Bill Johnson - Thankfulness, A Daily Habit to Turn Your Situations Around
That which was used to be against you becomes sanctified by your own thankfulness. Your thankfulness takes the sting out of what the enemy attempted to destroy you, and is now used for your benefit because it is sanctified with prayer and the word of God. Thank you, wow! Wow! Happy Thanksgiving! Bobby Connor is going to be with us tonight; it’s going to be so good. I miss Bobby, I love Bobby, and I miss him. I’m so glad—so glad he’s going to be here! I was just at Twin View speaking, and while I was talking, my phone just came alive and started playing Jeremy Riddle’s new album, titled «More.» So I just feel like God is saying even my phones will cry out. My favorite story happened in Brian Nickens' class on the Gospel of John. While he was teaching, his phone was off to the side, and it just came on by itself. Siri spoke and said, «In my realm, anyone can do anything.» Now, that’s got to grab your attention! We didn’t know Siri was a prophetess! Here it comes; she’s a part of the apostolic movement! I know, I know! Yeah, the music just started playing while I was talking. I thought, «Where’s that music coming from?» Oops! I’ll turn it off, turn it off! Right?
I have some blonde jokes again; I know it’s not correct, so forgive me ahead of time. But just to keep it even, these are blonde men jokes. So, all of the blonde men, I’m sorry—just pretend it’s gray-haired men! A friend told a blonde man, «Christmas is on Friday this year.» The blonde man then said, «Let’s hope it’s not the 13th!» Two blonde men find three grenades and decide to take them to the police station. One asks, «What if one explodes before we get there?» The other one says, «We’ll lie and tell them we only found two.» A blonde man is in the bathroom, and his wife shouts, «Did you find the shampoo?» He answers, «Yes, but I’m not sure what to do—it’s for dry hair, and I’ve already got my hair wet!» A blonde man sees a letter lying on his doormat. On the envelope, it says, «Do not bend.» He spends the next two hours trying to figure out how to pick it up! Sorry, it’s not over yet! You have to endure; you have to endure pain just a little bit longer!
A blonde man shouts frantically into the phone to his doctor, «My wife is pregnant; her contractions are only two minutes apart!» The doctor asks, «Is this her first child?» «No!» he shouts, «This is her husband!» A blonde man is driving home; he’s drunk as can be. Suddenly, he has to swerve to avoid a tree, then another one, and then another! A cop car pulls him over and tells the cop about all the trees in the road. The cop says, «That’s your air freshener swinging on your mirror!» Just three more, then the pain will be over! A blonde man’s dog goes missing; he’s frantic. His wife says, «Why don’t you put an ad in the paper?» He does, but two weeks later, the dog’s still missing. She says, «What’d you put in the paper?» He said, «Here boy, here boy!» Just two more—two more, then it’s over!
A blonde man’s in jail. The guard looks in the cell, sees him hanging by his feet, and says, «What are you doing?» He says, «I’m hanging myself.» The guard says, «It should be around your neck.» He said, «I tried that, but then I couldn’t breathe.» I hope you’re enjoying this because I’m using invaluable sermon time for these! One more, one more! An Italian tourist—a true story! I was in Germany, and I shared this joke, and my translator started laughing so hard I just lost him! He was so overcome with laughter that he kept repeating the joke in his head. I think it was the one about scientists finding that women who add a few extra pounds live longer than the men who mention it. He just lost it; it’s hard to get a good translation out of him after that point!
All right, one last one: an Italian tourist asks a blonde man, «Why do scuba divers always fall backwards off their boats?» To which the blonde man replies, «If they fell forward, they’d still be in their boats!» I’m sorry, but yeah, you’re very kind. All right, let’s get going; we’ve got 30 minutes to go. I want you to go to 1 Timothy chapter 4. One of the most significant truths to be embraced and taught in the last 20-plus years has been the whole concept of impartation. It’s such a rich truth because there can be a grace, an anointing, a gifting on one person’s life, and they can pray for someone else; they actually start functioning in that area.
But what’s kind of humorous to me—just forgive me for my sense of humor again—is oftentimes people will come and ask for prayer for something that is actually a mark of maturity. You can’t get maturity through impartation! If only that were true, man, we could just line up and be like Paul tomorrow! You see, maturity comes from choices, making decisions. So you can pray for someone; you can be one minute old in Jesus and pray for somebody who has cancer, and they can be healed! The gifting didn’t come from years in Christ; it just came from grace!
