Bill Johnson - Living in Heaven Now
Jesus lived an ascended lifestyle. Paul would later find language for it and call it being seated in heavenly places in Christ. Tragically, it becomes a doctrine, not an experience. It was never meant to be a point of theology; it was supposed to be an invitation to help the journey: the ascended lifestyle, this place of living aware of Him, living aware of eternity, living aware of heaven itself. This place of abiding is the place of absolute triumph and victory. Has anyone twisted their knee today, yesterday, or in the last couple of days? When you did, stand up; it should be healed. Anyone else? Check, check it out; really good. I mean, do what you couldn’t do. It’s good; tell them it’s good.
There are several children, prone to ear infections, who may not be here. If you have children, young kids prone to ear infections who get them over and over again, it’s a weakness in their system, you would say, or their doctor would say. If that’s you, and you’re the parent, stand up. Or, if the parents aren’t here, the grandparents can stand up. We are going to pray and declare. Yeah, quite a few; this ends tonight. All right, this ends tonight. Extend a hand toward them, and we declare in the name of the Lord Jesus, this cycle of ear infections ends tonight. Thank you, Lord. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would recreate the way the ear functions in these folks, the chemical system; wherever there’s a breakdown, we ask for you to step in and make it right. We declare this in Jesus' name. Amen. In Jesus' name, why don’t you declare that with me? Do you know what that means? It basically means that we’re doing what He would do if He were here in the flesh. In His name, we’re using His authority, His name, to do something.
I think maybe the most important verse for me in recent years concerning my faith and my walk with the Lord is John 15, verse 7: «If you abide in Me, and My word abides in you, you ask whatever you want, and it will be done.» Living with the felt presence of God is a benefit, the benefit of a believer. I’m not talking about emotion; it affects emotions. I’m not talking about some emotional buzz; I’m talking about the felt realization of God. He is actually tangibly right here. Larry Randolph used to tell us, «If God is as big as He says He is, He shouldn’t be that hard to find.» I think that’s quite wise.
Living with the realization of the presence of God or eternity is this far away from living with a realization of heaven itself. Abiding in Christ is actually a foretaste of heaven. He is the person of heaven; there’s nothing in heaven that is separate from Him. Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, says that God ordained us to have eternity in our hearts. There are certain things like our spiritual DNA, which has eternity written in our hearts; it is who we are. Living aware of Him is the great privilege in life, and the big work of the enemy is to do whatever he can through manipulation, accusation, and these different tools he uses to distract us from the gift of living aware of Him.
I don’t know if that sounded articulate, but work with me. It’s written into our design to live consciously aware of Him; it’s not something you have to work to do; it’s something you have to learn not to do. You can worry yourself out of it, but you’ll have to work hard. He is the most predominant feature of your life, His love for us is the most extreme thing there is. Before there was sin, God had prepared a Savior; the Son of His would take upon Himself everything that you and I deserved so that we would freely inherit all that He deserved. It is so mind-boggling; it’s easiest not to think about it because it hurts. It is actually beyond our ability to wrap our heads around the fact that He actually became sin and bore the wrath of the Father in my place so that I, through a faith He gave me, could receive that gift of salvation and literally step into what He deserved. Eternity is written in my heart, and the great privilege that we have is this living aware of Him as a continual feast; it’s a constant feast. There’s no downside; the presence of God doesn’t have a shelf life; it doesn’t get old; it doesn’t become familiar.
Christian routine becomes familiar. Songs become familiar. Expressions become familiar, but nothing about the presence becomes overly familiar. Those who are stuck in ruts have lost sight of the presence and have reduced their life to routine. Chris read from Ephesians 4 this morning; a great word— in verse 11, he says that these gifts of Christ’s fivefold ministry have been given until we attain to the unity of the faith. So there was something set in motion that he says, «This is where we’re going; this is where it ends up.» There are many verses that describe where we’re going and where it ends up. We know that we have all been predestined to be like Christ; there is no plan B. There’s only Jesus, and His desire for me is to look like Jesus.
