Bill Johnson - 3 Keys for Your Breakthrough: Hope, Celebration, Beauty
God has purposed to take every pile of ashes and turn it into beauty. He didn’t determine to take every pile of ashes and turn it into an acceptable situation; He actually determined to take what was the most repulsive part of our lives and turn it into the most beautiful part of our lives. Thank you. Good morning! Wow, we had an «Arise and Build» celebration a few weeks back in September, and we had more than 3.8 million dollars come in through cash and new commitments since that Vision Sunday in September. Gifts ranged from a dollar to a half a million—that’s good! Gifts came from Reading, plus 49 states, and 38 other countries. Wow! It’s all towards our next target of 25 million to enclose the Worship Center so we can build in the winter. So anyway, you’re encouraged to help us as you’re able. Amen.
Now, a lawyer and an elderly gentleman were sitting next to each other on a long flight. The lawyer, thinking he was so much more intelligent, figured he could easily get one over on this senior. So, the lawyer asked him if he’d like to play a fun game. The senior was tired and just wanted to take a nap, so he politely declined and tried to go to sleep. The lawyer persisted, saying the game’s a lot of fun: «I ask you a question. If you don’t know the answer, you pay me only $5. Then you ask me one, and if I don’t know the answer, I pay you $500.» This caught the senior’s attention, so to keep the lawyer quiet, he agreed to play. The lawyer asked the first question: «What’s the distance from the earth to the moon?» The older gentleman didn’t say a word; he reached into his pocket, pulled out a $5 bill, and handed it to the lawyer.
Now it’s the senior’s turn. He asked the lawyer, «What goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?» The lawyer used his laptop to search all references he could find. He sent emails to all of his smart friends, to no avail. After an hour of searching, he finally gave up. He woke the senior, handed him $500, and the senior put the $500 in his pocket and went back to sleep. The lawyer was going nuts not knowing the answer. He woke the senior again and asked, «So, what goes up a hill with three legs and comes down with four?» The senior reached into his pocket, handed the lawyer $5, and went back to sleep. That’s so smart!
All right, grab your Bibles if you would and open to Isaiah 35. This is actually one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. I’ve told you before I love the disciplined reading of Scripture—going from Genesis to Revelation, or maybe just the New Testament or just the Old Testament. But I also have what I call my recreational reading, where I just go randomly to certain places that I enjoy so much. This is one of my cabins in the woods where I go to hide out for a while, just to feast on the goodness of the Lord.
What I want to do today is talk to you about something I haven’t figured out a title for yet, so this is a description, not a title: «Indispensable Ingredients for a Life of Triumph.» There’s a recipe that God puts together, and I want to bring our attention to three specific things that most of us have probably never considered together. It’s a bit of a different approach, so let’s get moving.
Isaiah 35, beginning with verse one: «The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them; the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God.»
Okay, stop right there. I just want to draw your attention to the prophetic language. I did a whole study a bunch of years ago on every reference I could find in the Bible regarding water, whether it be rain, rivers, pools, lakes, or seas. The overwhelming conclusion I came to is that no matter what the conflict or problem was for the nation of Israel or for an individual, the answer was water. Water, over and over again, is a move of the Holy Spirit. It represents God invading a very broken situation. This is illustrated even more so in John chapter 7, where Jesus said there’s a river of living water in us, and following His statement on that water, it says, «And this He spoke of concerning the Spirit.» So, in other words, He’s identifying the fact that this river of water, this figurative, this metaphoric language is actually the movement of the Holy Spirit.
So we see in Scripture the downpour, the rain of the Holy Spirit—the latter rain. It’s the outpouring of the Spirit. The river, the outpouring of the Spirit, the pools—almost all of these places are, in some way, a reference to God’s supernatural invasion into broken situations.
All right, so when we see deserts rejoicing, we’re actually talking about barren places coming to life. Let’s go right to verse three: «Here’s a command: 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.'» Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame shall leap like a deer, the tongue of the dumb shall sing, for waters will burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
Stop right there. Verse three: «Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, 'Don’t be afraid! '» Now, how many of you understand that when you’re afraid, somebody telling you not to be afraid doesn’t provide enough information to pull you out of fear? This only works because it is drawing. I don’t have the time to take you through this, but it’s in Job and Ephesians where what we say actually paints a bullseye over somebody that draws the hand of God into a very broken situation. It’s not an intellectual debate to bring somebody out of fear. We are often waiting for God to do something, and He’s waiting for us to say something.
