Bill Johnson - Two Keys for Spiritual Growth in Both Blessing and Persecution
In the Scripture, God is so kind to give us this simple verse with two bits of instruction that ensure the people of God can step into a sweet spot of blessing and not fall prey to complacency, loss of focus, or turning attention from seeking first the Kingdom to seeking the things, the benefits of the Kingdom. Jesus didn’t get any of His disciples by sharing with them the benefits of the Kingdom. Bless the worship team, please. Blessing go, thank you, thank you, yeah, yeah. Is this on yet? Yeah, there we go. Well, good to see you. I don’t know if we can get a camera shot of this; if it is possible to get up on the screen. The Revival group decided to give me a gift. Now there’s Eric, there’s Brian, here’s my daughter Leah. So good! I’ve never received one of these before.
This is a—I didn’t even know you could do that! That’s awesome! Thank you! I have something I’ve never had before. For people who ask, what do you get for the person who has everything? This—this is what you get! You get this! It’s so cool! Thank you! My friend Mike, he’s with Randy Clark’s team—why don’t you stand up so everyone can see? My friend Mike! Bless you! So good to have you here! He has such an unusual grace on his life for so many things; he leads the School of Ministry there in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Mechanicsburg. But also, an unusual grace on his life for seeing people healed of PTSD. And I don’t know how many it is now, but it’s 10,000 at least. 10,000! Wow! Is this mic on? Something that is incurable—10,000! 10,000! Wow! Come on, let’s stand up and give a shout of thanks to the Lord! 10,000! Wonderful Jesus! Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord! Thank you, God! Something they said could not be fixed, Jesus is fixing en masse! Wow!
Okay, I just feel better now that you stood; go ahead and sit down. We’re going to have such an outrageously good week! A number of our folks, just without any prompting at all, have felt called of the Lord to fast this next week. This last week, some of them have been fasting for a while in anticipation of this week. I asked some of our students this week, just «Excuse me while I have my twin,» just remind you I’m still here. Yeah, um, every once in a while, I’m asked the question: if you could spend an hour with anyone in history, who would it be? And there are a lot of folks I’d love to spend an hour with, you know, a lot of Bible characters and stuff. But probably the person I would pick would be John G. Lake. He’s just my personal hero. He had such a clear understanding of the Kingdom—100 years ahead of anyone of his day! I haven’t found anyone with the clarity of understanding of the Kingdom of God that he had.
I was talking to the students this last week, and I said, «How many of you would love to spend a week with John G. Lake or A.A. Allen or some of the heroes of the faith that we have?» Of course, all of us raised our hands. You know, and this week you have a chance to do that! This is exactly what you have a chance to do. 100 years from now, Ry’s name will be put in the same group as those heroes that we’ve honored through the years, and the Lord has used him to initiate fires of revival all over the world—more than any other person I know! And in Reading this week, just show up and get in the line of fire. That’s all you have to do: just get in the line of fire and just say, «Mess me up, Jesus,» some eloquent prayer like that! Mess me up, Jesus! Beyond recovery! And may I never be the same! I’m coming hungry! I feel such a personal need for more. I really do! I feel like we are right on the edge of a very significant breakthrough. I want to talk a little bit about that tonight, but what you don’t want to do is miss divine opportunities and find something else to do. So if it’s a possibility for you, join us this week; it’s going to be outrageous!
All right, does anyone have metal in the right side of their jaw? Does anyone have metal? I saw—is it right over here? You have metal in the right side of your jaw? The whole face? I actually saw it looked like an x-ray earlier in the prayer room, and I just saw something highlighted on the right side of the jaw, so we’re going to pray for that. Anyone have issues? Okay, okay. Anyone have just issues with the jaw, especially on the right side? It may be both sides, but especially on the right side—it could be TMJ, could be any number of things, but all right. I want you to go ahead and stand if that’s you. There’s also a number of individuals here—this is kind of strange—when I see this, I saw it in the left hip but I felt it in the right. So as far as I’m concerned, it includes both sides. If you have an issue in the joint of your hip, I think it has to do with some sort of a bone disease, I’m just guessing, but that’s kind of what it looked or felt like. So if you have issues in one or the other hip or both, stand if you’re able to, and we’re going to pray for you.