We have this description that these gifts were given until we come to the unity of faith. We’re probably at least a week or two away from that—let’s go three weeks later. Unity of faith is an extraordinary thing. I can’t even comprehend what that looks like. I haven’t had enough time being united in my own faith. There are lots of folks that can have a church split, even if they were the only member. So He says this is where we’re headed: to the unity of faith. Now you have to understand He can pull it off—until we attain to the unity of faith to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ.
It’s just easier to say that stuff’s supposed to happen in heaven. I mentioned a few weeks ago—actually, it was a Sunday morning—but I mentioned a few weeks ago that most believers have greater faith in the return of Christ than they do in the power of the gospel. The concept behind that statement is the fact that we know Jesus is coming back, and when He does, He’ll fix everything instead of us believing that the power of the gospel has been given to us to fix everything instead of Him returning to fix stuff—maybe He’s coming to pick up what is fixed. So to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Then He uses this phrase: «a mature man; a perfect man.» This is mind-boggling; this is troubling. He has actually put us on a course that says this is where you are going to end up. The people of God and the world get a bigger mess, and the church gets more divided, and He still hasn’t changed His plan. He still hasn’t said, «Too much work; never mind, I’ll just come back and fix it myself.» He just didn’t do that.
I’m fascinated by everything Jesus did, but a story that stands out to me in this moment is the fact that the disciples came to Him saying, «The crowd needs to go home; we have no food; they’re starving.» «Send them away,» they said, and Jesus said, «You feed them.» This is just a classic moment; the disciples are waiting for Him to laugh and hit him on the shoulder and say, «Just kidding,» you know, after He gives this command, but He doesn’t. He says, «You feed them.» They are nervously trying to figure out how in the world we can do that: «If we had food, we couldn’t do that.»
Jesus gives them something to do; it says, «Have the people sit down in groups of 50 and 100.» «Okay, does anybody have food here?» Yeah, there’s a kid with a lunch. All right, so Jesus could have created something out of nothing. He usually creates with something; it’s fascinating that He easily could have just made it from nothing, but these miracles we see in scripture usually started when He had something to work with.
In John’s gospel, when he talks about this situation, it said that when He broke the bread and gave thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and it became more than enough. But when He gave thanks, what did He give thanks for? He gave thanks for not enough. He gave thanks when it was way insufficient. See, when you take what isn’t enough and baptize it in thankfulness, it becomes supernaturally positioned to be more than enough. It’s the power of Thanksgiving; it’s the power of a thankful heart. An unthankful heart is imprisoned by numbers, limitations, and restrictions. A thankful heart is positioned to see increase.
In John’s gospel, it says there are 5,000 men besides women and children. This happened two different times—the multiplying of at least twice that we know—and it says there are 5,000 men, not counting women and children. Where did the loaves and fishes come from? A child; someone who didn’t count. You heard it in the video tonight with the Global Response. The Ukrainian people said, «We thought the world forgot us; we thought even God forgot us.» He said the world may have, but God hasn’t forgotten.
There’s something profoundly significant about recognizing the value of an individual, and here Jesus honors a child. I don’t know if there were other lunches there. What was important was the one that was given to Him from a child. Jesus took it; He didn’t throw it in the air and go «Shazam.» Let’s face it; crowd control, right? You don’t create a mountain of food in front of thousands of hungry people. Instead, what He did was divide it into 12 baskets, and the disciples distributed it.
How much was in a basket? I don’t know that much, but 12 baskets are not enough to feed 5,000 men, besides women and children—can we say 15,000 people? Twelve baskets aren’t nearly enough unless it multiplies as you’re giving it out. When Jesus said, «You feed them,» He didn’t change His mind. When they said, «We have no food,» He didn’t change His mind. When they were puzzled by the challenge, He didn’t change His mind. All He did was enable them to do simple actions that He would bless and cause the food to multiply.
