Bill Johnson - Positioning Yourself to Hear God's Voice
Everything about you is wired and designed to perceive, to recognize, to have fellowship and exchange with the Almighty God. I’m not as good at it as I want to be, but I’m better than I used to be. It’s my «yes» before He speaks that positions me to anticipate and lean in. You hear better; you perceive better. Amen. I don’t know how this works for you. Most of the time when I ask God a question, I don’t get an answer immediately; rarely do I get an answer. Some of you have this ongoing conversation, and I’m jealous of you. But right now, be quiet; I don’t want to hear your story—I want you to hear mine.
Honestly, most of the time when I have a question, like a scripture I say, «God, I don’t understand this.» I ran into something this last week. Every time you open the Bible, there’s stuff you don’t understand, but this one puzzled me. I thought, «I don’t get this.» I’ve done that through the years, and He’ll speak to me, but rarely in that moment. It might be a month later. When you ask the question, you have the responsibility to recognize the answer when it comes. Sometimes it will come through a friend in conversation without them even knowing they’re answering your question. It may come on a TV show; it may come from a worship album you’re listening to; it may come as just an inspired thought while you’re driving down the road.
You go, «Oh, I get it now!» It’s because you’re in anticipation of the One who speaks. Positioning ourselves as hearers of God is huge. The Bible says, «Don’t despise the day of small beginnings.» What does that mean? Don’t discredit infancy; don’t discredit what you think is inability. Instead of focusing on small ability, does that make sense? It made perfect sense to me. When you discount whatever progress you’ve made and criticize yourself or think little of yourself because of what you’re not, you actually hurt the progress you’ve made. I’ve heard people say, «Well, this isn’t revival.» Well, you know, that three-foot circle you’re standing in may not be. In fact, if I had to vote, I would agree with you. I see God do something powerful, and then I watch the critics. I don’t mean the people who don’t like us; I’m talking about the people who like us. I’m not saying this to somehow stir up sympathy; I’m trying to point out the fact that sometimes we have a seed that’s started to grow and somebody comes in and kills it because it’s not a fully grown tree.
I remember my first trip to Argentina. One of the first things I wanted to do was examine this outpouring of the Spirit I had heard about and read about for so many years. I wanted to see if it was anything similar to what we were experiencing. Besides the amazing conversations I had with leaders and people who were so affirming to me, I basically went down and came back with this conclusion: the revival there was like a huge, red, ripe, sweet apple, and what we are experiencing had just started to form on the tree. It might be sour; it might be bitter, but it is 100% apple. You don’t steward this into maturity by discrediting it. Translate that into your ability to hear from God: never say again, never imply again, that it’s hard for you to hear from God because it’s your nature to hear from Him. It’s your nature; it’s who you are; it’s in the design.
Everything about you is wired and designed to perceive, to recognize, to have fellowship and exchange with the Almighty God. I’m not as good at it as I want to be, but I’m better than I used to be, and it’s not now what it’s going to be, but it’s my «yes» before He speaks that positions me to anticipate and lean in. You hear better; you perceive better. It’s the strangest thing. I’ve watched it in meetings where extraordinary miracles take place. I do many of these kinds of things with Randy Clark, one of my best friends and a guy I learn from all the time. I watch him and learn from him how often there’s a subtle impression. When we think of a word of knowledge or a prophetic word, I at least think of something much more obvious; that’s a no-brainer—of course that’s the Lord. But not those subtle little impressions that say someone was injured in a white van that rolled over. It’s as easy to miss as it is to get, and it wasn’t demanding.
You actually had to lean into it to recognize it. Then all of a sudden, you’re fed up with trying to protect your own dignity and reputation, and you think, «What’s the worst that could happen? Nothing,» and that’s already happening. I was in a meeting where that actually happened. I used that as an example, and there were, I believe, five people in the room who had been in white vans that had overturned. What are the odds? There were a couple thousand people there, but still, what are the odds you have anybody in the room who’s been in a white van that flipped over? Then to have five that all had the same experience—four were instantly healed in a moment, and the fifth one, I don’t know about.
The point I’m trying to make is it’s not about signs and wonders; it’s not about the prophetic; it’s not about any of that. It’s about the fact God talks, and you hear. Lean in, and you’ll recognize better what He’s saying if you just say «yes» before He speaks. Did I read the passage to you out of 2 Corinthians? Let me just read it to you. I’ve spoken twice already, and there’s one more to go. By the end of that, I won’t even know what city I’m in—just joking. 2 Corinthians 3:16: «Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.» Strange verse. When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. You would think the veil is taken away so the person could turn to the Lord. It’s backward—in His mercy, the veil isn’t lifted until they turn. There’s enough evidence of the voice of God in every human being that if there’s that turning, then suddenly what has kept them from clear perception of the things of God is lifted, and they see clearly.
The clarity of sight is the reward for turning. The clearness with which we hear from God is often the clarity with which He speaks to us, and the clarity with which we hear is given to people He can trust with what He says. I know this sounds a little awkward, but there’s a different responsibility before the Lord if you receive a slight impression versus the audible voice. The audible voice comes with no excuses; the subtle impression wasn’t as clear. We want to grow in the clarity with which we hear, but what regulates that clarity is our «yes» before He speaks. I know that whenever you talk about leaning into the Lord and hearing these unusual things, I create space for weirdos to rise to the surface.
Finally, someone who understands me! They then have permission to do all these weird things and blame it on Jesus. But I don’t ever have the intention of preaching a balanced message—that’s good. There has to be risk in what I say. Let me rephrase that: the risk in what I say has to be greater than the risk for those who will misuse it. While I know that people will lean in, quote-unquote, and do stupid things, blaming it on God and saying I taught them, that’s a whole other YouTube video right there. The risk is worth it because maybe ten people in this room will just lean in and hear things they’ve never heard before and realize He’s been talking all this time, perceiving things about their lives, their families, their destiny that have never been acknowledged before. Suddenly, there’s this domino effect through a family line because somebody was leaning to hear, to recognize, and they said «yes» before the command came. That’s worth it.