Bill Johnson - Our Divine Purpose
is not the result of strength and determination; it’s the result of surrender. It’s a yieldedness to His Divine Purpose that you are left here on planet Earth because you’ve been given a responsibility to reveal the Father. Well, good morning! So wonderful to see how many of you were at the bazaar yesterday. Was it bizarre or what? It was bizarre! I love that event. However, I’ve learned that you need to bring a lot of cash and come hungry because, like every other booth, there’s a food booth. Maybe it doesn’t happen to you, but food talks to me; it calls me by name very tenderly. And I ate well yesterday; it was very fun! I love seeing all the creativity of the arts and everything you guys do; it’s very, very fun. There’s a picture of a big basket of eggs that says, «Boneless chicken.»
Laughter is common sense; it’s a flower that doesn’t grow in everyone’s garden—so I’ve heard! It’s not that diabetes, heart disease, and obesity run in your families; nobody runs in your family! All right, that one just snuck up on me; I didn’t know it would touch a nerve as deeply as it did. Even duct tape can’t fix stupid, but it can muffle the sound. There should be a calorie refund for things that didn’t taste as good as you expected; that just makes sense to me. I accidentally went grocery shopping on an empty stomach, and now I’m the proud owner of aisle four! My favorite childhood memory is not paying bills. I don’t understand why people say hurtful things, like, «You want to go for a run?» or «Here, try this kale.» Anyway, all right.
Last April, I was actually going to promote one of our own who put this book together called Legacy Letters. I don’t know what happened; I don’t remember now—since it was last April—but I think something happened with Benny, where I needed to skip a Sunday that I had actually scheduled to promote this. I remembered recently and asked for permission to do it now, especially going into the Christmas season. This is the most fascinating journal that helps record specific details of your family’s legacy. In fact, I just brought one to my mom a couple of weeks ago. It captures high points, challenging points, and asks questions, so it’s a guided experience—like going on a tour guide for the most meaningful journey that you could leave your family. It’s the kind of journal that everyone in this room will wish they had for their family, that you inherited from your parents or grandparents or whatever.
Carrie actually put it together after her father passed away. With the questions she wished she would have asked him before he died—he died early in her life—she crafted these questions. I went through them with her mom. I just really believe we have such a strong emphasis on legacy and on inheritance that I thought, you know what? I want to do what I don’t normally do; I really want to encourage you to consider this book, Legacy Letters. What you do is give it to a parent or grandparent and encourage them to write down some of the details so we can steward well the legacy we’ve been given. It’s very purposeful, and I love it! Is there anyone here 80 years old or older that would like to do this? Oh, there are two in one row down here! I’m sorry for all the other 80-year-olds I missed. Chris will buy one for you; just go into the bookstore and tell them it was the different Chris I met. Was that Chris? Yeah, that’s right!
All right, grab your Bibles if you would—open to the Gospel of John, chapter 15. It will take me a little bit of time to get there, but put a piece of paper there or something. Let me take some time. I actually, a little off the subject here, felt a week ago that I was supposed to announce something, and I was hesitant—not for any reason except that I just missed my opportunity. I was reminded again this week. It’s a word that I received in, I believe it was October of 1989. I have this word on my bedside table next to my bed—those little stack of cards that I like to review of words that the Lord has given me through the years. This one is from October of 1989 and was actually from Mario. In this word, among other things he addressed, he specifically declared that in this era we’re living in now, there would be a dramatic increase of miracles through the preaching of the Word. I just felt I was supposed to declare it. I’ve seen it happen through the years; we’ve had it happen here.
I remember a lady with esophageal cancer right back here. During worship, anointing just came upon her, and it just disappeared! Over here, a gentleman, during the preaching of the Word, found that his Bible turned blurry and it wasn’t until he got home and removed his glasses that he found out his eyes were healed. So we’ve seen things through the years. There are many numbers to record or to mention, but I feel like I’m just supposed to say, «Come expecting,» because both the presence and the Word really is healing, and I believe it’s going to tap into the gift that God has given us in His presence. Where do we get that? Romans 8 says the Holy Spirit will give life to your mortal body—specifically, the indwelling Holy Spirit will give life to your mortal body. The second passage is a concept that is repeated often in the book of Proverbs: there’s healing in the Word of God; that the Word of God will actually give health and healing to your body. I’m saying this because I want to invite you to join with me on a journey. I want us to discover divine health.