He said, «Say to those who are fearful, 'Don’t be afraid. God will come with vengeance. He will have the last say in this issue. He will have the last word over the situation in your life.'» We can stand next to one another and say, «I don’t know how He’s going to do it. I don’t know when He’s going to do it, but I am confident, as a loving Father, He will have the last say in your given situation. Don’t fear. Don’t fear because you make an agreement with the enemy.» Let’s stop the fear thing, and right now let’s stand strong.
As it says, «Then the eyes of the blind will be opened.» So, what is this? This encouragement is always breeding or increasing the atmosphere of hope. That’s what encouragement does. Anytime you have a word of encouragement or strength for somebody, you’re building in them a culture of hope. Biblical hope is different than hope in our culture. In our culture, hope is like a wish. «I sure hope that happens.» It’s a shot in the dark. There’s nothing guaranteed! Biblical hope is actually the joyful anticipation of good; it’s the joyful expectation that something extraordinary is about to happen. Therefore, I’m going to rejoice now as though it has already happened! Hope actually gives you permission to celebrate the answer as though it’s already happened! Yes!
One of the most essential ingredients for a life of victory is maintaining hope, and in the same way we have people here speaking to one another, in the same way that the parts of our body give strength to the other parts, nutrients are released from one member to another. In the same way, we have the responsibility to bring strength to one another by declaring over them the word of the Lord. The Lord is looking for you to say something. Everybody in this room has a gift; a capacity to prophesy. This word says, «Say to one another, 'Don’t be afraid.'»
But then it says, «God will come;» it’s the prophetic decree. There are times where the hand of the Lord is actually, I don’t know if I’m saying it right when I say restrained, withheld from a given situation until somebody with responsibility—which is you and me—says something, and we make the decree. The Lord is looking for agreement by those He has assigned in redemptive roles to stand in a place where we prophesy to one another, «God will come. I don’t know how; I don’t know when; but I am confident in His role as Father, as God, He’s going to fully vindicate you.» That element of hope, I believe, is one of the most important parts of the Christian life.
If you can imagine everybody in this room taking on that assignment—to make sure when we come together, we come together, as Paul says in Corinthians, about when you come together, «each one come with a song. Each one come with a word—with something to give to somebody else.» The point is we come into the room or onto the property with a readiness to deposit into somebody else’s life. Yes!
Come on, here’s what happens: that creates an atmosphere where it can be said, «Then the eyes of the blind will be opened. Then the tongue of the dumb will be unstopped. The lame will leap like a deer.» Then the supernatural invasion of God comes to restore broken places. But it was created by those who gave hope. We have the responsibility for the atmosphere. Oftentimes, we leave that responsibility up to the worship team or a few people leading the meeting. Come on, walk in the door; look for someone to stand with and say, «Your day is coming. It’s coming! It’s coming!»
I want you to go with me to Nehemiah chapter 8. Nehemiah chapter 8 is another one of my favorites, so today you get favorites! This story is so bizarre. Ezra and Nehemiah used to be one book. Those two books talk about Israel, who was in exile, that was released back to rebuild their nation, specifically the city of Jerusalem. They were released back to Jerusalem. They first rebuilt the temple and then built the walls of the city and started rebuilding the city itself.
When you got born again, the first thing that took place is the Holy Spirit moved into your life, creating you as a temple of the Holy Spirit. Then He began to rebuild the parts of your life that keep you in a place of strength, safety, and protection—temple first, city next—and it’s the same story for every one of us. Wow!
In this story, they’ve already rebuilt the walls; the temple’s in place; the walls are rebuilt. It took them, I think, 72 years to rebuild the walls of this city and failed. The enemy would come in night after night after night and tear down whatever they built. Nehemiah comes—whose name means «comforter"—he’s a picture of the Holy Spirit. He came into the situation and helped them to rebuild the walls, and they completed it in 52 days—what they couldn’t do in a lifetime, they did in a season with the help of the Holy Spirit, with the help of the Comforter who led and guided them in this journey.
But what happens now is they come to a place where they discover the Scriptures. I don’t think, as I read it, it looks like no one in this generation had ever heard the Word of God being read before. So, now they’re at what they call the Watergate. They’re in an open square, and all the people of the community are there—of every age, from the smallest child to the oldest adult—they’re all in this city square, and they are standing from sunrise to sunset. So, they are there for hours and hours of the day, just standing while the Word of God is being read.