Detached retina— is there anyone who has that? Has damage to the eye where they’re concerned? If that’s you, stand as well. So this is all about you tonight then, and you have the hip too? My face—they took a bone out of your hip for your face? Was it the right side? Yours is the right side because that’s the one I feel, but I also saw something in the left joint. All right, well this entire meeting is really for you tonight. That’s awesome! All right, well let me just declare of you: Jesus makes all things new! He is the one who makes all things new! I just want you to stand there in the anointing because He is going to recreate. He is going to recreate! There are individuals that have inflammation right under the kneecaps. It could be on one or both sides, but there’s inflammation. If that’s you, stand up. The Lord’s going to heal there as well. There’s tendon damage and I believe it’s the right ankle. It’s in the ankles, but I can specifically feel it in my right ankle. There’s tendon damage there; I think it happened quite a while ago but it’s just never fully recovered. If that’s you, stand up; tonight is your night! There’s somebody who has broken ribs on the right side. It may be a fresh break; it may be an old injury that just aggravates. If that’s you, just stand up because Jesus is going to heal that right now—right now! In fact, put your hand on your own rib—if that’s you, put your hand on your own rib. Yeah, we just declare the healing grace of Jesus right now!
There is hearing loss specifically in the left ear; if that’s you, stand up. I mean, obviously, if you have an issue in either ear, that’s great; just get in on it. But I can see just specifically an issue in the left ear. Also, is there anyone here who has growths of any kind in the abdominal area? It may be cancer; it may not be. Is it you? You have—is it benign? Is it cancer? Do you know? They found a mass? Okay, you don’t know what it is yet? All right, all right. So if there’s anyone else over here as well, all right. Listen, Jesus wouldn’t show these things for entertainment or merely to give you hope! He reveals these things because of His full intention to release His miracle, His touch, His grace. The Lord is able to actually lay His hand and declare His word over each one of you at the same time! Church, I want you just to extend a hand towards these right now. For those of you that are standing, if you’re able to, just put a hand on the part of the body that is afflicted so that the people around you will know what to pray for.
There’s also something the Lord is doing in healing—I almost feel like He’s purging or clearing out the whole sinus cavity up in the forehead. There’s something that He’s purging. He’s cleaning out, and I’m not sure; it may be just an infection, but it felt like it was some sort of a disease or affliction of some sort. Anyway, if that’s you, just stand up in any measure, just stand up! All right, now Church, begin to pray! I want you to lay hands on them, declare the healing grace of Jesus! We just ask, Holy Spirit, that you would come now in power, that you’d release your miracle of healing! We declare: Jesus makes all things new! We speak to the right jaw—be healed now in the name of the Lord Jesus! All infirmity and affliction—loose in Jesus' name! Loose in Jesus' name! I ask for the fire of the Holy Spirit to go through that sinus cavity and permanently uproot all affliction! All continuous affliction and pain—this ongoing nonsense ends tonight in Jesus' name! Inflammation in the knees and throughout the body—I rebuke you! I rebuke you in the name of the Lord and I command you: loose people’s bodies now in Jesus' name!
There’s a word of knowledge for the healing of dyslexia! So if you have that, lay your hand on your own forehead. Just lay your hand on your own forehead, and we just ask, Lord—Lord, rewire brains right now! There’s nothing you did wrong! You are as intelligent as anybody else around you! There’s just something that’s broken, and Jesus has come to repair and to fix it! I’ve seen as many as 16 cases of dyslexia healed in one evening, proven by standing up and doing what they could not do in front of a thousand people! So we declare that healing word right now in Jesus' name! Some of you are being healed! I want you, as you’re being prayed for, just examine yourself slowly, but examine yourself! And some of you that are sitting down, the healing grace of Jesus is called collateral blessing! He is touching people that aren’t standing, and I believe that people are being healed that aren’t even standing! There’s somebody who has something in the right sciatica that Jesus is touching right now! If I were you, I would stand up right now and check it out! If you had the issue with the knees, start bending them—examine them, do whatever you can do to check yourself out! Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!
