Bill Johnson - Developing an Awareness of God's Goodness Above Your Problems
If I live in reaction to a problem, then the author of that problem has influenced my thought life and behavior. The devil has no right to influence my agenda. You never see Jesus living in reaction to the devil; He only lived in response to the Father (Luke 18:1). I want to read eight verses, and then we’ll back up and talk. Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. I want to read that first verse again. Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: «There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; she came to him saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.' And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, 'Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continually coming she weary me.» Then the Lord said, «Hear what the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the Earth?»
I know that this is a well-known story, and it ought to be because it’s one of the times the Lord talked to people about prayer. If you look at all the things the disciples could have asked Jesus to teach them, the only thing I remember is they asked Him to teach them how to pray. This must be the result of watching Him engage with the Father and being capable of displaying heaven on Earth. They break through in this disease. We find Him retreating, if you will, sending the crowds away, going up on a mountain to pray, and when He came down, there was something upon Him. It wasn’t that it wasn’t there before, but they must have been able to visibly see something going on through Jesus’s life that would cause them to ask, «Jesus, please teach us this one thing.»
This one thing: faith brings answers to prayer, but enduring faith brings answers with character. The Lord is interested in answering prayers, but He’s also interested in what we’re becoming. If He ever delays an answer, it’s only so that it might gain interest, so we might become the people capable of stewarding the answer well and not have the answer destroy us. In this parable that Jesus gives, He starts with the statement, «Men always ought to pray and not lose heart,» and the next thing He does is give this parable. But what does He do in the parable? I understand the point of the parable as endurance in prayer, persistence in prayer. I get that, and that’s the primary lesson, or I should say well, that’s the point of the parable. But the primary lesson I think is a bit different. Jesus says men ought to pray and not lose heart, so here’s His will; here’s the challenge. And how does He fix the challenge? He reveals a part of God’s nature. He says, «What you know about an unjust judge, if he would answer this woman, how much more will I, as a loving Father who actually cares for you?»
The process is this: how much more will I not answer for you? So what does He do? He causes the people summoned to pray continuously to live more aware of the actual nature of God. Let me put it this way: the ability to endure in prayer is fueled by our understanding of His nature. In fact, let me take it a step farther: the fatigue in prayer reveals the consciousness of problems above God’s nature. I was quite surprised to find out what losing heart means. I think we can naturally define it as being discouraged; maybe I’ve prayed for so long, and nothing has happened in this area, and we become discouraged. Maybe we’ve been offended or experienced something bad, but it’s this loss of passion. I think we can all give natural definitions of what it means to lose heart. However, I was surprised by the Biblical word for losing heart; it is actually two words. The first word is very simple: it’s the word «in,» «with,» or «by,» but the second word is very specific: it is the word «evil» or «bad.»
What has He done here? He’s described what it looks like to be immersed in an awareness of problems more than an awareness of God’s nature. That’s how you lose heart. Overriding the awareness of this crisis, this problem, this bad health report, this issue in the nation, this conflict in the family—whatever it is—being aware of problems is not evil in and of itself, but when they are bigger in our consciousness and awareness than our awareness of God’s nature, we will live in reaction to the problem. Men always ought to pray; people always ought to pray. People ought to pray continuously without becoming evil. All right, this might take a little work. Are you alive? All right, let me read this passage for you out of Colossians 3. You might be thinking this is scary. Verse 1 of chapter 3 of Colossians says, «If you then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.»
Now, listen to the logic involved here: biblical reasoning is to set your mind on things above, not on things on earth for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. All right, now listen carefully: everything you’re instructed to do in the Bible is intensely practical. If you over-spiritualize a principle, you will put it so far out of reach that only spiritual giants can accomplish it. When instruction is given to us, the ability to do the instruction is imparted in the instruction. He enables what He commands. So when He says, «Set your mind on heavenly things, not earthly things,» He gives a reason: «You’re dead, and your life is hidden in Christ.»
Why do you want to set your mind on earthly things? Because wherever you anchor your mind is where you’re going to anchor your affections, and wherever you anchor your affections, that’s the reality you’ll live in. How many of you have had a problem persist in your life, and it was so disturbing that you just couldn’t sleep at night? You just laid awake all night long. All right, how many of you have never done that? Just Joe is the only one; it’s awesome; she sleeps no matter what. But for the rest of you, how many of you? So we know you know how to meditate; now we just have to change the subject matter.
Are you still with me? All right, let me go to the church at Ephesus, and then I want to come back to this Colossian passage. The church at Ephesus experienced what I believe is one of the two greatest revivals in the Bible. In Acts 19, you see an unparalleled outpouring of the Spirit in the city of Ephesus. The way they drove the whole cultic system out of the culture of their city is extraordinary; perhaps the only other one in the Bible that was equal in presence and power would have been that of Nineveh with the prophet Jonah—extraordinary outpouring of the Spirit, the transformation of a city, transformation of a culture.