I’d like for us to discover what Israel enjoyed in the wilderness while they were in rebellion. They were not born again; they were not filled with the Spirit of God, and yet they experienced decades of divine health. If God did that for them, those under a superior covenant should have access to the same. So it’s just an encouragement. Let’s figure it out. Let’s pray into it. I believe the two key components for us will be the presence of God and the Word of God, and taking communion; I know is a regular part of that exercise. So, all right, John 15. If I were to choose one verse out of the whole Bible that best summarized or addressed my walk with Christ, it would be the verse we’re going to read today— we’ll read it in a minute: «Abide in me, and my Word abides in you; ask whatever you will and it will be done.»
I don’t understand how this happened or why it happened, but the Lord actually designed everyone in this room to be a co-laborer with Him; to partner with Him in the dance, so to speak, so that His purposes are accomplished on Earth. Jesus, the Eternal Son of God, never stopped being God. The Eternal Son of God chose to live with limitations while in His humanity. We know that because He said it. Referring to Himself, He called Himself the Son of Man. He said, «The Son of Man can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father doing or hears the Father saying.» So the point is that Jesus Himself lived with self-imposed restrictions. We have to ask the question: Why? As God, He could have performed anything, but He chose to set an example for us of what life could be like for anyone who was forgiven of sin, number one. Number two, empowered by the Holy Spirit, He modeled that lifestyle and then He invites us into that specific journey.
There’s a secret that He gave. You know, you read the Gospels and you see what Jesus did; He would speak, and people would say, «He speaks different than anyone we’ve ever heard speak before! He speaks as one who has authority—not as the scribes and Pharisees,» which is a real punch under the belt, so to speak. The people would just point to the fact that He speaks with authority. What He speaks, things change; the atmosphere changes. Jesus revealed what actually happens whenever He spoke. In John 6, I think it’s verse 63, He says, «My words to you are spirit and they are life.» In other words, when I speak to you, My words become presence, and that presence gives life. Jesus, at the beginning of His ministry, before He had performed any miracles—picture this—He’s just one of the citizens of a community, Nazareth. As a citizen of the community, He’s given the opportunity to read in the synagogue during their weekly reading of Scripture. He stands and begins to read out of Isaiah 61. Now remember, He hasn’t multiplied food; He hasn’t healed anybody—nothing’s happened. He stands to read; it’s his turn, and he says, «The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to release captives, recovery of sight to the blind.» He’s making this decree over Himself and because when He spoke, He only said what He heard the Father say.
Words became presence. So here’s a group of people: they are the tenth generation of people who had not had a prophetic word or a dream—no encounters with prophets—nothing of the living presence happening among them as was in their history, which is now common for you and me today. They were void of that, so ten generations of nothing—400 years. Jesus stands up and says, «The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,» and if you can imagine, everybody in the synagogue goes, «Whoa!» because something just happened; something was just released in that moment over them that they’ve never experienced before in their life, nor do they know anyone who’s experienced that because all the generations before them—ten generations—nothing—for 400 years. So He speaks, and suddenly there’s this atmospheric shift; presence fills the room, and He announces what He will be doing with His life. If Jesus made that kind of confession, that kind of decree over His own life as the Son of God, perhaps it might be useful if you and I took on the same thing and started making decrees of what God said is supposed to happen in our lives—making the decrees!