Jesus, peanut allergies—a word of knowledge for peanut allergy. Who is that? Peanut allergy? Peanut allergy, man, that’s just wrong! Peanut allergy, chocolate allergy—both are just illegal! They’re just wrong from the devil! So we just declare no more peanut allergy! Honestly, let’s go after this! Food allergies are wrong! It’s the enemy mocking the liberty of the believer to delight in God’s provision! We call an end to food allergies in this room right now in Jesus' mighty name! We rebuke that lying spirit! We rebuke that lying spirit that just says food allergy is just a part of life! It is not a part of life! There are those watching online—listen, receive these words over your own body! We declare that healing word! Write us when the Lord touches you too; let us know because we need to get encouraged by the stories! Thank you, Lord!
This is what I’m going to do: everyone that stood for prayer, be standing again right now! If you sat down, stand again! I’ve not done it like this before, but I want everyone who’s standing to put a hand up and I want everyone else to stand right now and face somebody with their hand up. Extend your hand towards them! I feel like there is a corporate anointing that we are supposed to tap into for miracles right now—a corporate anointing! It’s not about an individual; it’s about His body, His Spirit upon His body! We declare that healing word right now—this healing word over your body in Jesus' name! Ears open in Jesus' name! Limbs be mended now in Jesus' name! Those with a jaw issue, just start moving your jaw around—those with a hearing issue, have somebody examine you—check things out for your hearing! The left eye, the issue with the eye, with the sight—examine yourself right now!
Okay, church, stop praying. I want everyone who has received prayer to test yourself right now. Try to see what you can do. There’s a word of knowledge about equilibrium dizziness. Who has that? Raise your hand high. Lay hands on these folks quickly. Who has vertigo? Wave your hand at me if you have vertigo. That can be tormenting. Lay hands on these folks right now for that. It may be an inner ear infection. We declare this thing ends tonight! Okay, everybody be praying right now. Everyone who put your hand up, check yourself, examine yourself, and as soon as you realize you’re at least 80% better, wave both hands over your head like this so we can see who you are. Do that for about 15 seconds. I want people around you to see who you are. Look around the room. Glory to God! Now turn and pray again. Turn and pray again unless the person is 100% better; then, of course, leave them alone. But turn and pray again; go after it, church. The anointing is upon you to bring healing and recovery to broken conditions.
Someone here has a chipped right heel; is there anyone with a chip, fracture, or crack in the right heel? If that’s you, raise your hand so I can see who you are. I see a hand way in the back; is that right? Right back here? Okay, all right. Someone just lay hands on the heel and declare healing over that heel. Amen! Heal in Jesus' name! Alright, you have about 30 seconds; everybody be praying. It is the absolute will of God for every person to be touched by the Lord tonight—the healing grace of Jesus. Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord! Alright, you did good. Now stop praying for them. Everyone who received prayer, I don’t care if you felt anything or not, examine yourself right now to see what the Lord has done. If there’s anything you can do to check yourself, do it right now. Everyone who is at least 80% better in any part we prayed for, wave your hands over your head like this so that we can see who you are. We can celebrate with you. Thank you, Lord! Bless the Lord! Wow! Wow! Wow! Come on, lift up a shout! Lift up a shout! We give you thanks, God! We give you thanks, Lord! We give you thanks, Lord! Go ahead and be seated.
As simple as those moments are, we’ve been doing this for many years—over 20 years—and what I’ve noticed is there’s a tremendous increase in the number and significance of the miracles when the people of God are doing the praying. Yes, we have great stories when the prayer teams pray, pastoral staff, healing rooms, great reports. But the ones that impact me the most are when I have the church pray. And sometimes, as in tonight, pain leaves someone’s body—very simple and minor to everyone except the person who had the pain. Other times it’s an absolute creative miracle. We have one with us tonight who had an extraordinary miracle. Um, let her stand up so everybody can see. Was it a year ago? No, it was just in May: last May, almost a year ago—about eight months ago—absolute healing throughout your body. We have a video that we’re going to show or have shown; it has already been filmed, I think, last week or so. She had a little spinal cord stimulator pack to take the pain away in her spine, and you couldn’t do a lot of things. You got baptized tonight; I noticed your head almost came off! You couldn’t do that before? That would have killed you, right? Yes. She couldn’t do any of that because of the metal in her knee.
