Bill Johnson - The Great Communion Revival
I like to take this bread, this wafer, and I like to make sure that I don’t come to it as a cracker; I come to it as the broken body of Jesus. It’s important that I make that transition so I’m not merely going through a religious routine; I’m actually encountering the presence of Almighty God. Good morning! Please be seated. Happy Easter! He is risen! He is risen indeed! You’ve got to get that right, by the way.
Jean-Luc Traskel from Switzerland is a wonderful man of God and a dear friend of mine and this house. He will be speaking next Sunday night, not tonight. Tonight is baptism, and Chris will be with us. Next Sunday night, it will be Jean-Luc, and he has one of the most bizarre, literally miracle anointings that I’ve ever seen. His friendship moves me, as does his display of the love of God. Anyway, that’s next Sunday night, and he’s also in the school of ministry the following day. Not that you can do anything about that, but I just want you to know what you can’t have. That’s what I do; I basically announce to people what they can’t have.
Also, before Christmas, I promoted this book by one of our own, Carrie Lloyd. It’s called «Legacy Letters,» and it’s about capturing the rich heritage of every family. It’s about asking the questions you wish you would have asked a family member before they passed, capturing the legacy of a family. I promoted it for Christmas last December, not realizing there weren’t any copies available, so once again, I told you what you couldn’t have. That’s basically my job: to torment and tease. There were hardly any copies available, and the publisher just published a whole bunch more, so we’ve got them! I just wanted to let you know that this is available—a really cool thing to be a part of.
Who has a family that you really don’t want written down? Oh no, that’s not the right way to promote this! Who has—? You’re pointing at your husband? Anyone want this? The—yeah, bronze, sure! Come on up! Oh sure, sure, Merry Christmas! Yeah, Chris’s anointing was getting on me for a moment there. You know, he hands out a book on spiritual warfare and asks if there’s anybody demon-possessed that would like to have it, so I don’t know. It just started to get on me, and I’m going to blame him since he’s not in the room.
Alright, three friends from a local congregation were asked, «When you’re in your casket and friends and congregation members are mourning over you, what would you like for them to say?» Daniel said, «I’d like for them to say I was a wonderful husband, a fine spiritual leader, and a great family man.» Roger said, «I’d like for them to say I was a wonderful teacher and servant of God who made a huge difference in people’s lives.» Frank said, «I’d like for them to say, 'Look, he’s moving! '» That’s just so pitiful. I am majoring in the pitiful today.
This is something I’ve read many times, but it’s Easter, and I have to read it today; it’s kind of an obligation. A man, his wife, and his mother-in-law went on vacation to the Holy Land. If you don’t mind hearing old jokes again if they’re good… yeah, while they were there, the mother-in-law passed away. The undertaker told them they could have her shipped home for five thousand dollars or they could bury her here in the Holy Land for one hundred and fifty dollars. The man thought about it and told them he’d never ship her home. The undertaker asked, «Why would you spend five thousand dollars to ship her home when it would be wonderful to have her buried here for only one hundred and fifty dollars?» The man replied, «A man died here two thousand years ago; he was buried here and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can’t take that chance.»
There is nothing right about that story, but I like it so much. Today’s going to be a little bit different. I have had it in my heart for a while now, for probably months, to have a time where we could share in communion together, but do so in light of a prophetic word from one of our closest, most important friends, that’s Lou Engle. The Lord had been speaking to him for about a year about what he calls the great communion revival. At the end of my message, we’re going to show a little video, we’re going to share in communion, and pray together over some specific things.
My hope, my cry, my prayer for us today is that we would have some kind of sense of what is upon us as it is connected to the privilege of sharing in the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. I feel like the Lord is going to deposit something in us today. I’m not coming to this with fear and trembling. I’m coming not having a plan, just having a conviction, if that makes sense. Since I know what that time looked like for me and Benny, when Lou came to our house—he flew to our house; I forget where he was in the country—but he literally flew to come to our home to spend twenty minutes just to have Benny pray for him and for us to share in communion together.
I don’t like taking personal things and assuming they’re for everyone, but I believe this one is broad enough that it applies to everybody in the room. You remember the verse that says, «Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it cannot bear fruit.» Something is occurring in my heart with this storyline. How about we live life in such a way that our lives impact people around us, and we live in such a way that even our death testifies of God? I watched, firsthand, my wife’s homegoing within days, and this surprised me. I know the concept, and I say «Amen» to the truth, but when I saw the effect of her death and the fruit that it brought to the kingdom, I was stunned—absolutely stunned.