In other words, there’s a point of obedience. Most miracles are connected to a point of obedience, and we usually wait for something to happen to us when oftentimes we’re supposed to take faith and put it into action. The blind man was told to wash in the pool of Siloam. That’s a cruel assignment for a guy who’s blind. He has to go to another geographical location and wash in a specific pool, but there was something in his makeup that needed confronting—too strong of a word—it needed to be exercised in him through his obedience.
We see actions; we see blind Bartimaeus take off his beggar’s robe. There is a profound action; it’s what qualified him as a legal beggar in that culture. People would see that garment to understand he was legitimately blind and needed help. When he took that off, it was an extraordinary act of faith, but actions have to take place.
I remember through the years, so often, I would have people do something—like if you’ve got a broken ankle, I wouldn’t say, «Stand up here on the stage and jump off to test and see if it’s healed.» I wouldn’t do that unless He told me to. I wouldn’t do it out of the principle of faith. Please listen carefully: I will not put anybody at risk. There are times when I have to put myself at risk out of the principle of faith, because I’m not getting a breakthrough, but I have no right to put you at risk.
Let me illustrate. Is it true that the widow gave her last meal to the prophet, and that was the key to her economic breakthrough for the next season? Yes, read your Bibles; it’s in there, and it’s a really good story. It’s a principle of faith. She emptied her own resources and gave to the prophet. I’m grieved at how often I hear people in this position use that to tell others that’s what they need to do. You never put somebody else at risk unless He says so.
The most terrifying thing for that prophet was to bring a word to a widow who was down to her last meal and tell her that her breakthrough was, «You feed me first.» Some would automatically think that’s arrogance; I think it’s the absolute greatest demonstration of humility because it’s obeying to a point where you make yourself look foolish.
I want you to look at John chapter 3. I’ve talked about this so many times; I feel a little bit embarrassed doing it again, but at the end of worship, I felt like I should talk to you about this, and I’ll try to hurry through the parts I’ve done before. When Jesus told His disciples, «You feed them,» and they were clueless as to what to do, they knew they didn’t have enough. He didn’t change the assignment; He just enabled them through simple step-by-step instructions to do what was impossible.
When Jesus says to you and me, «Go into all the world, preach the gospel, make disciples of nations,» you might be like me and say, «Wait a minute; all we’ve got is a kid’s lunch.» If we listen further, He gives us a step-by-step approach because He’s not changing His plan. He has an assignment for you and for me. The great thrill for me is that we actually get to live—first of all, we acknowledge in Scripture, Ecclesiastes 3:11: Eternity is already in my heart. It is already written in my spiritual DNA; I am a forever person.
To die and to lose this tent—it’s seamless between this moment and eternity; it’s a seamless entrance into that reality because I have eternity in my heart. One of the things that happens when you lose someone you love, a family member or a dear friend, especially when a believer dies, I’ve been with a number of family members and friends, even a two-year-old child when they died. It’s extremely sobering because you have this privilege to be with someone you care for and walk them right to the edge of eternity to hand them off, so to speak. You’re in this moment where there is no other explanation for this moment than they have now been received into their eternal reward.
That has to become more real; the more blessed you become in earthly terms, the more necessary it is to become more aware of eternity. People who are being persecuted easily live with a greater awareness of eternity because they haven’t fixed their hope on immediate blessing or breakthrough; they’ve fixed their hope on eternity. It’s much easier for them. But those who go through seasons of great breakthroughs, great healings, and miracles—provision and promotions at work—all those things are supposed to be demonstrations of the heart and nature of the Father, which are supposed to warm our hearts for eternity. But when they are appreciated on a surface level, it actually hardens us to eternity and makes us more in love with blessing now.