Such a glorious thing! We’ll hear more about this, maybe a testimony or something this week. Such a great story! But here’s the deal: in these simple moments where the church is being the church, from the simplest things to the most profound breakthroughs, it happens in these kinds of situations. Don’t ever become weary of them. Don’t lose focus; don’t lose appreciation. It’s not the time to use the restroom; it’s a time to dig in to see breakthrough. If you’re not seeing breakthrough and you pray, scoot next to someone who is, join your prayers with them, and when a breakthrough comes, just pretend it was all your prayers! Just go: «Yay, God! I give you glory! I give you thanks! I give you praise!» It’s just what we do; we just draft off somebody else’s faith. It’s a time to increase; it’s not a time to become spectators. It’s a time to intensify. It’s time to refine focus. It’s time to refine focus because the Lord is about to release greater increase to those He can trust with greater increase.
Uh, I hope to have a little bit of time to talk to you about that just in a few minutes. I would like to hear from three or four people that had the Lord do something very significant in your body tonight. I would like three testimonies, at a minimum, of something the Lord Jesus did. You can help me out; come on up to the front here. I want to hear what Jesus did. Come on down. Alright, just come on down; let’s have at least three. Sometimes it’s all men; sometimes it’s all women! Tonight it looks like it’s all women! Come on down! Alright, I need to have one guy in this mix just because. Come, come on down! Is there a man? Did Jesus touch any men tonight, or did He just ignore all of you? Alright, now don’t come down for a miracle; come down because He’s already touched you. And if that’s you, come on down!
Alright, tell us what Jesus did tonight. Well, I was standing for a friend and my grandson for the word of knowledge you called out, and I wasn’t standing for myself, but I got healed of the floater in my eye! Is that what you said? Yes, floater in my eye—and what happened to it? It’s gone! It’s gone! That’s awesome! Come on! Jesus! Testimony of Jesus! Spirit of prophecy: if you have floaters in your eyes, lay your hands on your own eyes and just say, «Floaters, be gone!» If you don’t know what a floater is—good! May you never know! May you never know! Right here, go ahead! What did Jesus do?
Hi, my name is Tara. Nice to see you, and I’m just visiting this weekend. Welcome! A year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and I’ve been in chemo and radiation. I almost died from an allergic reaction, and it caused a lot of pain in my jaws and teeth from the chemo. I had to have emergency surgery to pull out some teeth because of all the metal in them, and this whole side of my jaw is cracked. My teeth are all chipped. After having chemo, I lost my job, so I don’t have any insurance. I’ve just been enduring this pain in my right jaw. My last treatment was in October, so I’m just a few months out of this.
Okay, what happened tonight? The pain is gone! Let’s thank the Lord! Thank the Lord! Thank you, Lord! I want a couple of you girls to take her over here and just pray for the Lord to absolutely do a whole overhaul, a rebuild, head to toe. Just minister to her. Bless the Lord! Good! Once you guys scoot over this way to get more towards the middle so more folks can see you.
What did Jesus do for you? Um, a while back, I fell straight on my tailbone on concrete, and I broke it. It felt like I didn’t go get it checked because they said there wasn’t anything they could do for it. When Todd White was here, people prayed for me, and it was healed within seven days. I’ve had this ongoing joint pain in every joint but my elbow for such a long time. Tonight when the pastor was talking about the hips—both my hips, especially my left hip—were in so much pain, and I was saying, «Lord, I know you healed my tailbone; you can heal the rest of my joints.» I want to be able to stand and worship you without pain, and I want to go for walks without pain. So, I stood for that, and I covered the places that hurt. I’m like, «I don’t have enough hands, but Jesus, you know.» I just laid my hands down because I was like, «Lord, you know,» all the way down to my jaw. As everybody was praying for me, all the really bad pain in my left hip was gone! It just feels like shivery water on my joints! Wow! So, God’s just doing a really great work! I’m so thankful for the name of Jesus! Yes! Amen!
Hi, my name is Jerry, and I’m visiting from Utah with my husband. It’s our 17th anniversary actually next Saturday! Wow! Happy anniversary! Thank you! This is my first time here ever! Welcome! I love it! I’ve had sciatic nerve and hip pain for 27 years. That’s how old my oldest is, and God healed it! It’s gone! It’s completely gone! Wow!