They’ve never heard it before! Priests are running out among the people to give translation because there are language issues and they’re giving explanations. So, if you can imagine never hearing the Word of God before and for the first time you’re hearing the Scripture being read, everybody in the crowd starts wailing, weeping, and crying because they realize through the reading of the Word, God’s standard was up here, and their lifestyle is down here, and they’re not even close! So, they start weeping and mourning because of failing the Lord their entire lives, and they didn’t even know it until this moment.
They’re weeping and weeping. This is where we’re going to get into the middle of the story: verse eight. Nehemiah 8:8. Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, «This day is holy to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep,» for all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Stop right there. How many of you were raised in church? How many of you grew up thinking mourning and weeping was how you were holy? The more depressed you were, the more holy you were! My wife never wanted to be an intercessor at all because every intercessor she knew was depressed, so she wrote the book «The Happy Intercessor.»
So here we’ve got this interesting picture: he says don’t mourn or weep. Why? «This day is holy!» This is every evangelist’s dream! You’ve got the entire crowd weeping and mourning, waiting for the altar call, and then the word of the Lord comes out and says, «Stop crying, stop mourning!»
Listen to God’s prescription: «Then he said to them, 'Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to the Lord! Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength! '» That’s where that phrase comes from: «The joy of the Lord is your strength.»
So, the Levites quieted all the people, saying, «Be still, for the day is holy; don’t be grieved.» And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions, and to rejoice greatly. Listen to the phrase: «because they understood the words of the law.» I don’t know what you do with this, but this has been kind of a cornerstone concept for me for a whole bunch of years—that there are times where, well, let me put it this way: It takes greater faith to rejoice before you’ve been transformed into what God is saying than it does after you’ve been walking in victory for a season.
The Lord is always looking for authentic expressions of faith to celebrate God’s goodness and power, and to celebrate that before there’s been personal transformation takes a lot greater faith. It takes supernatural faith! Because the most inclined thing we do is evaluate ourselves and respond accordingly instead of evaluating Him and responding accordingly.
This second ingredient is celebration. It’s to celebrate, to make sure everybody around you has enough to celebrate the goodness of God with. Yes, our standard of life is so below what He requires of us, that we are going to rejoice our way into maturity.
In the world, we rejoice because we’re happy. In the Kingdom, we’re happy because we rejoice. There’s a different approach to almost everything in life in the Kingdom, whereas we take this moment to express confidence in the goodness of God and faith and actually start celebrating before we have any logical reason to celebrate.
It was that celebration that introduced them to grace. There are a number of times throughout Scripture, throughout the Old Testament, where you actually see Old Testament people—David’s life is one profound example—where they illustrate grace in an Old Testament context. Grace is the enabling power of God. You see it in this moment—they didn’t deserve it, but they’re able to celebrate ahead of time.
Celebration involves a couple of things that are important for us to look at today. One is the obvious: joy. Joy is a profound fruit or evidence of the Spirit of God working in a person’s life. And what you can do is, it’s possible to make decisions that reinforce a lifestyle of joy. Here’s a strange verse for you: I think it’s in the second Psalm, it says, «Rejoice with trembling.» Rejoice with trembling! Obviously, rejoicing is not connected to a giddy feeling; it’s not connected to being overwhelmingly happy because everything’s working out right.
It’s actually a decision to make out of the fear of God. Good point, Bill!
All right, here’s an interesting thing at play: Scientists have discovered that it takes approximately 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain—connections between neurons communicating information. It takes roughly 400 repetitions to create a new synapse in the brain unless it’s done in play, in which case it only takes 10 to 20 repetitions. When the Lord commanded us to become like children, play was a part of the assignment. My assistant, Michael Van Tinnan, was reading a book about this subject and showed me a particular chapter that really fascinated me.
I recorded part of the story in one of my books, but I can’t find what book it was in; it’s very pitiful, so I have to do this from memory, which is sketchy. I give you the adjustment: They took two groups of doctors and gave them the same list of symptoms of a disease, and then they sprinkled in misleading information. These groups of doctors were supposed to analyze these symptoms and come up with the diagnosis. One group was given a piece of candy before they started, and the other group was not.
The doctors who got the candy came to a conclusion much quicker and were better able to decipher what information was misleading than the ones without the candy. Obviously, candy is the answer to everything!