The maturity comes when you are faced with decisions. What are you going to do with the fact that somebody just got healed through you? Do you think it’s your significance? Do you think you are the source of the gift? Do you think you are the source of the faith? How is the story shared? Is it shared with you at the center, or with Jesus? In those moments, we are allowing the Lord to actually measure what realm or measure of glory we can live with, can carry. See, the original target of the Lord for every person was to actually live in the glory of God. For simplicity’s sake, we define the glory as the manifested presence of Jesus—it’s the actualized presence of God. The scripture says, «All have fallen short of the glory of God.» So sin means to miss the mark. Sin causes people to miss God’s intended target. What was the intended target? The glory of God—to live in the manifested presence of Christ—not just as a point of theology, not just as a point of doctrine.
I am in Christ; He is in me. But more than that, an actualized, realized reality that we live from where we see the God of scripture appear in unusual ways and rest upon people in unusual ways. The manifestations and the temple, or tabernacle, that is actually the manifestation that is potentially a part of everybody in this life who has a personal relationship with Jesus. So, all have sinned and fall short of the glory—missed the mark. What does salvation do? It restores us to the target. It doesn’t restore us halfway to the target so that in heaven we can get the rest. When Jesus said it was enough, He actually meant, «I did everything needed to accomplish the original plan.»
And so Jesus intends to live, to live among us, to live in us, to rest upon us. But there are measures of presence that are yet to be discovered that have been discovered in prior generations. This isn’t the subject today, so I’ve got to be careful not to get too lost in that, but let me just say this: His desire is to fully reveal Himself—who He is—upon His people fully. But the weightiness of that revelation would crush many people who are following the Lord because there are fractures in their thinking, fractures in their values. It’s not that they don’t genuinely love Jesus; it’s just they have a weakness in their foundation that needs to be revealed gently and carefully.
The Lord is not afraid of bringing junk up in our life, bringing it to the surface. But He brings it to the surface so it can be dealt with. He never brings it to the surface to shame us or to mock us. He only brings it out so that we will see what He’s been seeing all along. What confession is: we just make agreement with what He already knows to be true. «Oh God, forgive me; I’m so arrogant and proud.» He says, «Yeah, I knew that; that’s not a shock to me. I just allowed you to see it in this situation, that you’re just very self-centered.»
So we’re going to break that! What happens? He brings it to the surface so that we can acknowledge it. Because once we deeply confess and repent, He gives us the grace to forsake that which kept us in bondage. All right, back to the subject. The choices that we have throughout life are where the muscle of integrity, the muscle of character, is developed. In lifting weights, for example, if you lift a light weight 100 times, it’s not going to build muscle; it’s when you lift something that really pushes your capacity. Maybe you can only lift that thing three times, but it’s the third time that works the most. It’s the hardest lift that actually accomplishes the most.
When we have difficult situations rise up in our life, it’s always for the purpose of building character. It’s never to shame; it’s never to mock; it’s never to intimidate or humiliate. It’s always the invitation to come into Christ, into a place of greater strength. That’s why in 1 Thessalonians 5, he says, «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will in Christ Jesus concerning you.» Think through this now: «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks for this is God’s will in Christ concerning you.»
One of the most frequently repeated prayers or requests from this family of believers, especially including our school, is this heart to know God’s will for our life. Generally, what that is reduced to is, «God, do you want me to be a missionary or veterinarian or school teacher or pastor?» Whatever we want to do—what He wants us to do—it’s a legitimate prayer. It’s a legitimate request. I’m not sure God is as concerned about that as he is about this. This says, «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will in Christ concerning you.» This is the will of God for my life!
I remember, as a young man just starting to pastor in Weberville, reading through Thessalonians and having these verses jump out at me: «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks.» I came face to face with the fact I could only have those three verses, and it would take the rest of my life for me to learn it! If I had nothing else to read but those three verses, I’d have a full-time job ahead of me! Because to «rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks» just means you have disciplined responses to levels of difficulty, challenges, and opportunities that you face.
You have disciplined responses that help to form and shape the character in us. Remember, it’s that character that is able to carry the weightiness of what God is doing in the earth. Yes, He’s looking for people He can entrust Himself to. The whole idea of holy impartation came to me as I’ve been thinking for years. If there’s one thing I could ask of the Lord to be able to impart to people, it would be a thankful heart. You just don’t get it through impartation; you get it through choices.