As long as you maintain a sense of eternity and the beauty of fruitfulness and loss, it gives you legal reason to celebrate in the most awkward moments. Live life in such a way that even in death there’s a domino effect from how you lived, bringing people into the kingdom and really blessing and prospering them. You take a kernel of corn, plant it; nobody would plant the kernel of corn if it grew back one kernel of corn. But the fact that it bears an ear of corn—the ear of corn has between six and eight hundred kernels of corn—that’s quite an increase from one kernel of corn that died and was buried.
I believe that is a prophetic invitation for everybody in this room to live with eternity in mind. Something happens when you live with eternity in mind. We think in terms of investing for the big picture—it’s not all just about here. In fact, we’re going to read scripture in just a moment where Paul basically says, «If we are living for the Lord and there’s no eternity, there’s no resurrection, then we are the most pitiful people around.» Why would he say that? Because eternity should have such a mark on how we think and live that to live without it means we can’t possibly succeed at what we’ve been invited to do.
I’m believing that the Lord is going to upgrade us in purpose; we’re meant to be living for eternity. Amen! Open your Bibles, if you would, to First Corinthians chapter 15. We’re going to conclude with communion and prayer about that. But I’m going to talk to you for a few minutes. Actually, I won’t be talking a whole lot; I’m going to be mostly reading. This will be a repeat of Friday where we just do the public reading of scripture. So open to First Corinthians 15.
This is, in my thinking, the premier chapter on the resurrection. The resurrection is dealt with all through scripture, but this, from beginning to end, is about the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is so critical that there literally is no conversion without it. The Bible teaches that there’s not even forgiveness of sin without the resurrection. I don’t say it offends me like I’m mad about it; it offends me in the sense that my thinking has always been it’s the blood of Jesus that wipes away the power of sin. Why is it the resurrection that gives me forgiveness? Come back next week and I’ll tell you.
It’s like the cross, where the blood was shed—needed an «Amen"—where Jesus obtained for me what I could not obtain for myself. I was faced with absolute hopelessness—no cure, no remedy, no repair, no fix. Nothing I could do could repair my sinful condition, so Jesus became a man and faced my enemies on my behalf. When he won, I would inherit the victory—that’s salvation. And the death of Christ, where His blood was shed to atone for, cover, wipe out the record of sin and the power of sin, still needed one more voice: the «Amen» from Heaven that said the sacrifice has been accepted, and it is the resurrection.
The resurrection is the crowning touch that says the offering has been received; you are free. Chapter 15, First Corinthians, we’re going to read a number of verses. So how many of you have your Bibles with you? I hope you’ve got them open, got your phones—got your Holy Bible on your phone? That’s fine, as long as it’s there, I’m good. Just read along with me because we have a number of verses to talk through. We’ll begin with verse 3.
«For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.» I’m emphasizing those two verses because I want you to take special note of any time it says «according to scripture.» Jesus did this often. When something was experienced, he would mention this was to fulfill the prophets; this was to fulfill scripture. Here’s something key for us to understand about prophetic prophecy; it’s mostly not to let us know what’s going to happen. It’s mostly to let us know what just happened. He already knew about that.
That was much better than their response! Well, that was excellent! It’s true; mistakes are made when we hear the prophetic and we draw our charts on what’s about to happen because we’re almost always wrong. There’s supposed to be a prophetic sense and an appetite for the future. The prophetic is to stir that, provoke that in us, that we pay a price for what God is wanting to do, but we also approach it knowing we see through a glass darkly. When something unfolds and we see it in scripture, we realize the Sovereign One knew all along that this was going to happen. It’s to build confidence in a Father who is in charge.
Let’s move on to verse 12. «Now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?» Here’s the deal that Paul is dealing with; he’s talking to a group of people that may accept that Jesus was raised from the dead, but they don’t think there’s a resurrection for people. So he’s confronting that, and he’s basically telling them, «Listen, if you don’t think you’re going to rise from the dead, then neither did Jesus rise from the dead because his resurrection is your resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is so central to everything we are, do, and believe. It is not negotiable; it is not a peripheral issue. It is the issue.»
The cross and resurrection. Alright, verse 13. «But if there’s no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up if, in fact, the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.» That kind of cuts to the chase, doesn’t it?
