Bill Johnson - A Dreamer Creates a Destiny
We have a city without hope, and even if all of them were born again, there are many Christians I know who still lack hope. We need to adopt the template of heaven and think in terms of God’s dream over culture, society, and conversation. We must plant dreams and ideas, looking into people’s hearts and beyond the obvious to see what God has made that person to be. There is a prophetic template in the life of Solomon for the New Testament Church regarding how we should see the transformation of cities, governments, education, and business—encompassing all realms of society.
For several years, I’ve mentioned here on various occasions that I have never felt the liberty to pursue this in a teaching mode until last week, and I will continue for a while. I believe that the Lord has concealed, if you will, secrets both in the life of Solomon and in his teachings, specifically in the Book of Proverbs. He has hidden secrets in there for the transformation of culture and society. This has to matter to you and me; it is a mandate from the Lord.
The Lord Himself rebuked, for example, three cities in Matthew 11; I believe it is, specifically rebuking Bethsaida and Capernaum because He performed miracles there more than anywhere else combined, yet they did not repent. The point is, He addressed entire cities; His heart is for the salvation and conversion of entire regions of the world. He thinks in terms of regions, cities, and people groups, while we often think of individuals, which we should. I love Heidi’s message; I believe in it. We must stop for the one, but we are also praying and thinking about the masses, praying and contemplating societal change and transformation.
I think it makes sense to you that even if every person in Redding were born again, we would still have problems. We would still face economic issues, educational challenges, and political problems. Why? Because we are all imperfect people coming together to form a union, to create a community that illustrates the kingdom. We don’t always know what we’re doing. Solomon had a better understanding of how things work than perhaps anyone else who ever lived, with the exception of Jesus. Solomon had a moment with God where the Lord showed up in a dream and offered him whatever he wanted. It was a very special moment, and I will be reviewing that in the weeks to come. It was an opportunity no one else had, to our knowledge. But where I want to start today is actually a little further along in the story; this study will not be in chronological order.
In First Kings chapter 8, I want us to turn to the last verse of this chapter. I want you to see a thought, an idea, and we’ll try to build on that. I have two basic separate messages that I will somehow force together.
Alright, First Kings chapter 8, verse 66: «On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king. They went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all that the Lord had done for His servant David and for Israel, His people.»
Now let me provide context, as we’ll see shortly; this is the dedication of the temple. The building of the temple in Jerusalem is one of the most significant events in the entire Old Testament. It was an extremely bizarre event; the cost of the building was in the billions in today’s money—unbelievably astronomical—and all this was done for the glory of God. This was an idea conceived in David’s heart, and he prepared his son Solomon to do this. Solomon succeeded; he finished the temple and is now dedicating it to the Lord. When he does, God shows up in a way that is unparalleled, at least in any other story in Scripture, which will also be a subject for future study.
But in this moment, as the dedication of the temple takes place, and when it’s all done, eight days later, as the dust settles, the people are happy; they go home rejoicing, blessing the king, ready to give group hugs, and kiss everyone on the cheek. They were rejoicing, but what I want you to notice is they were rejoicing for God’s favor on David. Where’s David? He’s dead. This whole event was God saying yes to a man who paid a price for this miracle to happen, yet the honor went to the one who was already dead. This is unusual for us but is normal in Scripture. There are things that create momentum with God that it’s wise to recognize. It’s wise to be aware of how you got here.
You may be a first-generation believer, but people paid a price for you to hear the good news. I love it whenever we have someone come from a country who says, «A missionary from the United States came to my nation 100 years ago, and my great-grandfather was saved, and now our whole family is serving God.» I love when we see those stories come forth because someone paid a price for someone else to hear the message of the Gospel. You may belong to a church, such as the Christian Missionary Alliance, which is an outstanding group of believers with roots deeply founded in the outpouring of the Spirit in the Revival of the Episcopal Church. It’s important, even if you no longer belong to that group, to know how you were brought into the kingdom. History is vital for us to understand because it gives us a sense of momentum and purpose.