Alright, I have an area that I want to minister on, and I hope to do something more extensive in the future. I want to take a little bit of time tonight to do it. I feel like, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, I found the needle in the haystack. I found something that I never knew existed. I had hoped that it did; I had believed that it could, but I couldn’t ever remember finding a place in scripture and possibly even in church history where a particular thing happened. It’s going to seem oversimplified to you, perhaps, but let me mention it: to see the church endure persecution, go into increase, endure persecution, and go into increase—until they come into a place of blessing, then experience a greater increase—is the rarest thing in the world to find. Because once blessing comes, complacency comes. Many people wouldn’t have a prayer life if they had no problems. The motivation to pray is the devil’s work—the devil’s attack— conflict situations that involve their personal lives. Personal pain becomes the single motivator for a prayer life. When that happens, we actually choose our motivation for prayer; we give place to the kind of circumstances that prompt us and motivate us to seek the Lord.
In the book of Acts, we’re going to go; I’d like for you to turn to Acts chapter 2. I’m going to take you through just a series of scriptures—maybe four or five; we’ll see how we do—and then I want to take you to the one verse and talk to you about this one verse that shows me it’s possible. I don’t know if it encourages you, but I’ve been looking at the church for the last… well, I’ve been in pastoral ministry for over 40 years, but I’ve been here for 22 years this next month. I’ve been watching the outpouring of the Spirit, the increase, the pressure, the criticism, people leaving, people coming—all the stuff that just goes on when there’s a move of God. I’ve seen the increase of miracles. I’ve seen people prosper that never prospered before. I’ve seen marriages get healed that were a mess. I’ve seen people dying—with no hope to live—get healed and come into a place of blessing and peace. What you do in your moment of blessing actually determines how significant your next season will become. I don’t mean that as any kind of threat, nor do I mean that as if we don’t respond correctly then God punishes us. It’s not that at all. It’s simply the Lord constantly testing us to see what measure of glory—what weight—we can live under. The glory of the Lord resting upon an unsanctified life will crush it; the glory of the Lord resting upon a sanctified life will establish it. So He’s constantly looking for the stability of the heart. It’s not this self-willed maturity; it’s a maturity that comes from surrender. It’s a maturity that comes simply from allowing the Spirit of God within us to do His work to make us into the image of the Son of God—Jesus Christ. He is constantly performing that work in us.
In Ephesians 3, one of my favorite passages says, «Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all…» It’s like, how many more words can He put in there? «Exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all that we could ask or think.» «Ask» is our prayer life; «think» is our imagination. So He’s made a covenant with us to work beyond the reach of our prayer life on our greatest day, and He’s covenanted to work in my life beyond my reach on my day of greatest imagination. But there’s a clause, there’s cause and effect, there’s something connected to this promise. He says, «Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all we could ask or think…» Listen to the phrase: «…according to the power that works within us.» His commitment to go beyond our reach in prayer and imagination is parallel to the liberty we give Him to work deep within us. The deeper He goes within me, the farther He can go beyond my prayer life. The deeper I allow Him to work in me, the farther He goes beyond my imagination. Why? It’s not punishment; it’s not manipulation; it’s certainly not control. It’s simply the Lord continuously testing us—not to find wrong—but continually testing to see what weight of glory we can live under. Because we are being restored to the original purpose and designation for mankind. The scripture says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Sin means to miss the goal or the target. So if I were an archer and I were shooting an arrow at that water bottle, sin says the arrow didn’t even reach the target; it fell short. But what was the target in God’s creation of you and me? It was for humanity to live in the glory of God. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory—glory was the original design that you and I would live in the manifest presence of King Jesus.
When you were born again, you were reinstated to divine purpose. When Jesus, in John 15, talks about the privilege of abiding in Christ, He is reconnecting us to our original design of dwelling and living in the glory. There’s a cycle that takes place in the book of Acts, and it’s almost like a roadmap. Someday, I’ll try to chart it. I’m not a chart person, but who knows—I may be inspired one day to step outside of my limitations here. But there’s this thing that happens; if you can just follow this. In Acts chapter 2, we’ll read a verse in a moment. There’s this outpouring of the Spirit. There’s dramatic increase, and there’s dramatic opposition. Outpouring, blessing, increase—disciples are added daily, persecution. They make it through the persecution without becoming bitter; they become more refined in their focus. They become bolder in their witness in the midst of persecution, which brings greater increase, greater persecution. Greater opposition again; they refine their focus. They don’t become complacent with withdrawal; they don’t decide to stay home now because they may be criticized by their friends. They refine their focus; they give themselves more completely to the work of the gospel, which brings greater increase again, which results in greater persecution—until we now have a guy in charge of the ministry of persecution, and his name is Saul of Tarsus. He holds the garments of his workers who stone Stephen to death. Jesus is recorded in scripture as being seated at the right hand of the Father. But Stephen, the first martyr of the church, when he dies, the scripture records Jesus as standing in honor of the death of the first one to lose his life for the gospel’s cause.