The Spirit of God is upon me! Say that with me: «The Spirit of God is upon me!» to release captives, recovery of sight to the blind, set captives free. That’s what we were born for; we were born for this! And Jesus makes this decree before anything ever happened—which is extraordinary—but He gives us a secret. He gives it in this one verse; I’ve only been able to find it one time in the whole New Testament: it’s in John 3. We won’t look there now, but I believe it’s verse 13 where Jesus basically says, «I ascend into heaven to be with the Father.» Can I just think with you on this? This is early in His earthly ministry; He has three and a half years of earthly ministry. This is early in that season, and here He announces, «No one has ascended to Heaven except he who descended, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven.» So He makes this very unusual claim. He actually spends time in heavenly realms with the Father while standing on planet Earth. This gives opportunity for people to get really weird, but it’s worth the risk because if I get twelve of you to get it right, it’ll be good. We’ll shape the course of history with 12. The Lord has made it possible to live in heavenly realms toward life and toward circumstances in life. For most of us, our walk with Christ is us trying to persuade Him to invade earthly problems and repair them, but Jesus didn’t minister that way. That may be the reason that every one He prayed for was healed, everyone the Father directed Him to was healed, every situation at a funeral was raised—even His own—every situation turned out differently. I think it’s because He’s given us a secret, and He gives it in this one verse: He ascends into the realm of heaven with His Father while standing on planet Earth.
It’s not something you sweat and groan for; it’s something you ask for. It’s not the result of labor; it’s the result of surrender. It’s already in the purpose of God for us to experience heavenly realms while on Earth. Later, Jesus would die, He was resurrected, He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and He was glorified. Later, He would ascend, but this tells us—in my words—because He was sinless, He could appear before the Father as the Son of Man. The disciples watched His lifestyle; they had to be overwhelmed and floored by the extraordinary miracles—the Creator of miracles, the walking on water—all the things. He was not afraid when there was a life-threatening storm, and they were scared to death; He was not intimidated by the need of a fifteen-thousand, twenty-thousand-crowd that was hungry and they had no food. None of those moments ruffled Him; He moved in such confidence and faith. They saw the miracles—they saw the walking on water; they saw Him speak—and this is one of the things that really arrested the heart of a nation: whenever He talked, everything was different, suddenly people who didn’t believe now believed; people who were resistant were now hungry. The extraordinary thing whenever He would speak!
So the disciples—the twelve—they all saw that, but there was only one thing they asked Him to teach them to do: they said, «Teach us to pray.» They watched Him go to the mountaintop, spend the night there, come down the next day knowing He had prayed all night, and watched everybody in the crowd get healed. They watched the result of the mountain; they watched the result of the encounter; they watched the result of Him spending time with the Father—He came down and was able to implement the heart of the Father on Earth. I remind you, Jesus' main purpose in coming to Earth was to reveal the Father. You say, «Well, He came to die.» That’s true, but that was to reveal the Father. He came to destroy the works of the evil one; that’s true, but that was to reveal the Father. He came to make an open display of the foolishness of the powers of darkness; but that was to reveal the Father. All of those things had one target in mind, and that was to come to a planet of orphans and reveal the ache of their heart, although they lacked the language for it. And He revealed the Father. His absolute seamless partnership with His Father made it possible for Him to do anything. He prayed for, and it was done.
John 15, verses 7 and 8—two verses that we’ll read—how did I end up in John 16? It’s a real good chapter; it’s just not what I wanted you to go to. So let me see if I can find it here. What’s that? Yeah, John 15. But I ended up over in John 17. All right, sorry about that! I’m back; I hope you missed me. Verse 7: «If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it will be done for you. By this, My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit, so you will be My disciples.» Verse 8. I believe, because of the context, He’s saying the Father is glorified through answers to prayer and that the fruitfulness of the believer’s life is answers to prayer. Let me take it a step farther: I believe you and I owe the Father answers to prayer. It’s awkward to put it that way because we think that He’s the one who is going to answer what He has already determined to answer, and we need to step into the river, if you will, the flow of what He’s already accomplished; and that’s what answers to prayer are. We step into the flow of what He’s already intended to do. Answers to prayer are actually the most practical evidences of an ongoing relationship with God. It’s evidence of His involvement in me and my surrender to Him!
