Bill Johnson - A Guide for Your Mind to Overcome Anxiety and Fear
When we begin to submit ourselves to the inferior, we allow anxiety and stress to fill our minds with what-ifs that have no life in them, and the enemy is once again working to undermine our identity and first love relationship. In this whole process of being an authentic representation of Jesus, I love this verse in verse 8. I appreciate practical things because I need them. This is just some of the study I did for myself last year, but it says to look at verse 8 again: «Finally, brethren, whatever things are true…» Things that are true are absolute, and they’re liberating.
Remember, truth sets you free, so think about that which is absolute and liberating. Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble—this word noble means honorable and revered—whatever things are just, meaning righteous, correct, and innocent; whatever things are pure, including holy and sacred; whatever things are lovely, meaning pleasing and agreeable; whatever things are of good report, well-reported, and attractive; whatever things are of virtue; this word virtue denotes moral goodness but also excellence. If there is anything praiseworthy… I don’t know if this will make sense to you, but sometimes I’ve been in a real battle—maybe someone you know has done something really against what they should have done. I mean, someone really steps outside the line of what they’re doing, possibly representing me or us as a house, whatever it might be.
Like everybody else, I have this mind thing going on where I must ensure that I respond appropriately. I can’t ignore a problem if I’m responsible, but I also don’t have to fuel it with my own stress and anxiety, because then I will arrive at wrong conclusions and misapply truth for my sake and not for theirs. That’s more true than you realize, and the scripture instructs me to fill my mind with certain things. If I’m struggling with that, here’s what I do: I think about my wife, because she embodies everything in verse 8. She is so true, so absolute, so life-giving, so lovely, and praiseworthy and virtuous. She is excellent in all those things. Honestly, I will stop if I’m having a difficult day to recalibrate. What is it that I love about my wife? I start to think specifically about those things, and it’s hard to be mad at anybody when you consider those kinds of qualities. Are you catching my drift here?
It is hard to do so if I’m filling my heart and mind, recalibrating what is important, recalibrating my heart, my mind, and my thought life to what’s valuable. As soon as I do that, something takes place in me where I face this individual who has betrayed or done something foolish. Maybe I have a responsibility there, but when I recalibrate my thoughts to what is righteous and good, I don’t approach that person I need to work with abusively; I come to them in grace. Does that make any sense to you? This has to be practical, and Jesus illustrated it best. I want you to look at one more portion of scripture, and then we’ll wrap this up. Go to John 13; this is something we studied here, I think a couple of years ago. It’s a very meaningful passage to me. Jesus is soon to go to the cross.
I’ve already described a little bit about the suffering he was about to endure, the abandonment by all of his disciples, the betrayal by Judas himself—all of this that he knew about and was stepping into in that moment. It tells us what he was thinking in that moment, which floors me. He was doing what we are instructed to do in Philippians 4. This is what he was conscious of in verse 3: Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself. In the next couple of verses, he washes the disciples' feet. There are three very specific things for any person in this room.
Let me announce to you why I’m talking about this today: I felt this morning, while praying, that God was going to end a mental battle for a number of people, and it will end here today. I really sensed it this morning; I felt like I had a word of promise from the Lord regarding this. If you’ve been here for any length of time, you know I don’t make those kinds of statements very often, but I felt this morning that the Lord would bring peace to a chaotic, anxious situation for a number of folks. I’ve not seen a season like this. In fact, there have been several suicides across our nation involving high-profile individuals, even in ministry, and it’s one of the most horrible things. Bitterness is immature, murder is self-condemnation, and self-hatred is immature.
Suicide, in other words, is just undeveloped, and it’s the reason we have to stay so far away from those kinds of patterns of thought. It’s not that I’m going to go kill myself; it’s just that it is already killing me. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. We even, as people who don’t commit murder, still speak unkindly and release death into a given situation. So, in this passage, it tells us this: Jesus, knowing… so that tells me what Jesus was conscious of as he was about to head into this situation of betrayal and the cross. What does it say? It says: Jesus, knowing all things had been given to him by the Father. There’s an interesting twist: you’re about to lose your life, and what you’re thinking about is that everything is yours.
Yeah, you’re about to suffer the greatest loss anyone has ever experienced, and what’s on your mind is, «I’ve already inherited everything.» This is practical. He says: Jesus, knowing all things had been given to him by the Father, just a little insert here, Jesus as God already owned everything, but he laid that down, if you will, to become a man, and he now reinherits everything as a man, as mentioned in John 16. So here, it’s identified: Jesus, knowing all things had been given to him by the Father—number one. Number two, he came from the Father and was about to go home. In other words, he was to step into eternal purpose and eternal destiny. So what was he thinking about when he was about to be betrayed? That unlimited resource and a destiny that can’t be challenged or changed.
That’s about as practical as it gets: facing betrayal, crucifixion, all the stuff, while thinking, «I’ve just inherited everything"—yes, as the Son of Man, and I’m about to ascend to the Father into eternal destiny and eternal purpose. The third thing he did was wash his disciples' feet. What’s the point? Come back next week, and I’ll tell you. It’s an overused joke. Sorry. To me, serving is what ties it all together. This is a weird illustration, but Jesus, mindful that everything was his, was going to the Father. The two-part epoxy of his serving brought him together, and what makes practical his own confidence in his destiny is the fact that he lost nothing by going low. Many people can’t go low because their identity is wrapped up in a title or a position. When Jesus illustrates going low, it actually reveals his security.