I like just the reading of scriptures; the public reading of scripture is so essential. Some of this, I’m just wrecked by just reading it. Verse 20 says, «But now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who’ve fallen asleep.» Firstfruits—another term that is used many times in scripture is that Jesus is the firstborn of the dead. Jesus is not the first one to be raised from the dead; he raised many. The Old Testament had resurrections—my favorite of all time is that army of dry bones! I’ve got to see that one! Where all those bones come back together, and flesh grows on them, and then there’s breath! That one sets the record, and that was Old Testament. Go God! That was awesome!
But all of those who were raised from the dead died again. Jesus is the firstborn from the dead, and he is never to die again. Now remember, as God, that was an unnecessary journey; it’s never been God versus Satan. There is no contest. Satan is not the opposite of God; he is, by comparison, hardly a blip on the radar screen. He’s limited and finite, used by God as a chess piece to demonstrate His glory and His will.
You know, the devil has power; he doesn’t have any authority unless we give it to him. Unless we give him ours, he has power, but even that—if you cut a branch off a tree, the leaves are still green; it just doesn’t know it’s been separated from its source. That’s the devil—they’re still green leaves, but it is fading as we speak. That’s why he’s in the open so often right now; it’s not his best card, it’s his last card.
So this whole idea of firstfruits—Jesus endured what he did as a human, eternally God, but as a human to win for us what we couldn’t win for ourselves. So in his resurrection, the firstfruits, the firstborn of the dead, he became what every one of us will become. He is the first, so he’s the firstborn from the dead, but he’s also first in preeminence. He will always be the reigning Son of Man.
Verse 21: «For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive.» The next portion of scripture here talks about the last enemy, death, which will be put under the feet of Jesus. Following that is the warning that losing perspective on resurrection makes sin more appealing. Then it comes down to verse 47. «The first man was of the earth made of dust; the second man is the Lord from Heaven.»
Okay, now here’s the picture: we’ve got Adam, the first Adam, and then we have the last Adam. The first one was made of dust; the last one, the firstborn from the dead, is made of the heavenly. People ask me these verses—what does this mean? I’m clueless; I just like them! Verse 48: «As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly.»
Listen, when you became born again, you lost the right to say, «I’m only human.» I just felt unusually good to say that! And we bless our online community too; thanks for watching us, we love you guys so much!
Verse 48 again: «As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly.» As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. My goodness gracious! I don’t know if that does anything for you! Why don’t you just declare this with me: «We shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.»
We ought to say that again: «We shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.» Listen, eternity is real; it’s more real than time. Heaven is more real than Earth, and we are being schooled, trained for eternity. There are little mysterious glimpses given to us in scripture of what that’s like, and here he makes the proclamation: «We shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.» Jump over to verse—oh, let’s go to verse 51. «Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.» Now, I’ve seen that sign, that verse, in church nurseries—it’s profoundly prophetic! They may not all sleep, but they’re all going to get changed!
I thought I saw churches have signs out front; I saw a picture for churches last week that said, «Women, unless they’re still in diapers, you can’t change them!» Don’t—I’m the best! I’m the messenger; I’m not the— I thought I’d get more amens out of that one! I thought I’d get the amen of testimony, but I’m not hearing it.
I don’t know. Verse 56: «The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.»
I want you to look at verse 58 again. Any parent with crying kids or whatever, I don’t mind that you stay in; we’ll just adjust! I like to have children in this atmosphere. Verse 58 again: this verse is one of the first verses I memorized as a young man, and I can’t tell you why, except it just kind of prodded me, it provoked me. It is the transition verse that I want to use for going from this that we’ve talked about in the resurrection to moving into communion and specifically a global communion revival, which I cannot say I understand.
I just have that sense that it’s exactly that—verse 58: «Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.» I don’t know if this makes sense to you. Verse 58, the summons to be all-in is the conclusion to our faith in the resurrection. Let me put it differently—the summons to be all-in, living absolute abandon in the work of the Lord, is the only logical conclusion to seeing the resurrection. Nothing as all-encompassing as the resurrection would demand anything less than all.
We’re going to watch a video; I think it’s about four minutes, maybe five. I’ll be upfront with you at the very onset: it’s not easy to understand; it was taken from a phone. I just like the moment Lou says in the video that it was the day my wife died. I think it was the day after, but it doesn’t really matter. This gathering we’re about to do is not about Benny’s death, but it is a platform for a specific message.
