Bill Johnson - The Power of Unity and the Price Jesus Paid for It
Jesus values unity, but his value for it doesn’t mean we compromise on beliefs or a person’s values. It means I will lay down my vision to protect city values. Unity is only possible when there is diversity. Unity without diversity is uniformity, and that’s not the same; it’s not good that we all look alike or act alike. We want to uphold the same Kingdom values, yet there is unique expression through every gift, every position, and through our histories, backgrounds, and nationalities. All those things should be celebrated and protected. That uniqueness is not a problem unless it conflicts with Kingdom values; then we adjust to what God is saying. The point is that we were designed to be together. It would be horrible if my entire body were one big toe; it’s not supposed to be. Every member must be unique, and here’s the crazy thing: every member contributes to the next. In fact, the Bible says that there is life in which every joint supplies, so there is actually a release of life at every point of connection, and the body of Christ is designed that way.
Many years ago in Weaverville, we had dear friends who ran a small farm. I don’t remember what happened or why, but somehow they needed help with a little lamb, and Benny volunteered to babysit this baby sheep. So, this baby lamb lived with us in our house like a dog, except it was a sheep. This little lamb would follow Benny all over the house because it thought she was its mom, and it was the cutest thing. I don’t know if that lamb was destined for dinner or what its purpose was, but to us, it was just a little lamb. I didn’t know that sheep had long tails. So, we got this lamb, and it had a rubber band tightly placed about halfway down its tail. They said it would just cut off life to the rest of the tail, so eventually, it rots and falls off. Well, that’s kind of gross, but I guess that’s what you do with sheep. I don’t know if you get that in the sheep owner’s manual or what, but you’ve got to get rid of the long tail—not sure why. So, I put this little rubber band on, and sure enough, it eventually turned gross colors and then fell off.
Anytime we separate people from the flow of life, we actually sentence them to experience things they were never designed to experience. We are supposed to keep the flow of life from one member to another; it’s a responsibility and a privilege. The crazy thing about that little rubber band is that if you remove it halfway through the process of getting the tail to fall off, there’s enough poison in that tail now to be released back into the sheep, and it will actually kill it. So, there’s this whole concept of ensuring that we keep connections open, and in a way, the way we reign in life is by navigating relationships well.
You know, you don’t get to decide, «I’ve decided I’m not going to be criticized anymore.» If only that were possible! Or we could say, «You know what? I was betrayed, but that will never happen again.» No, you don’t get to choose that. You can choose to not let it affect you, but the only way to do that is to protect yourself from love. If I insulate myself so much that nobody can hurt me, then nobody can love me either. So, to be vulnerable in life, to experience life together, means I will experience pain. The way I demonstrate reigning in life is how I navigate disappointment and loss. It’s how you navigate it. I don’t get to choose whether or not I’m going to be criticized, rejected, embraced, or loved; I don’t get to choose that. What I can choose is how I navigate what’s been thrown at me.
I used the illustration a couple of weeks ago about adverse winds. A sailboat, by utilizing its sail and rudder, can actually advance against the wind. Oftentimes, our destiny is in the direction of adverse winds, and the Lord simply invites us to navigate relationships in a way that, no matter what comes at you, you are actually making progress. Sometimes, strength is developed by making progress in adversity, which gives us the maturity to live in the Promised Land once we enter it. It allows us to live in it with maturity, meaning we don’t handle it carelessly and lose what God actually released to us.
In verse one, it says, «When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.» Again, here’s this one accord concept—one accord, not the car, but one accord, with 120 people in unity. Unity is not uniformity. Now, listen carefully: most people’s understanding of unity is the fight for uniformity. True unity requires diversity. «A man shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.» They are not the same. Diversity is required for biblical unity. Unity does not tolerate diversity; it celebrates it. That’s what makes it beautiful.
The second thing I would say about unity is that it’s not something you and I can create. Most human efforts for unity, as noble as they may be, are simply attempts for agreement and understanding; not evil, but just insufficient. The Scripture says in Ephesians chapter 4, I think it’s verse two, «Preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.» Preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace tells us a couple of things about unity. Number one, preserve. I can’t create it; it’s already in existence. How did it get there? It’s the unity of the Spirit. True biblical unity is seen wherever the Holy Spirit has influenced. Anytime you see true unity in a relationship—a husband and wife, a church family, a nation—anytime you see real, true unity, not just agreeing for a season, it is the result of the Holy Spirit’s influence on those individuals' lives.