In Nehemiah, it’s kind of an awkward part of a story—it’s in chapter 11 at the end and all of chapter 12. It has this reoccurring theme: there were people that were assigned to give thanks to God. «What do you do for a living?» «Oh, I give thanks.» «Yeah? Like, what does that look like?» «Well, they just give me a list, and I stand before God and say 'thank you, ' and I mention what we’re thankful for.» That sounds so formal and so ritualistic that there’s no life in it, and yet there is a secret in that routine.
You bypass the limitation of your own emotional condition and make mature choices that activate your emotional condition to get in line with what you’re doing. See, complaining empowers the inferior to undermine your faith. Complaining only happens when we are more mindful of a problem than we are of God. It’s impossible to complain when you’re more aware of the goodness of God than you are of a problem. To do that, you’d have to violate your conscience, your sense of purpose, and your sense of God’s presence; you’d have to violate all of that just to start complaining.
I’m glad I’ve never done that! «Rejoice always!» That means like in the original language, «always» actually means «always.» Just always! Just, you know, no matter what happens, choose joy! «Well, I don’t feel like it.» That’s why it’s a choice! Do you think He would have to command it if we did it naturally? The only reason it’s a command is that here’s a chance for you to flex a muscle. You said you want to grow; you said you want to carry the weightiness of God into the earth! Here’s something you can learn to do!
What is it? Well, you’re going to miss your flight—no, no, not that! Here I’m taking you deep into my personal life. When I miss a flight, I’ve sat on the tarmac forever, and I look at my clock and see my other flight is boarding right now. Boy, am I feeling rejoicing right now! I sit there for a half-hour while my plane boards. My first response is not rejoicing! I’ve got to admit—it’s not my second either! Rejoicing is like way down the list! I’ve got to experience a few other emotions first!
When somebody passes you on a freeway—no problem! I mean, go as fast as you want; not a problem for me! But if they pull in front of you and then slow down—it’s not a big deal; it’s just wrong! It’s just wrong! Have they no conscience? Where’s the conviction of the Spirit of God when we need it? «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing.» «Rejoice always» is choosing joy! It wouldn’t be commanded if it wasn’t within the reach of a choice!
Joy is always within reach! I am a powerful person. Say this with me: «I am a powerful person! Joy is always within reach!» «Pray without ceasing» is kind of like the same as «Rejoice always.» «Without ceasing» means just always; just pray and don’t stop! Interestingly, Philippians 4:6 talks about supplications and prayers—that’s the earnest getting before the Lord, contending with God for a breakthrough. And He says, «With thanksgiving.»
Why? Thanksgiving creates the context to keep prayer focused. That’s good! I know this is a dumb question because all of us would say yes, but how many of you want to have effective prayers? Of course, we do! We want to pray—not running on a treadmill just trying to cover the miles—we want to bring impact! Our heart is to bring change, to see it in our lives, our families, the world around us. We want to see things take place because we’ve prayed. Thankfulness is what helps to keep prayers on target.
There are times when I’m praying for someone—let’s say they’re sick, and I’m praying, «God, heal the arthritis in their arm,» and nothing’s happening—zero breakthrough. Then the Lord gives me insight into a more precise way to pray. When I change my prayer from a general prayer of «God heal the arthritis in their arm» to a very specific or precise prayer, then the breakthrough comes. I can’t tell you why, but I can tell you this: for me to stand up here and just say, «Oh Jesus, please heal everyone in the room today, amen! We give You thanks,» nothing’s going to happen—why? Because it’s got to be more precise!
What thankfulness does is it hones the precision of our prayer life because it keeps it about Him. Is that place of dependency, that place of acknowledgment—the strength in prayer is not that you complain or bellyache about a problem; it’s that you’ve joined your heart with His to see His kingdom come and His purposes worked out in the earth. Thankfulness is what keeps us engaged with precision. «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.»
You know, I don’t know that anybody’s supposed to give thanks for a bad report from the doctor. That wouldn’t make sense to me! But it does make sense to remain thankful—to keep my list of blessings stronger than my list of needs. How many of you have ever made a prayer list? How many of you? If you haven’t written one, you certainly have one in your mind! I mean, I’ve got them in my iPads—goodness, I’ve got lists in there of things that I pray for; just stuff, stuff that I can contend for! I just get before the Lord, «God, we’ve got to see breakthrough. We’ve got to see breakthrough there!»