That’s so strange. There are example after example after example of how people in play learn much quicker, and their ability to reason through difficult bits of information is much more effective.
Play—we’re supposed to grow down, not up! But we tend to grow up. If you think about it, these issues of hope, celebration, or play are some of the elements that are the fastest to discard when difficulties come. When challenges come in life, those are the things that are put aside so that we can become more serious and give attention to issues, not realizing that in this Kingdom, play is what brings breakthrough.
Joy, the celebration of simple things—all of it is a part of the expression of the Kingdom of God. There’s a verse I want to read for this third element: it’s in Isaiah 61. So if you turn there with me, we’ll read a couple of verses, then we’ll just talk for a bit and try to wrap this up. Isaiah 61—we’ll start with verse one. We’re just going to read the first three verses—great verses, familiar verses, familiar for a reason:
«The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to give those who mourn in Zion beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.»
There are a lot of passages throughout Scripture to reinforce the point I want to make right now, but I want to just take this one phrase: «Beauty for ashes.» Ashes are what’s left over after the enemy’s been involved in the situation in our lives. Scripture says he came to kill, steal, and destroy, so wherever there’s death, loss, and destruction, those are ashes.
God has purposed to take every pile of ashes and turn it into beauty. He didn’t determine to take every pile of ashes and turn it into an acceptable situation; He actually determined to take what was the most repulsive part of our lives and turn it into the most beautiful part of our lives. I heard a prophetic word years ago—probably goodness, 40 years ago—where the Lord spoke and said, «I’m not going to remove the scars from your life; instead, I’m going to arrange them as carvings on a fine piece of crystal.»
Only He can take the most broken parts of our lives and make them not only okay but actually testimonies of beauty and wonder. Beauty is probably one of the easiest subjects to bypass in the Kingdom when, in fact, it’s a backbone of all that God has created. He created the garden of Eden—Eden means ecstasy, pleasure, delight, so it’s a place of perfect beauty, perfect pleasure.
Then He creates Adam, puts him in that garden, then Eve, which means He created the environment to sustain Adam before he created Adam. So, anytime He puts you into a situation, you have everything in that situation you need to thrive. It’s already there; we just need eyes to see it, we need the eyes to recognize that.
Let me tell you something: the worst day of your life that you ever had, the sun still rose on that day, and it was beautiful. The sun set on that day, and it was beautiful. All around us, God has marked even the most horrendous situations of life. We never say that this abuse or that disaster is okay, but God is able to take that and turn it into something that actually is beautiful.
We look with wonder at what God has done. Beauty—I was reading through a book a while back. I did find this quote, and I put it in one of my books. I found it and felt quite happy this morning. It’s in «The Power that Changes the World.» But this thing of beauty is bigger than, I think at least in many of our cultures, bigger than we think.
So let me read a couple of paragraphs to you: In his wonderful book «Beauty Will Save the World,» author Brian Zahn repeats an important story from church history mentioned in his prelude. A thousand years ago, Vlad, Prince Vladimir the Great, was looking for a new religion that might unite his people. Although he himself was a heathen, he recognized that spirituality might bring his people together in a common bond.
He sent legations into the neighboring countries to examine their religions and the effect on their lives. The envoy to examine Christianity went to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople. Below is his response: «Then we went to Constantinople, and they led us to the place where they worshiped their God. And we knew not whether we were in heaven or Earth, for on Earth there is no such vision nor beauty. We do not know how to describe it; we only know that God dwells among men; we cannot forget that beauty.»
This is a testimony to the power of beauty. The words of these delegates were in response to Christians' worship of God and the aesthetic beauty in their surroundings that they created to honor God. This beauty won their hearts! Heathens were drawn to God because there was a generation given the liberty to create beauty wherever they had influence. This gift of creative expression represents the nature of God as such; it reveals Him and has an effect on people’s awareness of the heart of God.
I think beauty is supposed to be a priority. I think it’s worth fighting for. Beauty usually takes just a little bit of extra effort that’s intentional. Something happens to the conscience, something happens to the mental space of a person who sees beauty that came from His design, from His hand—it’s everywhere.
A few years ago, I was in Alaska doing an outreach. Yes, it was fruitful, and I remember sitting on the hillside. We were just out in the tundra, and I was sitting on this hillside, and there were blueberries everywhere. There were literally trillions of these tiny little flowers, and He didn’t need to make that! Hardly any of them that existed over those miles would ever be touched or even visibly looked upon by another human being!