Jesus prayed a prayer that they might be one, but what did he join to it? He said, «I gave them my glory that they might be one.» What is glory? The glory is the manifested presence of Jesus, seen as the Holy Spirit comes upon his people. «I gave them my glory; I gave them the manifestation of the presence of God upon them.» Why? That they might be one. You never see where there’s a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit—let’s take some of the things we’ve seen happen in this room; I’ve watched this for years. When the power of God shows up in a room, I don’t mean just for miracles—although I’m all in for that—but when the power of God shows up, it’s hard to find anyone who is mad at someone else. Something takes place in that environment where all the hostilities, all the objections—all the stuff you know—the love remembers no wrong; I’m not keeping an account. Why? It all loses its importance in the presence.
My challenge to you is that Pentecost, yes, it’s about the demonstration of power, but the basis—if you consider the platform for this manifestation of the power of God—is the Resurrection, the testimony of the Resurrection of Christ through power. The platform was they prayed together in one accord; they were united in heart to the point that if they saw one of their own brothers or sisters in need, they would sell a possession to care for that need. The point is, it was unity to the point of self-sacrifice—in other words, I’ll pay any price to maintain this.
What does it look like to preserve the unity of the Spirit? It means I am willing to invest. I’m not just going to price something to ease my conscience and then move out of doing something. I’m not just going to check the box that I prayed for unity. In chapter 2, verse 14, it says, «Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said, 'Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words. These are not drunk as you suppose, since it’s only the third hour of the day.'» That’s a strange argument. I want to convince you that they’re not drunk like you think they are. How can I say that? It’s nine o’clock in the morning! Strange argument.
But then he begins to read, and I want you to see what he quotes from the Book of Joel, when he declares, «It shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.» Okay, stop for a moment. When the Holy Spirit is poured out where the Spirit of God is working in a group, truly free to do as he pleases, he breaks every barrier we create. «I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.» All flesh—every race. When the Spirit of God shows up, it’s a level playing field. There are not haves and have-nots, nor a vs. b, nor this class vs. that class. All of that stuff is obliterated in the presence of God! That’s why we can say preserve the unity. Unity is the fruit of his working in and through us.
Once more, «I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.» The gender barrier—there are only two genders—is broken in the outpouring of the Spirit. «Your young men will see visions; your old men will dream dreams.» The age barrier is broken in the move of the Spirit. «On your menservants and maidservants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.» The class barrier—the wealthy, the poorest, the servants of others—this barrier is broken. What’s the point? When the Holy Spirit shows up in power, it’s a level playing field. It’s critical for us!
We see even when Jesus multiplied food—he multiplied food with the four thousand, the five thousand—but you’ll notice a note in that number: it will say, «And five thousand beside women and children.» Women and children were. Oh yes! See, in the culture of that day, they counted a crowd by the number of men, and then they would mention the women and children. It’s interesting. In one of these stories, the one who was ignored—the child—is the one who had the seed for the miracle, the loaves and the fishes. The ones who nobody counted, Jesus counted.
He brought him to the place where his lunch became what fed the crowd for the multiplication of food! You see in the Old Testament and in the culture of both the Old and New Testament, what happens is you see a crowd counted by the number of men, but all of a sudden something happens. The Holy Spirit shows up. There are 120 people in an upper room praying. How many men? How many women? It doesn’t say. Why? Because they’re treated the same!
See, Jesus destroys the power of division. Now, we have to live in it. He destroys the power of division that exists between all flesh. He is the one who destroys the barriers between men and women—what men are qualified to do and what women are qualified to do. He is the one who destroys that dividing wall. He destroys the idea that God only speaks through the aged or that it is only the young people who have the real spark for revival.
He is the one who destroys that wall and calls it foolishness. He’s the one who comes and touches the lowest of the low—in this context, the servants, the slaves of another master—and he gives them access to the same wonderful and glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit that is offered to all. We have to be careful that we don’t return to a cultural standard that exalts one group above another. We have to protect our hearts to ensure we don’t move toward cultural values—sometimes good, sometimes corrupt—instead of Kingdom values.