So in this passage, He says, «If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, you will ask whatever you want.» So what do we have in this verse? We have the three main parts of our life: number one, abide in Me—it’s the presence; number two, Your Word abides in my heart—the value of Scripture; and number three is purpose. Our purpose is revealed in answers to prayer. We were actually designed—if you can picture it this way—every person in this room was created, once forgiven of sin, to live in a seamless connection with the Holy Spirit. You were designed for Him. Everything about you, from personality to unusual gifts, perceptions—everything that’s not defiled by sin—is actually a part of the design of how you relate to Him. Some of you relate through concepts and insights; others through tangible sensations that you feel in your own body. He works so differently and so diversely, and by the time you get it figured out, He changes the lesson. You know, so you get to learn a whole new one. But the whole point is that He is discipling us, training us to respond seamlessly to this Holy Spirit so that He can enable us to reveal the Father on Earth. How is it done? It’s through answers to prayer. It’s not just answers to prayer; it’s that something happens in the presence and the intentional embracing of whatever God says that shapes the capacity in me to dream beyond human limitations.
That was really good! Let me say it again. Because I need to, there’s something about the abiding presence—this one who knows no limitations—and His Word, which is filled with hope, promise, and purpose. Those two things being activated in me as a gift and treasure release me the capacity to dream at a level that is beyond human expectation! To dream at a level that actually influences the outcome of history and influences the destiny of humanity. What He says: «Whatever you desire will be done.» He is not saying, «Dream of whatever car you want, and I’ll provide that for you.» I’m thankful that kind of stuff happens, but that’s not the purpose here. He’s not looking to create people with mansions on the hilltops—you can get one, enjoy it, but the purpose of this prayer is a lot different than that. It’s actually the kind that shapes the course of history; it literally shapes the course of history. You can read the record of intercessors during World War II and you can find specific prayer meetings that happen at specific times when battles turned and changed in a moment because people were standing, praying specifically!
We’ve watched it throughout history, where the Lord has moved upon certain individuals to show them what exactly to pray for and what exactly to do; and I believe we’re at a critical hour where all our nice ideas of what God would want to do in the Earth, as good as they are, until they’re breathed out of His mouth, they do not shape history. I don’t know if that makes sense to you. I can pray for revival every day of my life 'til I die, but it’s not until the Spirit of God empowers that prayer to shake heaven, if you will. It’s not until that kind of a prayer is prayed that something happens because there’s something about the yielded soul in prayer that delights the heart of God. Because He created us for the purpose of co-laboring; to work with Him, to be partners in the dance where He leads in the dance; and we simply demonstrate who He is and what He’s like.
If you abide in Me… There are two classic books. One is probably more well known than the other: Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. He lived every day of his life in this particular season to live aware of the Spirit of God on him twenty-four-seven or all his waking hours. He says he never arrived at never losing awareness of Him, but he got better and better at it—so much so that his times were in the monastery, always washing pots and pans. The presence of God was just as manifest in those moments as when he was in solitude praying in the temple. So he had cultivated and developed an awareness of the Spirit of God that was ongoing, and it made every menial task filled with eternal purpose. It took every menial, boring part of life and energized it with divine purpose.
The second book is by George Peck, and it’s called Throne Life; and it basically says this: in fact, let me just use Paul’s scripture in Romans 6 where he talks about our water baptism. He says, «If you then, being baptized…"—let me rephrase it. In the same way that Jesus was raised from the dead, when you emerge out of the water, you raise up in newness of life. Think about this: in the same way, in the same measure, to the degree that you believe Jesus rose from the dead, to that degree you have been born again, transformed, and the Spirit of God lives in you with nothing impossible. He links it to the reality of the death and resurrection of Christ. Throne Life! When you’re born again, you are put literally in Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father. That means your residence of operation is at the right hand of the Father, implementing His purposes on the Earth. Your prayers matter, but they are the result of surrender to presence and surrender to Word! Something happens in the heart of the person who becomes energized with presence and becomes ignited with the promises of God’s Word; something happens in that person’s heart where they pray things that actually make a difference.