The illustration I give that might seem a little silly is the golf swing. The golf swing relates to our past history and how it shapes our future. When you understand your history and see where you are, you get a picture of where you are going prophetically. The Lord wants to build a sense of history and confidence in you and me by giving us an understanding of the past and where we are in the present so we have hope for tomorrow.
An unusual thing took place in the life of John the Baptist. He was the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, even though names are mentioned in the New Testament. The blood of Jesus, the crucifixion of Christ, began the New Testament, and before that, John the Baptist was the greatest of all Old Testament prophets. If you look at this mathematically, we have the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, the Bible says he walked in the spirit and power of Elijah. The Bible says Elisha asked for a double portion of what Elijah had, and he received it. So we see Elijah walking in a realm of anointing that is unparalleled, Elisha comes along as his disciple and ends up with twice as much. Then we have John the Baptist above that, who is the greatest of all, but when it talks about the anointing he walked in, it does not refer to the spirit and power of Elisha, even though Elisha had more than Elijah. Are you following the logic?
Why? Because heaven always looks to the father of a movement that started the momentum, the person who paid the price to create that momentum. That’s a value system of heaven; if it becomes ours, we will be the wiser for it. If it becomes ours, we begin to recognize, «Okay, I am standing on the shoulders of others who paid a tremendous price.» What does that make us responsible for? One of the greatest messages we’ve had here—Chris has used this story on several occasions—is about the relay race in track. The fourth runner of a relay race is always your fastest runner, and his school happened to have the fastest runner in all of high school in the United States. In this race, every member of the team would receive a trophy based on how the last person finished.
It is vital to understand that the entire 11th chapter of Hebrews is the Hall of Fame for faith. It is those who are still watching to see what this generation is going to do because what they receive in eternity is, in some way, measured by our success in what we accomplish with what they gave us. It’s profound to realize.
We live with a sense of accountability. We live with a sense of purpose. We live with something someone else got from God, and they initiated the momentum for our lives. We do not live as islands, nor as independent people under ourselves for the glory of God; we live as members of a family, connected, who actually pay a price for someone else to attain breakthrough.
Now let’s jump into the story; that is about as long of an introduction as I can give before losing my sanity. The dedication takes place in the first part of this chapter: «Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel while all the assembly of Israel was standing. He said, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who spoke with His mouth to my father David and with His hand has fulfilled it, saying.'»
Now, this is what God said: «Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house that My name might be there; but I chose David to be over My people Israel.»
Now, it was in the heart of my father David to build a temple for the name of the Lord God of Israel, but the Lord said to my father David, «Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, you did well that it was in your heart; nevertheless, you shall not build the temple, but your son who will come from your body shall build the temple.»
Let’s go back to verse 16 again. «Since the day I brought My people Israel out of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house.» Stop right there; this is a fascinating story. Many of you know that David had this passion, this desire, this dream to build a temple for the Lord. They had the Ark of His presence in a tent, where worshipers would worship 24 hours a day. Now that they had settled into the promised land, David had acquired most of the property that God had promised Israel; he wanted a permanent facility. He had this dream, and God tells him, «You did well that it is in your heart,» but here’s what He says.
If you look at verses 16 and 17, He says, «Since the day I brought Israel out of Egypt into the land of promise, I never chose a city in which to build a temple; I chose a man. Look what I found in the heart of the man.» I didn’t choose a city in which to build a temple; let me be a little lenient in my translation here: The temple in a city was not My idea; David was My idea.
Look what I found in the heart of My idea. Desires are formed in us according to what we fellowship with—who we hang around, and what has input to shape dreams and desires within our hearts. While this isn’t the actual breakdown of the word «desire,» it illustrates a very profound point: the «de» in «desire» is of «sire,» the father of the fire; all desires of the Father.
The question shouldn’t be whether my desires are from God; the question should be with what or whom am I in communion, for the offspring of my heart is desire. That desire is formed by whatever I fellowship with. If I constantly contemplate greed and more possessions, I start fellowshipping in that realm. Guess what? I will develop desires in me that are the offspring of what I’ve been fellowshipping with. Conversely, as we walk with the Lord and learn to become tender, intimate, and sensitive to the presence and the value of the person of the Holy Spirit above everything else, things begin to form in us in that environment.