In the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, «I gave them my glory that they might be one.» Preserve the unity of the Spirit. John 17 is the Priestly prayer of Jesus, recorded just before he was taken, betrayed, and then crucified. This is his final recorded prayer—in fact, it’s the longest prayer of his in the Bible, to my knowledge. In this prayer, he does several things. He stands before the Father. Now remember, he was sent by the Father to represent him. He stands before him and gives an account of his life to the Father.
He says, «I manifested your name.» He displayed your works. He performed your word. He went through four things he actually did, giving an account to his Father on what he did. Then he concludes this Priestly prayer with a cry that would be hard for us to portray if we were utilizing actors on stage or cinematography. It would be difficult to convey the gut-level cry of Jesus in this moment because he’s asking God to do something in us together that has only been done between the Father and the Son. A supernatural dimension of love and affection that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enjoy would actually be the model or standard for how we do life.
He is going through all this suffering; it’s going to end up on the cross, to make this possible. It’s that big of a deal! So, in verse 20 of John 17, he states, «I do not pray for these alone;» that is, the twelve, «but also for those who will believe in me through their word.» That they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.
Stop right there. There are two basic credible witnesses in the earth to the resurrection of Christ: one is unity, and two is the miraculous. We live in debt; we live in a sense of indebtedness to the world around us to model unity. Now, unity is expensive. Danny would say something like this: «I love the part of you that reminds me of me.» It’s so funny—it’s easy to be united with people who think just like us! But the point is that unity isn’t merely seen there. Camaraderie is common in the church and outside of the church. This unity is different; it goes beyond the obvious things we have in common. It moves into a sacrificial love and care for people that causes all to progress.
Luke chapter 9 has a storyline that to me is very funny. It’s a series of experiences the disciples had. They had been commissioned, and they came back with great reports of miracles. And so, Jesus hears them talking, and they are actually arguing about who is the greatest. You remember the story. Jesus corrects that part of their narrative by saying, «The least is the greatest.» He gives them a correction.
Then the next moment, John comes to Jesus with a report. Now understand, if John is coming to Jesus to tell him some news, it’s because he thinks it’s good news, right? He’s not coming to confess his sins; he’s coming to confess his success.
So, he comes to Jesus and says, «We saw some guys over there trying to cast out demons in your name. We told them to knock it off because they are not with us.» It’s just funny! It’s like John is saying, «Okay, we’ve got it down. We’re not better than each other, but we are better than them. We are on the inside of this demon-casting-out group, being trained by Jesus himself! They obviously don’t know what they are doing, and we told them to knock it off.»
And Jesus made this amazing statement: «If they’re not against us, they’re for us.» We’re perhaps accustomed to thinking that if they’re not for us, they’re against us. But in this situation, he said, «If you count people out that are not holding stones to destroy you, then you’re going to miss your opportunity for partnership at a level you would never experience without devotion and commitment to people.»
Paul pushed the same idea even farther in First Corinthians chapter 6. He talks to the church at Corinth, which had all kinds of issues. One of the issues was that one group of believers took other believers to court because they were not treated fairly in a given situation. What were they after? Justice. Your pursuit of justice and my pursuit of justice is only blessed by the Lord in the measure we have died to our own desires.
Pursuit of justice outside of personal yielding to Christ will almost always end with me trying to vindicate myself. So, Paul, again, this is for other people you know who need this—I’m sure it has no application for your life—but I’m just trying to help you to preach to your neighbor well or your Christian relative or whatever.
Paul pushes this point, saying, «You’re being taken to court; what you are losing is greater than what you could ever gain.» What’s being destroyed? The concept of the body being members of one another. He pushes the point until he comes to the conclusion: «Why not rather be wronged?»
«Well, because it’s just not right! I don’t want to condone their sin.» Jesus values unity so much that he was willing to endure everything he went through to make it possible for us to experience the supernatural presence and gift that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit enjoy themselves. That we would taste of that reality in how we do life together, and that is the ambition of the Lord. It actually gives credible witness to Jesus Christ when he says that they may be one in us, that the world may believe.
No wonder the enemy would work so hard to move us from one offense to another because it robs the voice that declares this gospel is real. It robs the volume; it robs the evidence; it takes away from us all the things that illustrate the power of this wonderful gospel.
How do you reconcile relationships in your life and ministry when you have conflicting doctrines? It might be a personal conflict, but we also tend to walk with ministries we don’t have complete agreement with in our doctrines. I actually intentionally bring people in to speak, as you know, people that we don’t agree with. But they are good people, people of prayer, people surrendered to the Lord.