I ended the first years earlier trying to think of a way to put it: If nothing’s happening when you pray, if His Word doesn’t matter to you, your word won’t matter to Him. It doesn’t mean we aren’t of value to Him, but to shape the course of history requires surrender. It’s not the result of strength and determination; it’s the result of surrender. It’s a yieldedness to His divine purpose that you are left here on planet Earth because you’ve been given a responsibility to reveal the Father. How is it done? One of the primary ways is through answers to prayer. So He says, «If you abide in Me,» that’s actually living in the felt realization of His presence. Everybody in this room has a, let’s just call it a muscle; it may not be developed, but it is there! It’s a gift, it’s a muscle, a capacity, an awareness, an ability to live aware of God. Everyone has it! For some, it’s undeveloped; for others, the fear of being an extremist has kept you from exploring a gift that He gave you.
He gave you an invitation; theology is not to make you smarter; it’s the invitation for encounter. So that we once again, through our lifestyle, illustrate and model what this Living Word looks like! If you abide in Me, living in the felt realization of presence, you can’t develop that in busyness. You have to shut things down and spend time in quiet. People come to me; they say, «I’ve really prayed about this.» That’s awesome! Have you listened? Thank you! Everybody complains to God and calls it prayer; that’s right! Have you listened? Cultivating the awareness of the Spirit of God—I think corporate worship is one of the main ways that God teaches us to recognize His presence. The beautiful thing is we are not left with the need for thousands once we leave the building because we’ve learned to interact with the Spirit of God. We’ve learned what it’s like to honor Him and to celebrate. Somehow, the anxieties and the fears and all the junk that we came in with just peels off, and we stand there in this place of absolute delight and peace that can and must be maintained throughout the week. You lose it? Don’t worry; next week’s coming! We’re here to recalibrate, get back to due north, and find out how to live this life.
But the life is to live with constant awareness of the Spirit of God, number one. Number two, He said if My Word abides in you—it’s an intentionality. It doesn’t happen by accident. There actually has to be an intentionality on my part that says, «God spoke to me; it means a lot to me. I’m going to have it typed out on a three-by-five card, I’m going to stick it next to my bed for 33 years, and I’m going to ponder it often; I’m going to pray it. I’m going to declare! If you abide in Me, and My Word abides in you…»
The best example was Mary, the mother of Jesus. The words that were given to her by the shepherds and the wise men, and Anna and Simeon—the whole group—they would speak things to her, and it says she—there are two words that were used to describe this part of her journey. One says, «And she would treasure these words in her heart.» Another word that was used is «she would ponder.» She would bring out of concealment, if you will, treasures. You hide away not because you don’t want anyone to know but because you’re a steward of something divine and it’s not open for human trafficking! Joseph shared his dreams at an inappropriate time and created problems for himself that he didn’t necessarily have to face. Psalm 105 says, «Until the time that Joseph’s word came to pass, the Word of the Lord tested him.» His word was the dreams given from God but spoken out of season, and so that whole season he was being tested by the Word of the Lord to get him now ready to inherit what he had declared over his own life.
Mary took the treasure, and then she’d bring it out and ponder it, review it, consider it, think over it. If you have a vase that’s worth a million dollars—first of all, I want to know where you got it! If you have a vase that’s worth a million dollars, you don’t put it on the coffee table where the children are playing, right? Why? Well, it makes no sense; it’ll break for sure. If you treasure it, if you value it, you’re going to put it where it’s safe. It doesn’t mean you put it in a safe and never bring it out, but you only bring it out in safe environments. I believe in broadcasting the good news to anyone and everyone, but there are some things that He has spoken so deeply and tenderly to you that your stewardship over that word is the willingness to share it with no one. I know that goes against so much of what we believe and say, but I hope you receive it in the context. There is a can He say something to you that you will not broadcast because it is intimately for you? Sometimes we work to gain notoriety by sharing what God has shown us when in fact, we’re supposed to sit on it.