I’m going to use it for that reason and that reason only. Living life in such a way that your life, even after you’re buried, still brings fruit should be a desirable outcome for everybody in the room. That people would come to Christ, that people would have a hunger, that people would have refined focus— all these things would take place. So we’re going to watch this video. Try hard to understand; enough of it’s understandable that you’ll get the gist of it. I could have found others, but I like this one. In fact, I have others, but this is the one I wanted to watch.
So we’re going to do this. When we’re through, we’ll share in communion together, and I’ll just help guide us through that particular journey. Alright, go ahead and put the video on.
It’s very sad how the audio device or better blood is going to make it better. I was there with Ed, reading, and I had a dream. In the dream, I was asking Bill Johnson where you can catch fish on the Sacramento River. First readings on the second, he said, «You can’t fish where the river turns red.» I ran down to the Sacramento River turned red. All along the Texas, the last 20 years, countries of a great coming communion. Modern life—I’ve only heard the blood in these songs—a return from physical wreath, and I hunted tree. I’m going to take that into the tree.
I was trying to tell Bill Johnson the dream I had. My headphones were on; I couldn’t get the word out. I couldn’t remember the dream. I took my headphones off, and it was like a spirit of prophecy came from getting in the tele. Bill, Church of the tree—where can you catch fish along Sacramento? In the dream, suddenly I began waiting to say it’s the creature union of his life online until I quote Bill Johnson. I said, «Can I come to Redding to take communion with you in any chance you heard about that passed away? I was trying to interview you earlier this year. Forty days of taking care of you, and on the table in the house I was staying was a book called The Power of Communion by Billy Johnson. He’ll say she’s not well, but you can spend twenty minutes with this.»
I’d say, «I told you ten weeks; I went for twenty minutes, I spent time with Billy Johnson.» I said, «I did not come here primarily to pray for your healing; I can’t forget it.» I read your book, and I said, «If you pass, I want you to lay your hands on me that I would carry your legacy.» She’s been doing communion every day for a year.
The river of the sacrament is where the center will not be a pulpit; it will not be a mission accused. There’s such a wonderful triangle and awakening after what I’m hearing to take. She later has upon me; I said, «If you’ll allow me for legacy, I will carry you to a union revival that I know she’s been leading for years.» And why are we here on the very day she died unless there’s an anointing?
Wow, I like to fish, natural and spiritual, and when you use a fly or a lure, you’re looking for hungry fish. But when you use a net, you catch fish that aren’t hungry. Revival is a net! I believe in the preaching, the sharing of our faith with people because we find those that are hungry. But in the mighty outpourings, people are gathered in that had no questions, had no curiosity, had no interest, but they find themselves in a place where they drink freely of the love of God and are forever changed.
The great communion revival is that! I don’t want to exalt Redding above its proper place—any place where people are gathered—but it does fascinate me, Redding in the Duchess, the word salvation in the Sacramento River is the river of sacrament. Whether anyone else believes that, we should, but that works; that’s pretty significant. Prophetic people don’t even need that much information to get something powerful, you know. We’ve worked with a lot less!
So I think we should believe together for what is beyond our comprehension and way beyond our control. Thankfully for a great community revival, there’s something that God is resetting; it’s almost like a bone that’s dislocated that gets reset. He’s putting something back in place concerning the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus that will forever affect our approach to the rest of our life. I’m going to ask you to stand with me. We’re going to share in communion together.
Should have asked first how many of you do not have the cup and the bread? I apologize; I should have had that taken care of before we stood. Ushers, if you could come and put your hands up if you still need— we’ve got a whole bunch over here to my left—yeah, just keep your hands up; ushers will get them to you. Great! There are still a bunch over here to my left, your right. Thank you, Lord.
Yeah, keep your hands up if that’s you; I don’t want anyone left out. Thanks so much for helping us! The Bible says, «Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.» It also says there’s only one name under heaven by which a person must be saved; it’s the name Jesus.
I would encourage and exhort and invite anybody in this room that does not have a personal relationship with Jesus to settle the issue right now—right now! It doesn’t need to be with great fanfare; it just needs to be an honest place of surrender from your heart, where you, in your heart, turn to Jesus right where you’re standing. Before you partake of this, this will not save anyone; it enhances the work that God has already done. But it will not save you.