I believe God would bless us beyond what any of us could possibly imagine in earthly terms. The challenge is to bless a people but not bless them out of their consciousness of eternity. The problem isn’t the amount of blessing; the problem is us. These moments I’ve had through the years, I’m thankful for every one of them; some are extremely painful, but they are all gifts. They remind me that you have something right here you cannot get away from; you can pretend it’s not there; you can close your eyes; you can plug your ears; you can do whatever you want but it’s right here, and it’s not going anywhere. That’s the fact that someone you care for just stepped into eternity, and you can either savor the moment and enter into a promotion in your own soul of what feeds you, strengthens you, and excites you, or you can become unhealthy in your inner world because of that experience.
You can’t control it; you can’t explain it, but it’s there, and it’s more real than the nose on my face. If this is indeed the ultimate reality, then I owe it to myself and anyone under my influence to live more and more conscious of Him, and I’m going to push a little further—conscious of Him, conscious of eternity, conscious of this reality called heaven.
At several moments this morning in worship and tonight, I could just catch glimpses of the nations standing before Him in worship. It just becomes so real; it becomes as real, and maybe more real, than us together in this room singing of the greatness of God. It becomes predominant, and I need that; you need that.
So this verse that has defined a significant part of my life in recent years is: «If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, you ask anything you desire, and it will be done.» This is living in the felt realization of His presence. If you abide in Me—the intentional embracing of what He has to say, holding it as a treasure in your soul—Mary treasured these words in her heart. What do you do with treasure? You don’t leave it on the coffee table; if you have something worth two million dollars, you don’t stick it out where two-year-olds play because it will get destroyed.
There are things that God has spoken to every person in this room that need to be marked in your soul because it’s your history with God; it’s these moments where you just came to Christ, began reading the Bible, and this verse meant so much to you. Your history, your journey, these milestones along the way have marked your life. You write them down. I have marks all through my Bible of my journey, my history with God, where He spoke to me.
I can take you to a place in Weaverville where I was in the woods weeping before the Lord because I was so distraught over things I was experiencing and my ache for more, and the Lord spoke to me out of Ephesians chapter 4. He spoke to me so deeply, and even out of context, it healed my heart; it helped me. It didn’t change my situation; it changed me, and what my situation needed was for me to change. Sometimes in the journey, we meet Him and want Him to be the great deliverer and healer and fixer of things, and He is that and all and more, but sometimes He wants to work inside of me first.
In that moment, it’s my history; it’s my journey. «Abide in Me; My words abide in you.» The crazy conclusion to that verse is, «You’ll ask anything you desire.» I talk about this all the time; I don’t want anyone to think I understand it. I talk about it because I’m trying to learn to understand it. God is not condoning self-centered Christianity; He’s not condoning this egotistical thing where God is the cosmic bellhop who attends to our wishes and desires—nothing could be further from the truth.
Yet what is true is so strangely close that a large part of the church has abandoned it altogether. Four times in three chapters, Jesus says whatever you ask for will be done. Here’s how some of us teach it: when we pray what Jesus tells us to pray, then He’ll answer our prayer. Oh, that’s true, but it’s not what He said. The context is this immersion into a journey where your heart beats consistent with His, and He can trust your dreams.
Something happens in the journey where my thoughts and ambitions are not there because He commanded them; they’re there because they’re the offspring of a relationship, the result of a journey. I’ve seen His heart; I’ve tasted of His words; I have fed my soul on what He dreams about, and I’ve got stuff going on inside of me.
I don’t know if it’s the will of God or not. Jesus says, «Just keep My word in you; live in the atmosphere of My presence, and I’ll trust you. You can pray for anything you want; it will be done.» He’s looking for not an individual but a generation. Can you imagine this? What would it be like if just the number of people in this room, on the planet, had anything they asked for when what He’s intending is for however many hundreds of millions of believers to be in that position to pray and see things shift because they prayed? That’s where you’re going.
You’re headed toward becoming like Christ, but what does that look like? Anything you ask for? I don’t know about you, but there are times in my life where I really don’t want Him to do that. I want Him just to tell me what to do. I’m really good at that; just give me the details, steps one, two, three, and four, and I’ll do exactly what you say. For some reason—actually, maybe for several—He wants to interact with me in the journey to find out what I want.