So He says, «If you abide in Me"—there’s living in that felt realization of presence—and «My Word abides in you"—you take that which is an absolute treasure, and you bring it out at the most appropriate times to review; to ponder! Those two things working in you will qualify you to pray the most extreme things and watch them happen. And He says, «Whatever you desire will happen.» What He doesn’t say is that if you pray when I tell you to pray, I’ll answer your prayer. That’s how it’s commonly taught, and I get it—the Holy Spirit-led prayers are huge! The Holy Spirit leads us to pray something, then that’s what we do. I remember years ago we were having leaders' conference, and we had just received news that our friends were down in Fiji. An earthquake had happened in the ocean there; there was a tidal wave headed toward Fiji. Do you remember this, Chris? We began to pray as a group. We had just gotten the news on the front row here. We just began to pray as a group. We started to pray that God would protect them, and we specifically prayed: it’s a weird prayer! «God, put a block wall, a brick wall between that wave and that island.» Strange way to pray, I know, but it was a really Holy Spirit-anointed prayer.
Somebody found a painting that was painted here prophetically the night before; they went and got it and put it up, and it was a wave with a brick wall and an island, and they painted it the night before! How do you know that gives you confidence in your praying? Suddenly, prophetic imagery takes on meaning and power, and it was an intensity that took place in our prayer, and the news we received just a little while later is that the tidal wave had dissipated completely! The point is, there is none of that stuff that cannot—that there’s not a divine answer for—if we just step into the place of praying the heart of God over a matter. I know we’re supposed to pray as He leads us, but I think there’s a certain amount of liberty. I don’t know; it feels to me like God has put Himself at risk to the desires of His surrendered people. Four times in three chapters, He says, «Whatever you ask for.» Four times! This is the same context where He says, «I no longer call you servants; I call you friends.» Singing, «I Am A Friend Of God,» doesn’t make you a friend of God; it’s a good song, but it requires time.
I remember when Brian and Jen’s baby, Haley, was born. Haley was due, I think, a day or two later; it was a Sunday morning, and I was at the back door. She stopped by, and she was great with child, ready to deliver their first child. She stopped at the door and said, «I’m ready!» So I had to spontaneously lay hands on her and pray; she instantly went into labor. Don’t come to me if you’re pregnant because it hasn’t worked one time since then! But it worked then! Come to find out, she was in a very critical condition, and when she was born, it was very, very scary for a period of time. But I just remember all of us being up in the hospital waiting room praying. Now, I remember Benny separated herself from the whole group that was praying, and she got along with God. This is what she said: «Father, what are we doing?» All she wanted to know is, «What is He doing?» Because she would do that, and He spoke something very simple to her: «Buy or sell.» She took that step, did what He said, prayed accordingly, and the thing turned in a very, very short time. It all altered! Why? Collaborating; it’s co-laboring! It’s doing what He’s doing; it’s saying what He’s saying; it’s discovering His heart. It’s like surrender will take you everywhere you need to go!
Surrender will take you everywhere you need to go—everywhere that your heart aches for! Surrender will take you there so that your faith can be demonstrated. Something happens in these moments, and I believe that the Lord is, you know, here’s what I think: I think Peter learned this. I can’t prove it, but I think Peter learned it. I think that’s why his shadow healed. I think it’s why his shadow healed! Your shadow will always release whatever overshadows you. If you live in the felt realization of presence, everything about you—even shadows—become important, significant, and meaningful. Everything! I’ve seen it happen—walking by somebody, and the shadow heals! We’ve seen these things happen through the years, but they’re exceptions. I think He’s inviting us into a lifestyle!