What the church hasn’t always done well is know how to be free enough to dream, to see God breathe on dreams so that the resurrected life of Christ is illustrated through the dreams of His people. We have rightly said yes to the discipleship of walking with the Lord in absolute obedience, but sometimes we do well in the realm of being servants and really don’t know how to become friends. Friends value relationships differently than servants do; the servant holds a list of commands and wants to ensure that we do everything He said.
We should never lose the value of obedience; you got what I’m saying? We should never lose that value. But a friend approaches the Lord differently, and I believe we are in a season where He is reworking the contents of our hearts, reworking our value systems, so that as friends, we’re not just saying, «God, what are the next five things you want me to do over this next year?» Instead, we start thinking of the dreams in our hearts and how they affect our walk with Christ.
We should consider how our dreams affect His heart—what is His attitude? What is His mood? How does He feel about this or that? It’s a completely different approach. I can do everything He said to do on the outside and never be concerned about attitudes, thoughts, ambitions, and how they affect the heart of God. Are you with me?
There’s something to be said about this tenderness in our walk with the Lord that moves us beyond mere achievement as a goal. Oftentimes, as believers, we follow the Lord, and when dreams begin to form, this needs to happen a lot to me as a young man. Things would form in me because of my relationship with God, and I didn’t realize it; I just saw these dreams and desires form, only to kill or abort every one of them.
What happens so often is we crucify the resurrected man and call it discipleship instead of allowing the true nature of Christ, as He is forming us, to come forth and become fruitful. We become free to think and dream. Instead, we become squelched and end up with religion—a poor imitation of the real thing—when the Lord is looking for who you are becoming to be manifest in a community. Because you know what? This city, whether they know it or not, is crying out for you to dream. There’s something in your dream that will illustrate Him in a way that fits their needs, their cries, perfectly and beautifully.
I was in a country with legal prostitution, and I remember visiting this area and talking to some folks involved in ministry there. They told me about a ministry run by a man and woman who got married—he was a singer in Las Vegas and she was the lady who did fancy fingernails, you know, adding diamonds and such. The two became one, and I was told they decided to open a fingernail salon. While she did nails for these prostitutes, he would sing gospel music to them, and they were saving so many of them.
Now, I can be honest; if you were to come to me and say, «My husband sings, I do nails, and we want to open a fingernail salon where he will sing to the prostitutes; we’re pretty sure they’ll get saved,» I would think, «You need a better dream.» I have learned to keep my mouth shut, shake my head a lot, and pray with them for God to fulfill their dreams because I’ve found He thinks in ways that differ vastly from mine.
I continually encounter people who have these desires and dreams. Internally, I’m thinking, «You actually thought of that?» Outside, I’m saying, «Oh Lord, just direct their steps; give them wisdom,» praying all the right things sincerely. Internally, I’m thinking, «It’s never going to work.» Six months later, I find myself saying, «Boy, I’m glad I didn’t voice that thought! What a great idea!» This is the Lord. The Lord wants a people who are free enough to think for themselves—not independent of Him, but because of Him.
I’ve witnessed this happen for years. When people walk with the Lord and start to dream again, they think outside of what is normal for them. You know, the quest for significance and greatness is something the disciples always had. Jesus never rebuked them for that; He redefined greatness, saying, «Look at the child; that’s greatness.» But He never squelched or killed that quest within them for significance or greatness or a life that impacts others.
I feel like we are in a ripe, in some ways raw moment as a church family to learn to dream again. This is not a new message; we’ve hit you with this for years, you fulfill it constantly. But I sense the Lord would release the capacity for dreaming above what we’ve ever known before. Here’s David with a dream fulfilled through Solomon for David, who is in eternity. The point is that all of eternity and heaven is impacted by the choices you make now.
Now, let’s make a transition; go with me to Proverbs chapter 4. David is the father with the dream, and Solomon is the son who becomes king. I’ll try to tie this together before closing so that this makes sense in our impact for a city.