I believe in it! But how many of you have thankfulness lists? Probably not as many—there’s a few, and it’s wonderful! But the point is we stay more conscious of need than conscious of blessing. When I stay more conscious of need than I am conscious of blessing, I will tend to pray out of a hole instead of from heavenly places! I will tend to pray more out of a «place of desperation» instead of a «place of authority.» Thankfulness—thankfulness is what allows me to do that!
Take a look at me with 1 Timothy chapter 4. Excuse me, chapter 4, verse 1. We’re going to read five verses: «Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.»
Look at this again. Verses 1 and 2 give us a warning. I don’t know how your Bible reading goes; I just want to encourage you: don’t skip over the hard stuff! It’s so vital! Here’s the difference: there’s meat and milk of the Word. Are you with me in that analogy? There’s the meat of the Word; there’s the milk—milk comforts; meat provokes change. Meat is called in Hebrews the word of righteousness. It’s the word that equips, enables, and provokes. It cuts to about change. We all want to be comforted, but we also need to be changed through the reading of the Word and the embracing of what God has said.
And sometimes, it’s just meditating on, receiving, dwelling, slowing down in the hard places. «He who gains his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will gain it.» Slow down in those passages because it needs to cut deep. If it doesn’t cut, if it doesn’t bring pain, it’s not the word of righteousness that brings change. There’s got to be that point where you go, «Oh, it’s necessary.»
Let me illustrate it this way: there are people who have certain kinds of afflictions, difficulties in their body. Perhaps you go to a doctor, and the doctor says, «Man, you have no feeling in your foot.» He says, «No.» So he takes off your sock and shoe and takes a needle and pricks the bottom of the foot. There’s no pain! See, it’s not a good sign to not feel pain; it’s not positive! It’s actually a sign of a problem! When something should hurt and doesn’t? You don’t want to read through this stuff and go, «Oh yeah, all is well"—not a good sign! You want that thing to prick. You want to go, «That hurts so good!» But it’s that word that makes you know you’re alive.
So he talks about those who fall away from the faith. Interestingly, verse 3 says, «Forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving.» Let me just stop there. This is kind of a weird deal; Paul’s warning Timothy and the group he leads. He’s warning them, «Listen, we know people’s hearts are going to grow cold; they’re going to become deceived by demons. All this junk’s going to happen, and out of that group is going to come a list of non-biblical rules.»
Now remember, the Bible does give us commands, and don’t ignore them. Just because you live under grace doesn’t give you a pass to skip the rules. Grace gives you the power to do the rules! So here’s a list of rules created out of this deceptive movement. What is it? They are rules that make you more pleasing to God—that’s what they say! In other words, you’re going to obtain favor if you do this, if you don’t marry, you don’t eat these certain foods, you do this, this, and this. You observe this particular day.
In Romans, he expands the list and says, «You follow this day instead of this day, you eat this instead of this, you drink this instead of this.» These lists of rules say if you do everything just right, then you’ll have favor with God. What happened to Adam and Eve? The serpent crawled up to them and said, «If you partake of this fruit, you’ll be like God.» They already were! The enemy tried to get them to obtain through works what they already had by grace, what they already had by design!
So shifting the focus from what God has done for me that now enables me to live freely for Him—the focus now shifts to what I must do to somehow apprehend and gain God’s favor. The focus shifts, and whenever that happens, it becomes a flesh-empowered movement, and that was the deception of this movement. Yes, amen!
Verse 4—I didn’t plan this, but having gone hunting this last week, it’s just the perfect verse to read: «For every creature of God is good.» I believe that! Right next to the potatoes! I went on an outreach with my boys this week. We reached out and touched the heart of harvesting protein to sustain a revival! It is what it is! Alright, that’s enough! Every creature of God is good. For nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God in prayer.»
This is amazing! Here’s what he says: nothing is to be refused! What’s the point? Is this not something you bought at the store? What’s the implication? What Paul had to deal with with a group of people is they would be invited to somebody else’s home and they would hear they were being served a food that was either unclean pork or whatever, or it was actually food that was offered to an idol. And here he’s giving them instruction: don’t refuse anything that you would determine is unclean! Why? Because that which was used to be against you becomes sanctified by your own thankfulness! Your thankfulness takes the sting out of what the enemy attempts to destroy you, and is now used for your benefit because it is sanctified with prayer and the word of God.