What would it be like to have one hour of your day—just one hour—where every thought you had was a thought from Him? Every perspective you had in that one hour was a perspective that He had? I’ve got this sense that it would become so addicting that we would want to press it on to two hours a day and three! In Genesis, it says there was night and it was day, which made up the first day. Our day begins at night for the believer. Monday starts when you crawl into bed tonight! I think what we do when we crawl into bed at night is we have that moment of stillness, of quietness, to activate an affection for God, to activate an awareness. In those moments, I’m not wanting to intercede for the nations; I want to go to sleep! You know, I’m not trying to think of the next song. I’m just saying, you know, in bed it’s not that—it’s just this moment of seamless connection to the Spirit of God—in this place—to have a burning heart of affection for Him that in those last moments of my day, the first moments of my next day, they begin abiding in His Word, abiding somehow positions me; it grips me, if you will, to reveal the Father on Monday through answers to prayer, through acts of obedience, through stepping into places of courage simply because of that felt realization of presence and the intentional embracing of anything God says.
I believe that the Lord is giving us opportunity for this verse; He opens things up like this to us so that they matter. So that they matter, so that it doesn’t matter that I can quote points from a message. What matters is that I see through His eyes and I feel different about my situation. I sense His heart over this impossible thing, and I don’t fear it any longer because I now realize it’s no longer impossible. The felt realization of presence has bolstered up this gift of courage that is a part of the Christian life! It does not mean it’s not ups and downs; what it means is our lifestyle continuously improves by increasing the awareness of God in our lives and the awareness of His Word—what He said over our lives.
I think it would do all of us a real good thing to confess over our own lives: «The Spirit of God is upon me!» Say that with me: «The Spirit of God is upon me!» The Spirit of God is upon me! Why don’t you stand? The Spirit of God is upon me! He’s anointed me to release captives, recover sight to the blind, preach the Gospel to the poor! See, the Spirit of God is actually upon us for this purpose. I think I’m going to try that tonight—I like that! When I get into bed, I don’t want to pray for the nations, but I think I would like to just make a declaration over my Monday: «The Spirit of God is on me!» Seamless connection with the heart of God—nothing can interfere without my permission! Let me rephrase that: the only things that can interfere do so because I gave them permission.
So, Father, I pray—goodness, I’ve prayed this a hundred times through the years, but I ask again that You would gift us with an awareness of You that actually wakes us in the night, where we actually become stunned in our awareness of the Almighty God who is with us! And that You’d give us the determination of heart to value whatever You say—to write it, to quote it, to sing it, to confess it—whatever You say over our lives! And then I pray that the next 12 months—13 months—would be the most incredible months of breakthrough to answers to prayer: the scariest, largest requests we could ever come up with—that in this next season, they would be fulfilled because we abide in You, and Your Word abides in us. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen! Amen!
All right, good! So before anyone leaves, I want to make sure I give opportunity to anyone here who has never made a personal confession of faith in Christ. You’re here because God brought you, even if somebody dragged you here; you’re still here because God brought you! And I believe—and I’m going to ask—there’s no moving around at this moment. This is too holy of a moment for anything else! I want to give an opportunity for anyone here who has never made a public confession of faith of what we would call surrendering your life to be a follower or disciple of Jesus Christ. If that’s not been a part of your life and you’ve never been what the Bible calls «born again,» but you can tell by the discomfort of your soul that you’ve got to get things right with God—well, He’s made it possible for you to actually be born again! Everything changes in a moment of faith. And if that’s you, I’m going to ask you to acknowledge that by just putting your hand up, saying, «That’s me! I don’t want to leave the building until I know I have found peace with God and I know what it is to be born again.» Put your hand up high; anybody? Put your hand up high if that’s you. Okay, right back over here—thank you! Wonderful! Thank you! Beautiful! I bless you in the name of the Lord!
Is there anybody else real quickly? All right, here’s what I’m going to ask. We’ve got trusted friends—anyone over here that wants to pray with people about your relationship with Jesus? We’ve got a group over here. I’m going to ask this one gentleman to raise your hand; come on down, come right over here! We have trusted friends that will talk with you and pray with you. If you brought this guest, then walk him down! I would like the ministry team to come forward—today is a day of miracles! If you’ve come needing a miracle, this is the place to be! Who’s taking my place? You are! Would you please come on up here and tell them what they’ve won?