I would encourage you just to call upon the name of the Lord: «Jesus, please forgive me for my sin. I give you my entire life. You are my ambition from this point on.» Now we’re going to pray some specific things together.
I like to take this bread, this wafer, and I like to make sure that I don’t come to it as a cracker; I come to it as the broken body of Jesus. It’s important that I make that transition so I’m not here just going through a religious routine; I’m actually encountering the presence of Almighty God. I want you to take that wafer and just break it as a reminder that Jesus became broken for you. In my home, when I take communion as often as I can, I break it and then I walk around my house and just pray for various situations that come up.
Jesus became broken so we could be whole; he became empty so we could be filled. He was despised so we could be celebrated; he became sin so we could become righteousness. He bore affliction so we could be healed. This that you hold in your hand is the testimony and representation of his suffering that you might be healed, that we might be healed.
So I want you to hold this before the Lord now. I want you to confess this with me: «By the stripes of Jesus, I am healed.» Let’s say it again: «By the stripes of Jesus, I am healed.» Now I want you to pray for one friend that needs a miracle in their body, just as though you could see them face-to-face. Just declare for them that the broken body of Jesus is enough for what they’re facing. Just take a moment. We want to include people in this; we declare that in Jesus' name, the broken body of Jesus is more than enough.
Sickness is to our bodies what sin is to our soul; it’s not in the will of God. There’s no shame in it; it just is—he made a way. So let’s hold this before the Lord, and I like to just say this: I like to say, «I receive your body into mine.» That’s how I receive your body into mine.
Thank you, Lord! Wow! I’ve got this sense that some of you are going to have unusual dreams—literally about the blood of Jesus or about the broken body of Jesus—and I encourage you to share them with us, please. I just feel like something is opening up for us to see more clearly, to realize more clearly with greater conviction and understanding the meaning of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus.
We know it is central to our faith, but I also know I see through a glass darkly, as Paul would say. I see it dimly, and there’s so much more. I feel like God’s about to open it up because it’s going to accelerate this great communion revival.
Hold this cup before the Lord now—it’s the blood of Jesus that sets us free. Say that with me: «The blood of Jesus sets me free.» I heard years ago from Stacy Campbell, who is a dear friend of ours and a real prophetess of the Lord. I remember her saying she was watching TV—she was watching some news, which I don’t recommend—but she was watching some news. She would see an international national crisis, and out of her mouth would come the words, «The blood of Jesus is enough for that.»
The blood of Jesus! Always be more impressed with the power of the blood than the power of any sin or problem! Are you with me? We have to keep that perspective.
So I want you to take a moment to pray for your family. Take at least one member of your family and just pray for them right now that Jesus would do a miracle in their lives. Alright, take just a moment; give Him thirty seconds or so. Those online at home, join us if you’re able to, please. We just declare the blood of Jesus sets them free!
I also want to just prophesy that in this great communion revival, one of the initial signs of this that God is doing will be friends and family members that are not walking with the Lord getting restored in this movement!
So hold this before the Lord and say with me: «I plead the blood of Jesus over my entire family. Every individual will serve the Lord. We will serve you in purity, we will serve you with passion, and we will serve you with power.»
Father, I ask that the beauty, the wonder of the Gospel be demonstrated through this great communion revival. Together we say yes to the great communion revival. Amen! Let’s partake of this together.
Wow! Thank you, Lord! Wow! I’m so glad that I get to spend this day with you and that we get to celebrate together! What I can hardly wait to see as the waves of this revival come crashing onto our shores! So I’m hungry and looking forward to it!
Let me ask the question; I realize people are moving around, but if we could just have ushers pick up these cups, pass them down to the end of the row. Just try not to pour the leftover grape juice in your neighbor’s hand! Otherwise, all of our handshakes after this will be sticky!
Let me ask the question, if I have your attention: Is there anyone here that would say, «Bill, today is my day to come to faith—a place of absolute surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. I want forgiveness; I want to be changed. I give Him everything I am, everything I have.» If there’s anyone in that category, put a hand up right where you are because I want to make sure we have a chance to celebrate you and to pray with you. So put a hand up high if there’s anyone at all. Those who are watching online, we have pastors online; put it in the text and you will receive ministry there.
Okay, looks like you’re all in! Wow! Thank you, Jesus! You know what? Why don’t you give Him thanks? Thank you! Thank you!