Bill Johnson - How to Understand Spiritual Truths
If I’ve told you earthly things and you do not believe, what was His intention in telling them earthly things? His intended outcome, as He invited them into this dialogue, this experience, this journey, was, «Come, I want you to step into belief and faith.» He invites them, but they miss it, and He says, «Man, if you’re not getting it when I’m talking about the simple things, how can I talk to you about My world that has no earthly parallel? What’s the point?» He wants to know: «Are you still there?» I’m going to take you through part of this really quickly so I can get to one verse again. Better talk fast, read fast, you listen fast. Agreed? All right.
Verse 2: Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said to Him, «Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.» Okay, stop right there. We know you are a teacher come from God because no one can do these signs that you do. No one can do these signs unless God is with you. The teaching gift in the body of Christ is not viewed as a miracle-working gift, but it was for Jesus. The word is meant to set the stage for the miracle. It doesn’t mean that every time the Bible is taught there should be signs and wonders, but it does mean there’s an occasion for it. If you are a teacher of the Word of God, lean into it, because your words create opportunities. Don’t be satisfied with the word only; the scripture says the kingdom is not in word, but in power.
It’s very diverse. Again, it seemed to go over so well, so I want to make sure you see it. Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said, «Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.» Stop right there. What is the kingdom? It’s the invisible reality of God’s Dominion. It’s measured in the visible, but the kingdom itself is unseen.
In Matthew 12:28, Jesus said, «If I cast out a demon out of you by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.» So here’s a demonized individual; Jesus ministers to him and the demons leave. Jesus then describes why the demons left: because the Dominion of God, which is unseen, came upon the demonized person and drove the evil spirits out. So now the Dominion of God has been established in this life instead of the demonic. Unless you are born again, you cannot see the unseen reality of God’s Dominion.
What’s the implication? If you are born again, you can see. Our conversion gave us a gift—a capacity for knowing. For most, it goes undeveloped because we are taught that certain things aren’t for today or maybe for another culture, like a missionary culture, but it’s actually the normal Christian life. Unless you are born again, you cannot see. If you are born again, you can see. What can you see? The unseen.
Verse 4: Nicodemus said, «How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?» Jesus answered, «Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water» (that’s natural birth) «and of the Spirit» (that’s being born again), «he cannot enter the kingdom of God.» Verse 6: «That which is born of flesh is flesh» (that’s natural birth), «and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'» The wind blows where it wishes; you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Are you all still breathing and everything? All right. He’s just given us two unusual illustrations of conversion and the Christian life. Conversion is being born again; the Christian life is like the nature of wind. Verse 9: Nicodemus answered and said to Him, «How can these things be?» And Jesus, in His classic sober response, said, «Are you a teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things?» That’s funny.
«Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen. You do not receive our witness.» Who is «we»? We speak what we know; we testify what we have seen. It’s not Jesus and the disciples—scratch that. It’s not even Jesus and the angels; it’s Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now think about this.
Read this verse in light again: «We speak what we know.» Jesus only said what He heard His Father say. So when He says «we speak,» He is saying the Father, the Son, and the Spirit of God are upon Me, enabling Me to speak words of authority and power—Father, Son, Holy Spirit. «We speak what we know; we testify to what we have seen.» God has an interesting testimony.
Now look what He says: «We speak what we know; we testify what we have seen. You do not receive our witness.» Is it possible that Jesus is saying nobody wants to listen to our story? Nobody wants to hear our testimony? This chapter, to me, is an invitation to everyone who is born again to be restored to the normal Christian life.
All right, here are the two verses I actually wanted. Everything else was hors d’oeuvres; that was the runway. We are now about to take flight. All right. Verse 12: «If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?»
All right, just stop right there. I’ll read it again in a moment. When the Lord unveils understanding of His kingdom, He starts with what is easiest for us to understand, which specifically is natural things. He starts with things like sowing and reaping. You plant corn, you harvest corn. You plant an apple tree, you harvest apples. You show mercy, you receive mercy. He starts with natural things because it’s easiest for us to grab hold of.
So what He does is set natural principles in place wherever the natural world mirrors or reflects concepts of the kingdom of God that we can’t see. He draws parallels, so we understand the nature of what we can’t see. Are you with me?
So here He says, «If I teach you earthly things, and you don’t believe, if I talk about earthly things and you don’t get it—you don’t connect the dots—how can I talk to you about heavenly things?» All right, when did He do that? He did it when He said you must be born again and that the Christian life is like wind.
Are you with me? He set the stage for them to grasp an understanding of this unseen reality called the Dominion of God, and He was letting them taste of and have glimpses of how that world functions. If we are going to honor the nature of this unseen reality called God’s Dominion, His kingdom, the reality of His rule, His lordship, if we are going to live under that, it helps us to understand how that world functions.
In this passage, He says, «If I talk to you about earthly things—being born, wind—and you’re not connecting the dots, how can I talk to you about heavenly things?» What does He mean by that? How can I talk to you about the nature of My world that has no earthly parallel? How can I talk to you about the nature of My world that has no earthly parallel? There’s nothing to compare it to, not that if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe. You know these illustrations that Jesus gives all through scripture—parables, other things that you and I learn just through life—where the Lord will speak to us about something natural. Those are all invitations to increase faith.
Here, let’s read it again so that you can see it: If I’ve told you earthly things and you do not believe, what was His intention in telling them earthly things? It’s that they would believe. His intended outcome, as He invited them into this dialogue, this experience, this journey, was, «Come, I want you to step into belief and faith.»
I want you to enter a greater place of faith. So He invites them, but they miss it, and He says, «Man, if you’re not getting it when I’m talking about the simple things—planting corn, harvesting corn, showing mercy, reaping mercy—if you’re not making that connection, then I can’t talk to you about My world that has no earthly parallel. What’s the point?» He wants to—
John 16 is a sobering portion of scripture for me. Jesus actually tells His disciples and the crowd He’s with—I forget how many were there—but He tells this group of people, «I have so many things to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.» Whenever Jesus speaks, let me put it this way: whenever He speaks, He releases the reality of another world into the atmosphere.
We know this is true in John 6; He said, «My words to you are spirit, and they are life.» Words become presence. So whenever Jesus spoke, words became presence. Here He says, «I have so many things to say to you, but you can’t bear them now. You don’t have the weight-bearing capacity for what I would release over you if I told you all that was in My heart.»
So that tells me, number one, there’s a responsibility to be able to host Him well, but also to have the character, the willingness to do whatever He says—to live in that place where you can carry increased measures.
I think it’s all about these increased measures of His glory. You say, «Well, He won’t share His glory with another.» It’s true, but you’re not another; we are members of His body. So He’s working to build us up in strength, purity, and power to walk in this dimension of Christ-likeness so that He can impart more.
He says, «I’ve got so much to say to you, but you can’t bear it now. It would crush you.» So here He says, «If I’ve told you earthly things and you don’t get it, how are you going to get it when I talk to you about the reality of My world that’s within reach, that has no earthly parallel, and yet I’ve called you to broker it into the earth?»