Bill Johnson - Weeding Out Unbelief and Cultivating Your Garden of Faith
If you’re like me, you find all kinds of things planted in your garden bed. You’ve got the word of the Lord over your life, but like this guy, you say, «God, I do believe, but I’m fighting. I’ve got some unbelief too.» We’ve thought that the answer to this challenge is to have bigger faith. Jesus actually canceled out that concept when he said faith just the size of a mustard seed could take Mount Shasta and put it in the Pacific Ocean. First of all, picture a garden. We have raised beds at our house. We didn’t raise them from the dead; they’re actually just elevated organic soil. Now picture the plant you want to grow, next to the plant you didn’t plant, and all these things are competing for air, for sun, for nutrients, and for water. There’s this competition going on. We have an automatic watering system, and it waters the weeds too. I’m trying to figure out how to set up a watering system that only waters the plants. I mean, we’ve got an orchard, and we’ve got trees growing, but we also have weeds because they found out there’s water there.
The point I’m trying to make is that the water of God’s presence waters all seeds. Whatever seed is planted will become manifest by the presence of the Lord because it will begin to manifest. Let me illustrate this because you need to catch this to understand how the Lord works. For example, you’re just driving along, and you find this little bit of an angry attitude or just arrogance creeping up. The Lord, in His mercy through His presence, is exposing a seed that wants permission to be planted. You have a quick moment to deal with it in repentance so that it doesn’t set down roots. Once it sets down roots, it can certainly be removed, but it starts affecting your personality.
Quick repentance is the best. You’re driving down, and you see that attitude of, «No, they just think they know,» and all of a sudden, you realize, «Oh, that’s arrogance! God, forgive me.» Quickly repent, then turn and bless that person. I’m trying to have shorter and shorter times between the exposure of something and the quick repentance. Don’t go into guilt and shame because it gives you a false sense of spirituality. It creates a sense of humility that mimics humility, but it’s not humility. It doesn’t give you access to what true humility gives you access to. So, doing the guilt and shame thing, «Oh, I did it again,» don’t go there, because then you’re making an agreement with the accuser that’s trying to draw you into the sin in the first place. If he can’t get me into this sin, then he wants me to become arrogant over the fact that I’m dealing with the sin. That’s too big of a hole to fall into. So forgive me; I’ll pull out of that one.
Let me illustrate this concept that the presence of the Lord causes all seeds to water. Picture with me the Last Supper. This is the most intense and intimate moment ever. They know — they can feel it in the air — something’s about to happen. Jesus knows He’s about to go to the cross. He’s got the 12 there in this intense moment of divine presence. This intimate moment shows John with his head on Jesus’s chest, while Peter announces, «I will never deny you,» and Judas walks out of the room to betray Him. Because all seeds are watered in that presence, they all become manifest in those moments. Wisdom is recognizing when the Lord is bringing something to the surface, and in that moment, He’s giving you grace to deal with it quickly and thoroughly.
If you’re like me, you find all kinds of things planted in your garden bed. You’ve got the word of the Lord over your life, but like this guy, in all honesty, you say, «God, I do believe; you are my confidence, but I’m fighting. I’ve got some unbelief too.» We’ve thought that the answer to this challenge is to have bigger faith. Jesus actually canceled out that concept of faith’s size as being the answer when He said faith just the size of a mustard seed could take Mount Shasta and put it in the Pacific Ocean. That’s not just a nice, warm fuzzy illustration; it’s not a motivational point, it’s not a rah-rah on Jesus’s behalf. It’s a statement of fact: something this small can move something that big if it’s by itself.
See, the problem is, I’ve got other plants in my garden. In this particular story, the disciples were presented with a case to bring deliverance to a child. I’ll never forget, as long as I live—probably 23 or 24 years ago—I was in a meeting, and a mom brought a little child to me that was demonized—very similar, very violent. It was horrible. I did everything I knew to do. I’ve ministered in deliverance many, many times. I pulled out all the weapons, and nothing happened. I’ll never forget the mom looking at me with her tormented child, saying, «What do I do now?» I gave some stupid answer that didn’t please her or me, because sometimes you don’t drive out a problem with power; you only do it through authority. Learning how to minister in authority is different from ministering in power. Authority is needed to deal with authority; authority is needed to deal with this kind of obstacle.