I don’t want to want; I want to be told what to do—I’m a real good doer. There are times when He’s just silent; it’s never silence out of punishment; it’s never silence out of giving you the silent treatment. He’s silent because He’s already spoken—is that true?
All right, I need to wrap this up, but I haven’t even quoted scripture. So it is a legal meeting! But I should probably read something here: John chapter 3. Are you still there? I’m going to take you through part of this really quick. I can get to one verse—actually two verses.
Verse 2. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said to Him, «Rabbi, we know You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.» Okay, stop right there. «We know You are a teacher come from God because no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with You.»
The teaching gift in the body of Christ is not often looked at as a miracle-working gift, but it was for Jesus; the word is meant to set the stage for the miracle. This doesn’t mean every time the Bible is taught there should be signs and wonders, but it does mean there’s an occasion for it, and if you’re a teacher of the Word of God, lean into it because your words create opportunities. Don’t be satisfied with the Word only; the Scripture says the kingdom is not in word but in power.
It seemed to go over so well. I want to make sure you see it. «Rabbi, we know You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.» Jesus answered and said to him, «Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.» Stop right there. What is the kingdom? It’s the invisible reality of God’s dominion; it’s measured in the visible, but the kingdom itself is unseen.
Matthew 12:28 says, «If I cast out a demon, out of you by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.» So here is a demonized individual; Jesus ministers to him, and the demons leave. He describes it saying the demons left because the dominion of God that is unseen came upon the demonized person, having driven out the evil spirits. So now the dominion of God is established in this life instead of the demonic.
Unless you’re born again, you cannot see. Our conversion gave us the gift of capacity; for most, it goes undeveloped because we get taught that certain things aren’t for today, or whatever, or they’re for a missionary culture. But they’re actually the normal Christian Life. Unless you’re born again, you cannot see. If you’re born again, you can see.
Verse 4: Nicodemus said, «How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?» Jesus answered, «Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water» (that’s the natural birth) «and the Spirit» (that’s being born again), «he cannot enter the kingdom of God.»
Verse 6: «That which is born of flesh is flesh» (that’s natural birth); «that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.»
Are you guys still breathing? All right, so He’s given us two unusual illustrations of conversion, the Christian life: conversion being born again and the Christian life being like the nature of wind.
Verse 9: Nicodemus answered and said to Him, «How can these things be?» Jesus, in His classic response, said, «Are you a teacher of Israel, and you don’t know these things?» That’s funny. «Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen; you do not receive our witness.»
Who is «we?» It’s the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He said, «We speak what we know, we testify what we have seen.» Jesus only said what He heard His Father say. So when He says, «We speak,» He is saying the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of God is upon me, enabling me to speak words of authority and power.
We speak what we know, we testify to what we have seen. Is it possible that Jesus is saying nobody wants to listen to our story? Nobody wants to hear our testimony. This chapter is an invitation to everyone born again to be restored to the normal Christian Life.
Here are the two verses I actually wanted; everything else was hors d’oeuvres that was the runway. We are now about to take flight. Verse 12: «If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?»
Stop right there. When the Lord unveils, gives understanding of His kingdom, He starts with what is easiest for us to understand, which specifically are natural things. He starts with things like sowing and reaping; you plant corn, you harvest corn; you plant an apple tree, you harvest apples; you sow mercy, you receive mercy.
He starts with natural things because they are the easiest for us to grasp; He sets natural principles in place wherever the natural world mirrors or reflects concepts of the kingdom of God that we can’t see. He draws parallels so that we understand how that world functions.
Are you with me? Here in this verse, He says, «If I teach you earthly things and you don’t believe, if I talk about earthly things and you don’t get it, you don’t connect the dots, how can I talk to you about heavenly things?»