I have my doubts that the grizzlies we saw walked around admiring the little flowers. He just—He can’t help it; He just makes beautiful things! It’s actually a part of being Christ-like that you think in terms of beauty. It’s just that little extra effort to do your best to represent Him. It may be in your vocabulary; it may be in the fact that you take a little bit longer to write that thank you note; it may be that you don’t just hang the picture anywhere on the wall but that you actually think before you put it up.
It might be simple things like the way you address your kids. I’m not trying to make this into a materialistic thing; I’m just trying to say people in history have been drawn to God because somebody made a priority of beauty. It testifies of His creative nature—it testifies to His order, and there’s something about this unusual trio of ingredients that makes this unusual recipe of triumph and victory for the believer: it’s hope, and it’s celebration.
Amen! And then you add beauty. It’s the mixture of those three things that actually positions us to rise higher. One of our alumni, just a month or so ago, was getting married, and they were getting married in Jerusalem.
Then, I don’t know, two days or three days—the day before the wedding—that horrible, horrible war broke out in Israel. I’m not asking you to make a judgment call; I’m sharing with you something that I celebrate. They chose to go and have the wedding in the middle of the most horrendous environment, which prophesies to me the incredible contrast that God creates in a world where there is chaos, and there’s somebody willing to stand up and say, «Yeah, but this is beautiful.»
Beauty, generosity, celebration—those three things and probably a zillion more awaken the conscience of a person to the existence and goodness of God. You and I have the ability to reinforce that. I mean, as you go out to lunch today, it’s just simply eye-to-eye contact with the waitress, saying, «Thanks!»
Not just as a passing comment, but actually as a contribution, followed with a generous tip. It’s thought. See, we’re supposed to love God with all of our minds, which means I’m supposed to think through things. Yes, it’s part of my offering; it’s part of my offerings that I don’t just randomly do things. I actually become intentional in doing it this way. Why? Because I thought about it, and it seems this would illustrate Him better.
Amen! It’s the privilege of having this bizarre recipe of hope, celebration, and beauty put together into a meal that actually feeds the world on the goodness of God. Why don’t you stand? One of the things I’ve become convinced of is the uniqueness of revival, reformation, and renaissance.
In this book I did on «Open Heavens,» I try to identify these three things. Revival is where we learn the fear of God; it’s where we lose the fear of man; it’s where we discover the power of God. Reformation is where you inherit the favor of man because you start discovering the mind of God, and He starts revealing things that actually work; they transform your life and transform society.
But Renaissance is where you discover the beauty of God. I don’t think those are three stages. I think those are three elements that are supposed to be continuously embraced and lived out. Because in some cases, only the bold preaching of the Gospel will work; in other cases, it’s the subtlety of beauty that works. Each has a place, and what we get to do is approach this world with an absolute commitment and devotion to see it transformed into the likeness of Heaven itself.
It’s not a random prayer that Jesus told us to pray to keep us inspired. It’s a mandate of Heaven: «On Earth as it is in Heaven.» The beauty that exists there is to be the beauty that exists here.
So, Father, I just ask that You’d give us a grace once again. I pray for this—I pray for grace all the time for us—but give us a grace to spread hope, to live in celebration with play, and to value beauty. To celebrate beauty in the most awkward times—yes, we honor You for this great privilege.
Before anybody moves around or leaves, I want to ask a question. If there’s anyone here, you’re in this place today, and you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, you don’t know what it is to be a disciple—a follower of Jesus. You don’t know what it is—the phrase that’s a biblical phrase, being born again. It’s where the Holy Spirit moves inside your life and you become changed from the inside out.
If there’s anyone in this room that says, «Bill, I’ve never had that; I want that! I want to follow Jesus! I don’t want to leave this building until I know I have peace with God.» If there’s anybody in that position, then boldly, right where you are, just put your hand up quickly and say, «That’s me. I don’t want to leave until I know I’ve found peace with God.»
Right over here? Wonderful! Yeah. Is there anybody else, real quickly? Anyone else? Yeah, come on—beautiful! All right, anyone else? Real quick.
All right, here’s what we’re going to do. I ask this gentleman right here to come right on. We have friends under this banner—anybody who wants to come to know Jesus, this is the place! We’ve got friends that will love you, care for you, and serve you.
I want to ask the ministry team to come to the front. Who’s helping me out here? Dave, come on up! Tell them what they’ve won!