The transition I want to make is this: the father without a dream raises sons and daughters without a destiny. The Lord used David in a season of dreaming. Now, first of all, when you have the money of a king, when you have military resources, when you have power, strength, and significance among nations, you can get a certain amount of things done simply by who you are. But I’d like to tap into another realm: David was now looking for the Lord’s permission for building this temple, and he begins tapping into a realm of dreaming that I don’t think he ever accomplished before.
Why? Because David was a great warrior, a great worshiper, but he was not a great dad. If you look at his life with his sons, especially with Absalom and the others, it’s nightmare stories. How could it be that a man was so wonderful, knowing the present so well, such a genuine worshiper devoted to the Lord, yet in private, he struggled as a father?
But something changed when Solomon was born. I don’t know what it was; perhaps some scholars can sort that out for me. All I know is that once Solomon was born, something shifted within David. Now the dreamer began to dream and impart a sense of destiny. This is vital.
Some of you have children at home; others have grandchildren that you influence, but everyone is connected to someone. The way you speak, the ideas of God you plant in their hearts, acts as seeds that impact their destinies. Solomon is now talking about his journey into wisdom, using conversations he had with David.
Proverbs 4, verse 3: «When I was my father’s son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother.» Stop there; David had many wives and many sons, but Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, only had this one child at this point. That’s why he says, «When I was my father’s son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother.» «He also taught me and said to me, 'Let your heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live: get wisdom, get understanding. Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principal thing.'»
Say that with me: «Wisdom is the principal thing.» Say it again: «Wisdom is the principal thing.» It’s rare in Scripture for someone to distill all the great ideas, thoughts, and words down to one statement, but here David does just that for Solomon. He says, «Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore, get wisdom, and in all your getting, get understanding.
Exalt her, and she shall promote you; she will bring you honor when you embrace her. She will place on your head an ornament of grace, a crown of glory shall she deliver to you.»
Here’s the point: you see the picture of David and Bathsheba, a mother and father sitting down with a small son, imparting a sense of destiny as they teach him what he needs to know for his future as king. They knew he was a child of destiny and began grooming him accordingly. They taught him, «Whatever you do, do not forget my words.»
Understanding this is crucial; God shows up to Solomon in a dream and says, «You can have anything you want.» He chooses wisdom. I would suggest to you that the preparation of David with his son, which took place over the years, prepared Solomon to make a decision later in life.
Is it possible that the option given to Solomon was only available because he was the one prepared to make the right decision? No one else in Scripture was given that option; we also can’t find anyone who got such preparation. Here’s the truth: the words planted in a person’s heart attract opportunities for fulfillment.
This holds true whether you had a horrible upbringing or not. Choose carefully what you feed your mind because you can change the course of your destiny by what you meditate on, embrace, and protect. These things attract the materials necessary for fulfilling that word, whether good or bad.
I can show you Scripture where gossipers attract gossipers, those with lust attract likewise, those with criticism or hatred end up attracting similar thoughts. There’s a law of attraction at play; when a person has the ideas, dreams, and thoughts of God planted in their hearts, that word protected begins to attract the right opportunities that no one else on the block receives.
Many years ago, back in the '80s, Bob, Claudia, Benny, and I went to Israel. It was a memorable trip. We visited many significant sites, and it was exciting to see the Holy Land. As part of that experience, we were taken to a field, and the tour guide shared a fascinating aspect of planting crops.
He compared how we plant crops today versus how it was done 2,000 years ago. Today, we plow the fields and then plant seeds, covering them with soil. But in Biblical days, they scattered the seeds all over the ground and the plow would then go wherever the seed was. This is interesting: the seed attracted the plow.
To put this in everyday language for you and me: when you share the Gospel with your neighbor and they say, «I don’t want to hear it; don’t ever mention that name again,» just smile because the plow is on the way. It is too late—the seed has been scattered!
