Bill Johnson - How Testimony Keeps Hope Alive
God designed us to live in the strength of hope, but here’s the bottom line: the measure of hope that you live with, the measure of hope that I live with, is entirely up to me. It is what I choose to feed my soul. I want you to look at this verse with me in Psalm 78. Excuse me, Psalm 78. Hopelessness is heart disease in the church; it is the root of heart disease. We were designed to be robust believers in the nature of God.
Faith does not put me in control; faith does not control God. Faith does not manipulate Him to where He has to do what I want. Faith puts me in the greatest place of co-laboring with Him. Sure, He is able to fulfill His own desires through cooperative people. How many of you believe «on earth as it is in heaven» is the will of God? I mean, honestly, that’s actually what He intends. Is it happening? What’s not happening is not because He lacks the desire or has not put at our disposal what is needed. That may be too large of a piece for me to take with 13 minutes left, but let’s just try. It’s not because there’s a lack on His end of the equation; He’s done everything necessary. Now it’s up to you and me to explore and discover what He has provided for us.
Well, why did this happen? I don’t know; I don’t have answers for most things. But I do live aware of the fact that there are realities surrounding certain problems that we’ve not yet learned how to dismantle. In this pursuit of the One who hides things for us lies the pursuit of solutions, answers, and breakthroughs one by one that align this part of the world with heaven, and that is our task. That’s our responsibility—to implement «on earth as it is in heaven.» Psalm 78 is a tremendous psalm; it’s an aerial view of Israel’s history, their successes, their failures, their failures, their failures, and a moment of success again in their field. It’s kind of an aerial view of how and why these things happened, and it’s an extraordinary psalm. What He does in this psalm is highlight the elements that brought about their success, the elements that made life work for them the way He designed it to work.
Do you remember when the Lord spoke to the nation of Israel while they were captive in Egypt? They were released, and He gave them the promise of the Promised Land. Does anyone remember that story, or are you just staring at me? Alright, Dan remembers, so I’m going with you, Dan! You and me! Alright, so we have this whole thing of the Promised Land; did a whole generation get in? Nope. Did God lie? No, they just disqualified themselves from what He promised. What we’re learning to do is how to not disqualify ourselves from what God intended. Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we miss it by a mile. Is anybody tracking with me here? Alright, I’ll just talk to myself then!
So let’s go to Psalm 78, verse 5. He says, «He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel.» Okay, testimony means a spoken or written record of anything God has done, and a law means God gives us commandments to ensure our success. His commandments are not restrictions or restraints; they are not to keep us from pleasure. His commandments keep us from immediate pleasure that destroys long-term pleasure—immediate success that destroys long-term success. Thanks to my credit, I can buy things I will regret buying later every month, being a slave to that payment. What the Lord does with His commandments is command us for long-term success instead of just immediate gratification. If we could see that, we would celebrate every time He said «yes» or «no.» We would celebrate every «no» because we know it’s connected to a better «yes.»
He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they might arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God. The numerical standard says they may set their confidence in God. Okay, think this through with me: the Lord says, «I’ve given you commandments; these are the directives I have for your life. They ensure your success. Suck it up and do it!» The testimony—don’t forget the God who invades the impossible! If you’ll make these known to your children and ensure that they make them known to their children, it will be instinctive for that next generation to place their hope in God. Why? Because seeing the commandments and the fruitfulness of the commandments of the Lord and the testimony of the Lord sets a person up for hope.
So I would say this: hope comes from the presence, from the testimony, and from the commandments. When you see them as God designed them, they give us reason to hope. David would talk about waking up in the middle of the night to meditate. He would meditate on the testimony of the Lord; he would meditate on the commandments of the Lord. It probably wouldn’t hurt for all of us to develop a better habit of contemplating the directives that God has given us in our lives. For some of you, the Lord has restrained your activity in this area of life because He wants you to give yourself to this area of growth. Just to stop and think and allow God to work in and through your imagination releases such great hope because you have this anticipation.
I’m saying «no» to the movie channel today because next summer we’re going on vacation. It’s the long-term delight and pleasure that keeps us filled with anticipation and hope. Hope deferred makes the heart sick; desire realized is a tree of life. God designed us to live in the strength of hope, but here’s the bottom line: the measure of hope that you live with, the measure of hope that I live with, is entirely up to me. It is what I choose to feed my soul. If I feed my soul on all the things that didn’t happen, I will have what’s called common sense—very common and little sense. But when you take on the mind of Christ and realize, «I don’t need an explanation for this; what I do need is a sense of presence and to know what to do next. I just need to know what He requires of my life.»
This psalm—I love this psalm for many reasons, but one is: He says, «Make them known to your children; have them make these things known to their children so that they may hope in God.» What’s the point? A person who embraces the word of the Lord and the testimony of the Lord, these miracle components, embraces these two things and casts such a long shadow that multiple generations are inspired into hope because of the decisions they’ve made. Think about it: you stand before the Lord, and you see people you never met, you never knew their names, but you find that you made a hard decision in this moment, you made a challenging decision here; you chose to save instead of spend, metaphorically speaking. You chose to restrict yourself here and had such influence that multiple generations grew up inspired to just believe God, to just trust God because of your decision. It’s the beauty of a hope-filled life.