It just doesn’t hurt us to be exposed to other segments of the body where we learn how to eat meat and spit out bones. We learn how to celebrate who people are. And it comes down to the fact that they have a specific thing in mind; usually when that question is asked, but it’s a general question so I can miss it altogether.
But if it’s an essential thing, like the blood of Jesus or the Virgin birth, that’s different. Then you have to draw relational boundaries. You’re not going to have those folks into your congregations? I have not. Yes, all the majors we agree on; it’s the minors.
Yes, exactly. It’s the role of angels, or you know, are you baptized in the spirit, do you speak in tongues when you get it? Those things—there are opinions that are very diverse. We have our convictions that we feel are right, which we live by. But I’m not going to exclude people that think differently.
You just have to get to a place where you can celebrate who people are without stumbling over who they’re not. That’s one of the mantras of the culture of honor—to really celebrate what God is doing in a person. You know, Wesleyan Whitfield is, I think, it’s a great example. They were so diverse and were at odds for a season, as I understand it; I wasn’t there, but I hear they were at odds.
One of Whitfield’s associates or friends said, «Yeah, I don’t think we’ll see Wesley in heaven,» and Whitfield responded, «Yeah, I think you’re right. He’ll be so much closer to the throne than we are that it will be hard to see him from where we are.» He was responding in honor, wanting to honor one whom he had grown in affection for.
So, you know, part of it just comes down to that. If it’s an essential area—if it’s a family member—that’s one thing. With family, it doesn’t matter what anybody believes; you’re together.
Yeah, you just have to, like, not touch on touchy subjects. There are enough other things to talk about in life without offending or hurting people. If it’s a board member, staff member, church member, or a pastor down the road, there are different degrees of relationships, and you just learn what wisdom is.
When do you bring the subject up? Do you at all? Is it an essential part of life? We need wisdom for that because it’s so easy to lose the war and win a battle, so to speak. You know, «I won that argument, but I lost a friend forever.» Well, that’s not right; that’s not healthy.
The value of people is huge—even if they’re wrong! Because all of us, in my approach, believe we are all in process. We are all convinced we’re right. So, we just need to give each other a lot of grace and show mercy because you’re going to want it later.
We have that phrase on one of our visitor documents: «In the majors, unity; in the minors, liberty; and in all things, love.» Absolutely! That came out of one of those guys right after Luther passed and Calvin passed. They were all just trying to kill each other over getting doctrine right! They were having lots and lots of separations, church splits, and theological schools, and finally, this guy, Rupert something or other, came up with that phrase.
We’ve seen that just in our lives as a congregation, in our lives, and even on our own teams. We have different understandings of certain doctrines or end times, that sort of deal, and people are often surprised by that. They’re like, «What’s the Bethel standard viewpoint here?» I’m like, «I’m not sure there is one!»
I know Bill’s got one, Chris has one, and I have one! We just enjoy each other and draw strength from one another, and oftentimes learn something new from each other. Absolutely!
I think it’s a huge part of life; I think that’s what we’re supposed to learn to do. You know, it’s in associating with people of diverse gifts and views that we get healthier. We don’t become ingrown, which happens so much by only hanging out with people with the same opinions. You just become fortified in opinion, but not necessarily in maturity.
We’re working on the doctrinal statement of the church, and partly by design, it was a big tent that many folks could find comfort in and say, «I agree with that!» In the way we did that, we have parsed things too clearly in denominations. As far as end times go, I guess the Spirit, they’ve just—the belief statement actually separates and divides maybe too much.
The thing that Chris has been promoting for several years is that when you come together based on agreement, then you must divide when there’s disagreement. But when you come together around fathers and mothers—at a family Thanksgiving meal—you can have a Republican daughter, a Democratic son, and a Libertarian cousin!
You can have all that, and you’re all together being thankful. If they value each other, they’re going to treat each other with grace, stability, and respect. Gossip creates misinformation.
How many of you ever did this in, like grade school or whatever, where the teacher would line up 20 or 30 or 40 students and whisper a secret to the first one, and they would tell it to the second one, and to the third one, and by the time you get to the end, it’s a completely different story?