«Sanctified» is an interesting word because it means separate—separate from sin, separate from darkness, separated to God. But it doesn’t stop there; it actually implies that when I am made holy, as I am separated from my own lifestyle, to the Lord, it implies I actually become like the one I am separated to. Wow! We should know this just in the natural—husbands and wives who have been married a long time start thinking alike; they start acting alike!
I mean, there’s just this time of being together where they change because they’ve been separated from everyone else unto this person, and they, in many ways, pick up some of their characteristics and natures. Well, this is even more profound in our relationship with Christ because we are separated from a dark world system that is self-serving unto the Lord. We actually, in the relationship, become like the one we’re separated to!
Now, follow that thought—when you are offered something—in this case, it was food that would contaminate you—with thankfulness, it enables the word of God in prayer to sanctify that which was released against you and now becomes something that is for you! Thankfulness takes the sting out of something sent your way to harm you! Oh goodness, I’m almost out of time! I’m going to go over a couple of minutes because we can afford it in this service—just a couple of minutes. Thankfulness!
I had a friend—an acquaintance—in dialogue with this last summer who was writing a book, at least part of the book, against me and against us. So I wrote him, and I told him I welcome the book—not because I think it will add to the health of the body of Christ, but because what I want in life is on the other side of facing difficulty well, navigating betrayal or criticism. You know, you can’t be trusted with praise if you don’t trust Him with criticism! You can’t be trusted with gain if you don’t trust Him in loss! You can’t be trusted with loyal friends if you don’t trust Him in betrayal!
So while I don’t think any of these things are designed of the Lord, I’m going to embrace them and learn how to navigate life through those challenging situations. Why? Because of the prayers I’ve prayed! I’ve prayed the same scary prayers you’ve prayed! «God, I want to see everyone we come into contact with healed! I want to see everybody saved in our city! God, we want to see nations discipled!» These are huge prayers, but they are not released upon careless people!
Because careless people become preoccupied with themselves in the midst of the glory being manifest, the glory being poured out. So difficulties come our way. What is it? It’s simply an opportunity to learn how to monitor my heart—to give thanks in all things, rejoice in all things, pray in every situation. Absolute dependency on Him! Why? This is what we were born for! And what I want is on the other end of adverse winds. I’ve got to learn how to use my sail and the rudder, if you will, to tack until I can make the advancements necessary to get me to where I want to go!
So I told him, «I don’t welcome it because I think it will help us, but I do welcome it.» He wrote back very kindly; we ended up in a long dialogue. That isn’t the point of the discussion today, except that he openly repented and changed that particular part of his book. It’s not up for discussion; it’s not necessary for today. But the point is being thankful for things that you think the enemy sent your way—it doesn’t mean I’m thankful for the book, but I am thankful for the opportunity to grow!
I’m thankful that if I learn to navigate this right, He can trust me with more! I don’t like it; it’s not something I’d volunteer for! But I gave up my rights when I said «yes.» When I said the big «yes,» I gave up my right to bargain for what kind of circumstances I’m willing to face. And thankfulness is like, man, it’s like the number one virtue that changes a person’s life, and dare I say, the entire nature of a city! Yeah, yeah! Amen!
All right, Happy Thanksgiving! I want you to stand up! I do wish it was something that could be imparted through prayer though, and I think I’d walk all through town just going, «Receive, receive, receive!» He said, «I enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, courts with praise.» A thankful heart remains aware of His presence; a thankful heart brings breakthrough, refines the focus of prayer.
To be honest, I feel like I live pretty thankful almost all the time—except when I’m flying! That’s just a joke! I’m very thankful, sitting in the air at 40,000 feet! I’m just sitting up here really high off the ground going, «Thankful this plane is working!» Yes, I better stop! Thankfulness—I can feel it in my heart.
The need for the always—you know when He says «always,» most of the time doesn’t cut it! Can you imagine Him saying, «Rejoice always?» You know, «Just try—if you get most of the time, you and I both know that’s progress!» So Father, I do pray for just a heightened awareness of the privilege to live in the virtue of thankfulness. I thank You, God, that You’ve already impacted our City Church and our city with Your presence, Your purpose, Your will! But I ask even more this week through thankful hearts—in Jesus' name!