Why? Because the seed attracts the plow; the workings of God will come to bring forth fruit. No word of God returns empty. Here we are in Acts chapter 3, every believer is described as a descendant of the prophets. Isn’t that interesting? All believers, and it’s easy to look at Solomon’s life and say, «Well, he was David’s son; he has his bloodline, resources, and kingship. It’s obvious he’s going to live that way.»
Listen, Solomon only had David’s bloodline. You have God’s. There’s no excuse; you have God’s blood, and the blood of Jesus freed you and put you into a different inheritance, a different bloodline.
This story exemplifies a bloodline where Solomon has an opportunity to see the dreams of his father fulfilled in shaping a culture. This example of having words deposited in one’s heart serves as a model for every believer because the Scripture says we are descendants of the prophets. Moses looked at the people of God and said, «I want everyone to prophesy.» Paul looked at the entire body of Christ and said, «I want all of them to prophesy,» meaning this: everyone is to be a hearer and declarer of what God is saying.
It ultimately boils down to this: whether you’re raising children or grandchildren, or if you have no children at all, the point is that we are planting extreme words of hope, promise, and vision into others' lives. The terminology we’ve used for so many years, which Chris has helped foster in our prophetic culture, suggests we look for gold in people’s lives, not dirt. Dirt is much easier to find than gold. We look for what God has deposited in the person and call those things to the surface—we fan that flame.
It’s what Jesus did with Peter, who was a bit flaky. Jesus looked at him, a man whose name means «broken reed,» and changes his name to «rock.» Why? Because He began to speak to him about the stability of his purpose and destiny—not as mere flattery but as a true prophetic word into his life, attracting the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, how do I speak to the waitress? How do I converse with the person I buy clothes from at Macy’s? What conversations are we having? What seeds are being planted?
Because we have a city without hope, and even if everyone were born again, many Christians I know still lack hope. Therefore, we must align ourselves with heaven, thinking in terms of God’s dreams over culture and society. We need to plant dreams and ideas in people’s hearts. We need to look beyond the obvious to see the fullness of what God has made that person to be and call forth that dream, that destiny.
That is the role of every parent in this room, but I believe many parents have lost their capacity to dream—out of anxiety, fear, or frustration—they have lost the ability to create destiny. I believe the Lord is showing us a powerful restoration today, where He restores the capacity to dream. Your dream will give you the capacity to plant seeds that attract divine activity and breakthrough.
I don’t mean the harsh dealings; I mean seeds that attract the water, the activity of God that makes things grow because inside of you are ideas that will glorify God. Inside of you are seeds for someone else’s idea, dream, and fulfillment in life. The Lord has purpose for every individual to be significant not just in eternity but also in the impact of the Kingdom here and now. That is the privilege of every believer.
So, let’s pray. I want you to stand, and we will pray into the idea of dreams and destiny. Here’s the connection I want to emphasize: the capacity for dreaming creates the energy for imparting destiny. The capacity for dreaming is what creates the momentum to breed a sense of purpose for people all around you.
It’s tough to get the motor going to create destiny when you’re bound by fear, anxiety, and all the things that mess with all of us. When you lose sight of what children have—the best start; they don’t worry about living, about food being on the table—they just assume food will be there in the morning. They dream without boundaries; every child has it in them because they are born with a sense of purpose.
My grandkids, dear Lord, they are princes and princesses, superheroes, everything else—they don’t have a worry in the world. Maybe that’s why Jesus said you’re supposed to have no worries. Get the picture? You might not worry because you’re supposed to be restored to dreaming, not the kind of self-centered dreams.
I’m not talking about building our empires; I’m talking about the fulfillment of life that God intended for every person. I’ll tell you what: the next generation needs you to be free to dream because in you, you’ll plant seeds of destiny.
Put your hand on your heart. Father, we pray for this. I pray that this one-two punch will become as real as it has ever been in our lives. You can impart grace even now to rest, and in that rest, to dream. I also ask that you stir our hearts with a passion for one another’s destinies, a passion for fulfillment in life, that we would be like Solomon, whose dreams were fulfilled by the end of life.
I pray for that—this could be reality, not just for individuals but also corporately. I ask all of this so that you would be exalted.