Yeah! By itself, that should make us stay as far away from gossip as we could possibly can because it creates misinformation. I mean, you could start with, «Julie bought a white horse, rode it to church, and her hair was all messed up.» By the time you get to the 30th student, she bought a white Mustang convertible and sat in the parking lot because she was embarrassed for her hair!
That’s what gossip does—it creates and invites misinformation. It’s interpreted through the perspective and values of the individual that heard it. Gossip is a coward’s way of dealing with a problem. If there’s a problem, you go directly—at minimum, go to somebody who is involved in a solution, not someone you think should be involved in the solution.
Because then you’ll come to me and stay away. I had somebody come to me once; they unloaded all their stuff about somebody else. I listened to everything; I let them give me all their stuff, and I said, «Have you gone to them?» The person said, «No, I can’t; they’re whatever, too hard to talk to.»
It’s usually a spiritual excuse, «I just didn’t discern,» you know, whatever. So, I said, «Well, I will give you seven days to talk to them because in seven days, I’m going to go to them and tell them what you told me.»
That really cuts down how many people want to confide in you! Which I felt tremendously inspired of the Lord when I shared that! Gossip, in essence, devalues relationship, connection, and trust. We attract the words we value.
Luke says, in fact, the gospels of Mark and Luke both teach this: «Be careful what you listen to because whatever you listen to, whatever you value, whatever you let through your quality control, more will be given to you besides.»
In other words, what I receive will attract more. That really is a principle of the Kingdom for life! So, if you constantly have people that come to you with gossip, it’s not a moment for shame; it’s a moment to make a decision.
If you value it, you will attract it. If God inhabits praise, who inhabits gossip? Words are, I don’t know if «entities» is the right word; words are that which hosts presence.
It depends on what presence we host, which is determined by what we say. Jesus taught he only said what he heard the Father say, but in John 6, he said, «My words to you are Spirit.» Gossip is often used to force someone to change their conduct and/or position on a matter through manipulation.
As I stated earlier, both manipulation and control are expressions of witchcraft. Gossip perverts the beauty and wonder of the power of the tongue in the same way prostitution perverts the beauty of sexual intimacy in marriage. That which was given to us as a gift to use for building up and creating is used to kill, steal, and destroy.
Gossip is the preferred tool of the enemy to destroy the life of a believer. It’s a two-for-one deal. I want to read one more portion of Scripture to you, and it’s out of Ephesians 4, beginning with verse 29: «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 so that it will give grace to those who hear.»
I’m going to come back to this verse: «Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.» Notice what’s in the context of our speech towards one another. «Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.»
«Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander be put away from you along with all malice.» Gossip is the hiding place for unbelief. Gossip is the hiding place for unforgiveness. «Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.»
Here’s where I want to end: I want to end with verse 29 and just talk through this verse with you. I would say, you know, the concept of Ecclesiastes 10, verse one and two, is about the fly in the ointment. We have a perfumer who makes this beautiful perfume, and one fly gets in it—it ruins the entire batch.
That’s what happens with the anointing. The Lord has given us grace, a call, something extraordinary that he’s imparted to us, but through our words we can actually plant small things called flies—those things that are attracted to death and decay.
We can put that in the ointment, and the entire thing is affected. We have been given something, as Dan mentioned earlier. It’s obviously not the only thing going on in the world, but we get to be part of this—I’m glad we get to play!
We get to be in the game, and I’m happy about that! But in such a crucial moment, if there is anything I would say to the Bethel family, it would be this: let’s be careful with words.
In the zeal of life, it’s easy to misspeak, misrepresent, and say things out of a conviction of being right or whatever, and misappropriate words that create damage and become the fly in the ointment.
In this case, he says: «Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth.» I’ve had a couple of unwholesome words—two or three in my lifetime! Yeah, forgive me for lying right there!
«Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification.» The target of my words is to be redemptive, not my chance to vent. A large percentage of people talk to vent, not to redeem.
It’s to give edification according to the need of the moment. The need of the moment means I have to be present. If I bring this problem, this conflict, this situation into it, it will tarnish and taint what I have to say to you. But if I am with you literally for your welfare, for your benefit, then I will speak edifying words according to the need.
It will be a timely word. Proverbs talks about the beauty and the wonder of a timely word in season, like apples of gold in settings of silver. It’s this beautiful picture of what timely words look like.
But then the last part of that verse says, «that it may give grace to those who hear.»