The father couldn’t do it, so he brought the child to the disciples. Now, I remind you that the disciples were the most skilled and trained people in the area of deliverance to ever live up until that point. Nobody had the experience they had; no one had the insights; nobody had the testimony. No one. Jesus could trust them enough to send them in groups of two to a city to clean out the place—all the demonized would be set free, and the people who were tormented and sick would be healed, and all the stuff that went on. In fact, it was so impactful that in Luke, chapter 10, Jesus added 70 more to the group and sent them out. Picture this: He sends out 82 folks. They go out, they come back, and they are so excited because demons were subject to them. Jesus says, by the way, «I saw Satan fall like lightning,» so He’s responding to their success.
If we can, He’s responding to the impact of their anointing, their gift, their ministry. Jesus said, «I saw Satan fall like lightning.» Just don’t make that your point of joy; make your point of joy the fact that your name is written in my book. «Your name is written in my book"—great story, great point. But here we are: we’ve got those with the greatest expertise who couldn’t bring healing and deliverance to this child. The dad was lucky enough to see Jesus coming and brought the child to Jesus. Jesus wasn’t impressed by the demonic manifestation. Sometimes, we take our identity in the size of our problem. Be careful how you describe your problem because sometimes we’d rather have sympathy from a friend than breakthrough from a person of faith. I’m not saying don’t share; I’m just saying be careful where your heart is going, because sometimes we feed on that stuff.
So, he brings him to Jesus. Jesus was unmoved by the demonic manifestation and brought deliverance to the child. The disciples saw, and it says they took Jesus aside and asked Him, «How come we couldn’t do it?» Jesus gave them this profound advice: «This kind only comes out by prayer and fasting,» which I’ll talk about in a minute. For me, the biggest lesson in this story is that when the disciples couldn’t bring about a breakthrough, they didn’t create a theology around what didn’t happen. They didn’t look for biblical reasons why it wasn’t God’s will to deliver that child. Instead, they took Jesus aside and asked why not. I pray the day comes for you and me that instead of being shocked when the breakthrough happens, we’re shocked when it doesn’t—shocked enough to take Jesus aside and ask Him to please explain why it didn’t work in this occasion.
Jesus said, «This kind only comes out with prayer and fasting.» But He neither prayed nor fasted. We know Jesus fasted the one time we know that He fasted was 40 days at the beginning of His ministry. That’s kind of the initiation. But He didn’t—I’m not saying it’s wrong, but He just didn’t fast for a problem; He fasted into a lifestyle. So, Jesus said, «This kind only comes out with prayer and fasting,» then He neither prayed nor fasted and brought deliverance. What did Jesus identify as the problem in this story? Unbelief. Unbelief was the problem. What did the dad think the problem was? A demon. Yes, he wants the demon out of his son. What’s the problem for the dad? The demon. What’s the problem for Jesus? Unbelief.
There are times when you face a situation that is bigger than your unbelief can handle. It’s like digging a hole that I’ll never crawl out of. I can feel there’s a sucking sound into this hole. There are times when the measure of faith, as compared to all the questions that you keep pondering, keep questioning, and keep meditating on, become too big of a battle. When you actually have the faith of God Himself that, when it’s by itself, is more than enough to move the mountain, but because you’ve allowed it to be planted with other competing things, you’re in a war He didn’t create for you. Prayer and fasting do not drive out demons. The devil doesn’t get intimidated when I miss a meal. I think he finds it entertaining. It may be because I’m such a pitiful pastor. I was fasting this week, watching hunting shows where they cooked the food that they shot. I gravitate towards those kinds of shows. Leave me alone, just be quiet. I don’t think the devil is intimidated by my fasting; he’s intimidated by my authority.
What happens in prayer and fasting is you discover who He is and you discover who you are—that’s it. Let me rephrase it: fasting for some of us at times has been more likely called a hunger strike. That’s where you announce to God you’re not eating until something happens. That’s funny to me—it’s funny that ever crossed our mind. «All right, you want me to fast? I’m fasting until this.» It’s not like fasting earns brownie points—it doesn’t; fasting shows where you are hungry for something unseen rather than what you can see. What does faith operate in? If it operates in the unseen, what does unbelief operate in? It operates in what you can see; it’s the wallowing child foaming at the mouth—that’s the challenge the disciples had. They had not been given a proper amount of authority to deal with that child. They had been; Jesus gave them all the authority needed to deal with any problem they faced. Did they deal with it? No. Why? Too many seeds in the garden—too much competing with what God had given them. They had the authority; it just was diluted in its use to minister to this problem.