What does He mean by that? How can I talk to you about the nature of my world that has no earthly parallel? How can I talk to you about the nature of my world that has no earthly parallel? There’s nothing to compare it to.
If I’ve told you earthly things and you do not believe—what was His intention of telling them earthly things? It was so they would believe! His intended outcome as He invited them into this dialogue, this experience, this journey was, «Come! I want you to step into greater faith.»
So He invites them, but they miss it, and He says, «Man, if you’re not getting it when I’m talking about the simple things—like planting corn and harvesting corn, showing mercy and reaping mercy—if you’re not making that connection, then I can’t talk to you about my world that has no earthly parallel.»
What’s the point? He wants to. He wants to! John 16 is a sobering portion of Scripture for me. Jesus tells His disciples and the crowd He’s with— I forget how many were there—but He tells this group, «I have so many things to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.»
Whenever Jesus speaks, He creates; let me put it this way—whenever He speaks, He releases the reality of another world into the atmosphere. We know this is true in John 6: He says, «My words to you are spirit, and they are life.» Words become presence. Whenever Jesus spoke, words became presence.
Here He says, «I have so many things to say to you, but you can’t bear them now.» You don’t have the weight-carrying capacity for what I would release over you if I told you all that was in My heart. That tells me there’s a responsibility to host Him well, but also to have the character, the surrender, the willingness to do whatever He says.
To live in a place where you can carry increased measures—I think it all comes down to this increased measure of His glory. You say, «Well, He won’t share His glory with another.» It’s true, but you’re not another; we are members of His body, so He’s working to build us up in strength, purity, and His power to walk in this dimension of Christ-likeness so He can impart more.
He says, «I’ve got so much to say to you, but you can’t bear it now.»
Here He says, «If I told you earthly things and you don’t get it, how are you going to get it when I talk to you about my world that has no earthly parallel?»
Verse 13 is the mysterious verse: «No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man.» My translation adds the phrase «who is in heaven.»
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. We know that Jesus, after His crucifixion, rose from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and was glorified.
This is early in the game, in three-and-a-half years of His ministry time. He is talking to His disciples. He’s revealing one of the absolute keys to His life of answers to prayer, of 100% success in ministry, of people receiving deliverance and healing. Everyone He ministered to was healed.
Even those who weren’t thankful—remember the ten lepers? Only one returned to give thanks. The failure of nine to display character and give Him honor was not an indictment on Jesus' ministry; people often blame the fruit of a ministry on someone not walking right, but don’t do it to your friend; do not do it to Jesus.
So here Jesus says early in the game, «No one has ascended to heaven, but» — here’s the tension, He’s talking to everyone—"except for one exception: the One who descended, who is He talking about?» Himself.
So He’s got this thing going; He says, «Nobody has ascended to heaven; it’s one exception: the One who descended from heaven.» Remember, Jesus came from heaven, took on flesh, became a man, so He descended.
«No one has ascended, except He who descended. That is the Son of Man, who is in heaven.» Jesus is standing on planet Earth talking to a group of guys, and He’s saying, «I’m there now!»
Awesome! I’m there now. Why do you think He taught them about abiding in Him and His words abiding in them? Why do you think He emphasized these seemingly abstract approaches to a relationship with God when, in fact, they aren’t abstract at all? They are the most practical expression there is.
It’s basic; it’s not like I have to work myself into a frantic place of imagination, but it’s not that. It’s a relationship with the person where I live conscious of the felt presence of God, and in that journey, I start seeing things from His eyes.
My wife was so good at this way of praying. She was so good when we would face a crisis. I remember when Haley, Brendan and Jen’s oldest daughter, was first born. It was kind of interesting; I was back at the door, and she was very great with child, wanting to give birth to their first child. I laid hands on her, and honestly, this only happened once, so if you’re pregnant, don’t come up to me. But she immediately started into labor when I touched her!
