his knee was cracking, popping, and moving around, and the Lord completely healed him. It was fun to watch. Divine health is your inheritance. We don’t know a lot about it yet, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. You’ve got to ask questions and look in the book. There are insights there that will unfold to us in due time. Don’t deny it because you don’t understand it. The children of Israel had divine health in the wilderness. Who were they? They were not born again; they were in rebellion against God, and they experienced divine health.
It would be tragic to come to the end of time and have the only generations that experience divine health be a people who were not born again in rebellion against God. In these matters, this is the knowledge that leads to the burning conviction where we contend for the purity, holiness, and righteousness of God to actually be displayed in every part of our lives. So they continued to counsel this gentleman and shared the Lord with him. The guy said, «Hi, my name’s Bob,» and Jean-Luc said, «It’s so good to meet you.» He replied, «It’s interesting because I have a friend in the United States named Bob Harrison.» He looked at me and asked, «How did you know my last name? I didn’t tell you my last name.»
That was fun to watch because Jean-Luc, when he heard «Bob,» immediately thought «Bob Harrison.» It wasn’t until afterward that he realized he hadn’t given his last name. Needless to say, that had his attention: «How did you know my last name?» He got healed, and the word of knowledge operated; God knew him and identified him. These are the normal expressions of the Gospel, but as long as we have hang-ups about experiencing that which already belongs to us, it will be magnified as we try to take it out of the house to the people whose hearts could be won with a simple word, a simple gift, a simple prayer. The Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. As a result, you go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. That may be an offensive picture to you, but there’s youth involved; «fat» was health—well-fed—and then trample the powers of darkness. You need a certain weight to trample the Son of Righteousness arising, announcing a new day.
Holiness, purity, and power working in tandem will cause the people of God to rise up with a level of personal health and authority. Let me describe «fatness» as an expression of the anointing and authority that enables us to crush and destroy the powers of darkness that have afflicted and tormented people. You’re going to see in your personal life the opportunity to bring deliverance to others. It’s not just about healing; people need to be set free from demons that have tormented them. I tell you, it’s not popular in the American church, but they are there, and seeing people free is such a great privilege for us. I remember this vividly because of this last week when my former secretary, Judy Franklin—how many of you remember Judy? Such a sweet person, such a great help to me; she still is, actually. She lives in Nashville now with her daughter but still helps me in the ministry.
When she started working for me, within a short time, her husband came up to me and said, «Would you pray for Judy?» I said, «Yeah, what’s up?» He mentioned she had a kidney infection or something. He went back to get her, and when she came out, I prayed for her. I asked, «How are you doing?» She said, «Do you want to know the truth?» I said, «Yes, of course I want to know the truth.» She replied, «It’s worse.» I said, «That’s good! Amen! That’s awesome!» because now we know what it is. Anytime an affliction gets more painful under prayer, it’s because the anointing torments a demon. The reason he increases the pain is to try to bring fear to the sick person and to the one praying.
Why do you think when the disciples tried to cast demons out of the child—remember the dad in Mark 9 who brought his child to the disciples to be healed and delivered? The demon threw him into the fire and water, trying to kill him, and he was foaming at the mouth on the ground, creating a huge scene. Why was he creating a scene? To instigate fear in the people doing the ministry. Anytime the devil is in the open, that’s his last card; that’s not his best card. Thank you. His best card is hiding in the pew, trying to be concealed in a religious setting, unrecognized and unidentified. Whenever he’s flushed into the open, his last effort is to ignite fear in people, and he does so with extreme manifestations. The disciples couldn’t deliver, even though they were experienced in deliverance. The father saw Jesus and brought the child to Him, and He delivered him.
As soon as He did, the disciples took Jesus aside and asked, «Why couldn’t we do it?» It was a legitimate question because they had experience; He had already entrusted them to go to their hometowns, and they saw great amounts of healing and deliverance. They were shocked when it didn’t work. This tells me they already had a history of success. How would you like to be shocked when it didn’t work instead of shocked when it did? Yeah, amen, huh? Jesus said, «This kind only comes out with prayer and fasting.»
It’s a profound lesson that some obstacles can only be removed through prayer and fasting. For me, the bigger lesson is that when the disciples didn’t get an answer, they took Jesus aside because they wanted to find out why. They were not willing to live with an unanswered prayer. The lack of conviction and the absence of a burning heart enable us to coexist with unanswered prayers as if it did not matter. The Lord is stirring up a zeal that’s based on the righteousness and purity of God, a zeal that helps bring about a new day—a new day of miracles, a new day of the demonstration of God for the people.