This church was so successful that when the Apostle Paul wrote them a letter called the letter to the Ephesians, it is the only epistle in which there is not one word of correction. Every other letter he wrote contained a word of correction. So, in my thinking, when I look at the church at Ephesus, if you’re the Apostle Paul, what kind of gift are you going to give to the people who already have everything? My family says that I’m hard to shop for because I need nothing. This is not true; this is a lie my family has fallen into, a deception. It’s so totally true. I’m not looking at you, Gabe, because he doesn’t agree with me, but it’s true because I can go right now down to the store and assist any one of you on how to shop for me. It’s not even hard; it flows effortlessly because I don’t need anything.
Esther, what do you give to a church that has everything? Ephesians 1:17 reveals what He wanted to give them: «I pray that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation,» but what’s the last phrase? «In the knowledge of God.» Listen to me: the knowledge of God is the absolute foundation of all knowledge. You don’t want to understand anything in life that is inconsistent with the nature of God, or it will violate what God is performing in you. That’s the reason the Bible says, «It is the fool who says in his heart there is no God.» Living and moving separate from a consciousness of God actually gives birth to absolute foolishness. Being aware of God, living conscious of God, living conscious of the fact I will give an account of my life is the actual foundation for wisdom. In the Psalms, He says, «Teach us to number our days that we might present to You a heart of wisdom.»
Are you alive? Still breathing? All right, so here we have this passage in Colossians that says, «Set your mind on heavenly things, not earthly things,» and the implication is this: you will draw from that reality to the degree you become aware of that reality. The opposite is also true: if I live conscious of others—where, you know, I have people tell me all the time, «We’re in such and such a church in this city. It’s a hard city; there’s so much destruction. Satan has ruled that city for so long, and it will continue that way.»
It won’t change because the people in charge to bring the change are too impressed by the devil’s work. For many in this room, the beginning of your breakthrough starts when you stop being impressed with the size of your problem. It doesn’t mean we live in denial; it doesn’t mean we deny something that exists. If there’s a bad medical report, it’s a bad medical report; don’t pretend it doesn’t exist. That doesn’t help. Just don’t be impressed by it. Refuse to treat sickness and demons with reverence. Don’t whisper, «Oh, did you hear what so-and-so just got diagnosed with?» and have a sense of reverence. It just annoys me to pieces; the enemy does not deserve that kind of respect. We are not here to massage him into a better place.
So, back to the issue on prayer. Jesus or Paul says in Colossians, «Set your mind on things above because your life’s hidden there,» and if you anchor your awareness of God in His world, His plan, and His purposes, then you will find yourselves living from that reality toward the broken conditions of this world. If you don’t, you will always have a prayer life that begs God to invade the middle of the problem you find yourself in. All right, that went over well. There’s a difference between being seated in heavenly places with Christ, living from the heart and mind of God toward a problem. There’s a significant difference between that and a person who is in the middle of a problem and is begging God to come and fix it. We all start there, but it’s tragic to serve God for 20 years and still use that as your platform for prayer because He wants us to live aware of who He is, what He’s like, and what He has done. Live from that reality toward the issues and situations of life.
If I live in reaction to problems—let’s say it’s a conflict, a relational conflict—if I live in reaction to that, if I become overwhelmed by the size of this conflict, I will live in reaction to the devil’s work. Here’s the problem: people do this all the time, and they live in reaction to a problem; they call it intercession. Let me have a drink. If you can feel bad enough about something, you can give it a good name that protects it. If I live in reaction to a problem, then the author of that problem has influenced my thought life and my behavior. You say, «Well, my behavior is rebuking.» That’s fine; he still influenced you. The devil has no right to influence my agenda. You never see Jesus living in reaction to the devil; He only lived in response to the Father. There’s a world of difference between the two.
Living in reaction to the devil is the nature of some parts of church life. I’m not saying nothing good can ever happen; I’m just saying it’s depressing, oh, so depressing, because what motivates you is the devil, not the goodness of God. It’s a far inferior motivation to see good things happen. So here is Jesus, saying people ought to always be praying but never be in evil, not a part of it, nor overwhelmed by the evil and the bad that surrounds them more than they are aware of God’s nature. Then He takes them into an understanding of the heart of a Father who has intimate personal care for His children, and He contrasts. Listen, if you can get this kind of reaction out of an evil judge who has no fear of God and doesn’t even like people, and you can get a good response, how much more? Here’s the contrast: how much more can you get a response from a loving Father who is moved by your heart’s cry? What did He do there? He’s not just sowing a trait of God; He’s revealing what keeps us fueled for endurance in prayer. It’s the overwhelming awareness of God’s nature.