Bill Johnson - You Have the Key to Someone Else's Breakthrough
Say to the one who is fearful, «Don’t be afraid. God is going to vindicate you with full recompense for everything that has been lost. He will restore you. This is actually the release of the grace of God into an individual’s life that helps bring them into the very answer they ache for. They may not have the ability to face that on their own, but it’s okay because we have their arms, and we’re standing there bringing that kind of encouragement. Strengthen the weak hands; make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, 'Be strong; do not fear; behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.'
Look at those two verses again: strengthen the weak hands. Now, verses three and four are the two verses in the chapter where you and I are commissioned to do something. We have the backdrop of God changing circumstances—the backdrop where He shows up in an extraordinary way—and then He says, „Here’s your job: strengthen the weak hands; make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, 'Be strong; do not fear; behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.' This is interesting because of a life immersed in hope. We can step up to the person who is without hope, to the person who is faltering, to the person who is in personal weakness. All of us have been in a place of weakness. We’ve all experienced strength; this right now gives us the backdrop.
Listen, you are being immersed in the purposes of God. You have a reason to live with hope every day of your life. In fact, to the degree you are without hope, you are under the influence of a lie. No one who truly believes what God has said is without hope. There is nothing you and I will ever face that caught Him by surprise, nor was there anything not already included in His solution. One of the strangest things in Scripture to me is where it talks about Jesus being crucified from before the foundations of the earth. Picture this: before the world was made, God the Father and the Son made the decision to create a world and create people in their image. They will sin, so there’s already the commitment in the heart of Jesus: „I will die in their place.“ What does that mean? Before there was a problem, there was a solution.
That’s amazing! When you and I hit something brand new to us, it’s not new to Him. Before there was a problem, there was already a solution. So here He gives us the commission. He says, „All right, find those that are in a place of weakness. Strengthen their hands; they aren’t able to work as they should. Strengthen their knees.“ What does that look like? I don’t know. I just remember years ago, a friend of mine who was fresh out of the military talked about how they would have to run great distances. Sometimes one of their troops would lose all strength and collapse. They would run over to him because they were all graded as a group. One person would take the backpack and put it on top of their own. Two other soldiers would take the collapsed soldier by the arms, and they would actually carry him for the rest of the race.
He didn’t have the strength to finish on his own, so two others who had strength would carry him the rest of the race until they finished. Maybe that’s what it is: we stand with one another and hold each other up until our knees are strengthened until we can carry out the very thing that God called us to do. But it didn’t stop there. It’s not just physical service, a touch, or an embrace; it moves into a prophetic realm. I don’t see this passage as someone waiting to get a word from God to prophesy to their friend. Instead, I think this is an automatic decree we owe one another because we know the nature of God and the overriding promise of God for any situation in our lives.
So what is it? Say to the one who is fearful, „Don’t be afraid. God is going to vindicate you with full recompense for everything that has been lost. He will restore you.“ Why is that important? It’s not just empty encouragement. You know what I mean when I say empty encouragement—someone trying hard but missing the mark and not fixing anything. This is actually the release of the grace of God into an individual’s life that helps them find the very answer they ache for. Look at it again: „I’m strengthening hands, strengthening knees. Now, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. God is going to vindicate you. There’s nothing that we are facing that He hasn’t already provided a solution for. He will fully restore everything to you.“
They may not have the ability to face that on their own, but it’s hard because we have their arms, and we’re standing there bringing that kind of encouragement. Why is this vital to me? In fact, in my Bible, I wrote Ephesians 4:29 down next to this passage because it perfectly illustrates a truth I saw in Ephesians 4:29. Here’s the verse: „Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it might give grace to those who hear.“ No negative words, only encouraging words, only edifying words according to the need of the moment. It has specific application that it might give grace to those who hear.
That’s the fascinating part to me. I could come to you and give you an encouraging word, and somehow that would bring grace. Where does grace come from? It comes from God. Grace is God’s favor. Work with me here. It’s God’s favor. I take this individual; I come to them with an encouraging word, saying, „Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid! God is going to vindicate you. He will fully supply whatever was stolen from you. I will stand with you; we’re going to see this through. God will fully vindicate every loss you’ve ever suffered.“ And we make this decree.
But here’s what Scripture says: when we bring that word of edification according to the need of the moment, it gives grace. Where does grace come from? God. So let me put it in my language: He sees me choosing an individual to encourage, and He says, „All right, that is where I will add grace. I will now release divine favor where my son has shown favor.“ Thank you. We don’t manipulate or control God, but He’s given us permission. Every person in this room has been given the ministry of reconciliation; it’s in 1 Corinthians. Every one of us has certain overlapping responsibilities, and in this case, the responsibility is to stand as one who believes in the Vindicator.
I can’t vindicate you; I can’t provide for you what was lost. But I can stand with you out of my confidence, out of my hope, in who God is and His promise that prevails over your life, and I can say He will fully vindicate you. God sees me bringing the edification according to the need of the moment, and He says, „I will now add my power, called grace, into the equation, which will help bring about the vindication I have promised.“ Will it happen if you don’t say it? God doesn’t give us commissions that He will carry out if we don’t obey. He doesn’t say, „Go into all the world and preach the gospel,“ but if you guys just get too tired or whatever, „that’s alright; I’ll do it myself.“ Or, „If you don’t go, I’ll send angels.“ My goodness, I’d rather have an angel sent anywhere—some 20-foot angel standing on a street corner will probably get a bigger response than any of us!
Or Jesus will just show up in the flesh, and if that’s the option, let’s just have Him do it. When He gives us a commission, it’s because He has imparted to us a divine enablement, grace, and the responsibility to carry out the assignment. So my question is, I’ve got the weak, faltering person next to me who needs someone to strengthen them, someone to grab an arm, stand with them, and bring encouraging words. But then prophesy, „God will vindicate you.“ Is it possible that some of the things we’ve waited for Him to do have been delayed because He’s been waiting for us to do the thing He assigned us to do? We’ve seen it before. I’ve seen it a number of times in my life, where I’ve waited and waited, and I found out that He was waiting for me—to act, to obey, to take risks, whatever it might be.
All that time, I blamed the absence of something on the sovereignty of God when, in fact, it was just the lack of risk and obedience on my part. So here we have the verse: „Strengthen the weak hands; make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted: be strong; do not fear; behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.“ Look at verse 5: „Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened…“ Get next to the hurting person; prophesy over them that God will fully vindicate. „Then the eyes of the blind will be opened; the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; the lame will leap like a deer; the tongue of the dumb will sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.“ Do you see this? Then the eyes will be opened, the ears will be opened, the lame, the tongue—everything healed, everything restored. What did it follow? It followed the decree made by the hope-filled believer.