She started into labor and went to the hospital; it was a very urgent situation; Haley was in very serious condition. A whole bunch of us were at the hospital. Our family does things like that— we’re kind of like a cult; really, that was a joke.
But I know we didn’t do grave-sucking or anything; in that moment, I thought, «Oh no, I better not mention somebody; please don’t do what I’m about to suggest!» It’s a joke.
I thought we could build a new building by just selling grave-sucking straws! I was doing so good tonight, and then I just fell off the edge of the Earth into the abyss.
I don’t even know where I was going. Now, Haley—thank you! So we had a bunch of us— not a cult—up there praying. Benny was there, but she separates herself. Sometimes that’s what you need to do to get breakthrough.
She just prayed this; she said, «Father, what are we doing?» He gave her a very clear word. She did that within a very short time; Haley had completely turned around. Because prayer is not supposed to be us begging God to invade a situation; it’s supposed to be us joining with the Father, seeing His heart, and making the decrees necessary to bring about His will on earth.
Why don’t you stand? All right, you survived! I don’t know how long I talked, but it’s obviously been a while since I’ve talked. So, you’ve overdosed tonight.
Actually, this is how it used to always be until we had multiple services, and sometimes the Lord restricts you. He puts you in a situation where you have to finish by a certain time; if you create chaos, sometimes being forced to realize you can do some things quickly is good for us.
I’m so glad tonight wasn’t one of those. Here’s what I wanted; I want to pray. I don’t know how to pray this. You know what? I’ll be really honest with you. In my pondering this tonight during worship, my heart, I’m exploring these verses, this concept has been very real to me for probably close to 20 years, but I feel like I’ve just barely scratched the surface, and I ache.
I ache for what Jesus taught; I ache for what He was talking аbout: the ascended lifestyle, living in that place of fellowship with Him. Again, it’s not some ecstatic emotional place; it’s a part of the journey where He lets you see through His eyes; He lets you feel what He feels in His heart.
If we become so one with Him that He can trust us to ask anything, I don’t have an ambition to have my way with God where He does whatever I want. That’s terrifying; I’m not interested in that. But I am interested in being the fulfillment of His dream.
He actually designed it so that I could live in the felt realization of His presence, host His word in my soul as the greatest treasure, and the end result would be that I could speak, and things would happen.
I’m not looking for self-gratification; my gratification is His delight over me, His pleasure, His delight. Everything else pales by comparison—everything.
You’re here on a Sunday night because, in some measure, you ache for this as much as I do, right? We’re not just here trying to spend time; we don’t need any more meetings. But we’re looking for the reality of Christ, which is destined for us to become a felt reality and an actual realized part of our life. So I want to pray.
I’m going to pray for you, but I want you to do this: I want to ask everybody in the room to begin to pray over your own heart. I want you to do it out loud— not loud, but I want you to be able to hear your own voice. Timid prayers get timid answers; courageous prayers get courageous answers.
I’m going to ask you to pray with some measure of courage as you ask the Lord, «Let me see what You see; I want to live with the felt realization of Your presence.» Just take whatever stood out to you tonight, put it in your own words, and pray it out loud. Then, I’ll pray over you.
Just go ahead and do that right now; begin to pray. Thank you, God! Yes, keep going; you’re doing so good! There’s a real anointing on your prayers right now; it’s very powerful. Keep praying.
Let me pray over you: Father, we are hungry! We’re hungry to discover this thing of eternity in our hearts, this DNA You’ve given us that is written into our code; the fact that we are alive forever, and we get to spend eternity with You.
I’m asking that You would heighten our awareness of the presence of the Spirit of God—number one—make us more and more aware of the God who is with us, Emmanuel—The God who is with us, the abiding presence of the Spirit of God, the resting presence of the Spirit of God.
Heighten that in us; make everything about us—our physical senses, our intellectual capacity, our emotional perception—everything about us heightened to Your presence. I ask that You would make us more aware now of heaven and the way heaven functions and eternity that we would live conscious of that.
Then I ask for this ascended lifestyle: You who ascended, You taught us from this place of perfect fellowship with the Father. Let us know, in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead, what it is to live an ascended lifestyle, ascended to the right hand of the Father—all because of Jesus, all because of the blood of Jesus.
Let us live conscious and aware of eternity, of Your presence, of Your heart, of Your mind. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Now, before I have somebody come up and direct ministry time, there are some folks here who suffer from migraines. Some of you have had them for 20 years or longer, and I believe the Lord is healing those tonight.
If you have any kind of migraine issue, just put your hand up; right here, down here—anybody else? Put your hand up high. I want believing believers to gather around them and pronounce over them. Here’s what I want you to say: I want you to lift that thing off their head and announce to them, «This ends tonight!» Then pray for the fullness of the Spirit of God upon their bodies, upon their minds.
Go ahead and pray right now. We break that curse of the enemy that would steal and distract. We declare it is an illegal assault of the enemy.
Keep praying; is there anyone in the room with cancer? If you have cancer, put your hand up; right back over here—there are two over here. I need some folks gathering around these two. Is there any others? Way back over here—there’s another one. I need some folks.
Keep praying if you’re praying for the migraines because I want this thing to end tonight! I want to end tonight, but we’ve got some— they’re able to join these others.
Anyone with cancer? There’s also an inner ear issue. I know I mentioned ear infections earlier; I’m not convinced that’s the problem. Somebody has an issue in the inner ear that the Lord is healing—who is that? Is that you—way back there? All right; there are a whole bunch right back there. Is that okay?
Can somebody—okay—right back over here—who is it? The inner ear, I think, is going to be right there all right now. Lay hands on these folks, and we’re going to contend for that breakthrough for them right now.
There’s TMJ that is being healed. If that’s you, just grab somebody next to you and put a hand under your jaw or something. I don’t know—just put a hand up high. If you see someone with their hand up, just lay hands on them.
We declare that release of a miracle over those with migraines. Go ahead and release them. Start laying hands on some of these others. We’ve got to pray for more— we’ve got TMJ right down here. Some of you gather around her.
You know the Lord’s healing. There’s also somebody here; I’m not positive about this, so let me just give it as I feel it. There’s somebody who has a problem in the muscles of your body specifically on your right side—who is that? Is that you back here? Specifically on your right side—there’s a muscle issue here?
There’s another one here—right here. I believe the Lord is releasing you right now, tonight. Lay hands on them and just declare, «It’s a finished work; it’s a finished work of Christ.» We declare this in Jesus' name.
All right, just give me your attention up here for a moment. I realize some of the things we prayed for actually need like x-rays or doctor’s tests, but I’ve also noticed there are times where the Lord will give a tangible sign to somebody.
In fact, the Lord’s healing bipolar tonight. Bipolar, I’ve watched this for years. The Lord will give— when you know you need an x-ray or blood test or whatever, He will often give a tangible sign to somebody in advance so they know what God has done.
Then they go with confidence and find out that there was actually a miracle. I’ve seen it with trauma to the head, where you feel a lightness—almost like a minty freshness—things are so clear in thought as they weren’t 10 minutes earlier.
So I want everybody who received prayer for anything tonight to examine yourself right now. That means trying to do what you couldn’t do. You say, «Well, there’s nothing I couldn’t do.» Well, in some way, move. Just do something; don’t stand and wait for something to happen; put faith into activity and begin to move that arm around that check.
Check that right side of your body now. Everyone who is at least 80% better, I want anything we prayed for tonight—wave both hands over your head like this. Would you put your hands up over here like that? Okay, look around the room; we’ve got a lot of folks—a lot of folks!
Lord, we thank You for that. The really cool thing is there are a lot of people in the room that don’t know they’re healed yet, but when you find out tomorrow morning or whenever it is, tell somebody, would you? Just tell somebody! All right, why don’t we give a shout of thanks and praise to the Lord? Come on!