As Stephen enters that heavenly realm, Jesus Himself is standing to welcome him. Saul leads this movement in which the entire church is terrified of one name, and it’s this name Saul. They don’t know where he’s going to show up next; they don’t know how big his military group will be to capture, kidnap, torture, and eventually try to kill these believers. They don’t know when and where it’s going to happen. Everybody is terrified, and Saul—or, excuse me—he’s on a mission. On this mission, Jesus shows up. Saul would be the Osama bin Laden of that day, and Jesus shows up and knocks him off his donkey. Saul cannot see for three days; he was blinded by the glory. I’m not sure that if the church had not made it through those levels of increasing pressure—with refined focus, with a greater resolve for preaching the gospel and living a life worthy of the gospel—I’m not sure there would have been that measure of glory to turn the heart of this one man who had given his life for the destruction of the church. Yet Jesus showed up, and the glory blinded him. He was blinded for three days until a servant of the Lord laid hands on him.
Now remember, it’s hard to find a servant of the Lord who’s willing to pray for the devil. Saul’s not the devil, but they thought he was. He is so much in opposition to what God’s doing in the church, and when the Lord called this man Ananias to come and lay hands on him, the scales fell off Saul’s eyes, and he became this vibrant minister of the gospel. It was so dramatic and so overnight that the church did not believe it! They heard reports, and they thought, «Nope, no way! He’s just using a new tactic! He just wants to get into the secret meeting so he can find out who we are and where we meet!» I’ve been in the catacombs in Rome where they had cubbyholes dug out of the wall where they would put the bodies as the believers would die. They would meet in these underground catacombs—you have to imagine the stench—and they would meet hidden away in these places because of the intense opposition and persecution. And now the head guy of the persecution is «saved"—quote, unquote—and the church is not buying it!
There was a guy named Barnabas; his name means «son of encouragement.» It took an encourager. It took somebody who believed the best about others, who was always looking for the gold, who lived to make others stronger. It took Barnabas to go find this Saul of Tarsus and actually verify, «It’s true; he’s actually saved; he’s truly born again.» The story of Saul and Barnabas is dramatic and glorious, but it’s for another day. I want you to look at just a couple of verses because I want to take you to the needle in the haystack for me. Are you ready?
Yes! Alright! Acts chapter 2, verse 42: this is—there’s a good chance this is two, three, maybe four years after the day of Pentecost. Verse 42: «They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayers.» I love that the scripture gives us an outline of what was important; they found these were the essential things. It says, «They continued"—they re-upped the contract; they rededicated. It’s like a husband telling his wife that he loves her every day of their marriage—not just on their anniversary. Every day, renewing the vows of devotion and commitment. These believers, now a couple years in after this invasion of Heaven, reveal what helped them to stay in a place of strength: they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. What is the apostles' doctrine? I’m glad it doesn’t list a list of doctrines. I personally believe when it says «apostles' doctrine,» it refers to the present word that God is releasing into the church for each specific season. So they are all paying attention to the present word. You don’t get a present word unless you’re part of a corporate family. Amen? That was so good!
They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, fellowship—fellowship is not just hanging out over coffee talking about going hunting, as much as I love that, and that’s fellowship for me! This refers to something that’s much more profound and deeper; it’s the exchange of life, one member to another. Fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Breaking of bread could be meals together; it could also imply the communion service. I think it’s probably talking about meals and the fact they took personal time to make sure they shared with other believers. So they did these four things. Verse 43: «Fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.»
Now let me—apostolic ministry helps to release the signs and wonders ministry into the church, but it was never meant to be something that they alone were known for. It was always supposed to be the equipping of the saints so that the saints could do this work of service. Here it is recorded as initiated by the apostles, where they were known for miracles, signs, and wonders. Verse 43 again: «Fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were gathered together, and they had all things in common. They sold their possessions and divided them among them all, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house.» There’s the corporate; there’s the smaller gathering—with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God, having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the church daily.
Good; it is good! In Acts chapter 3, there’s a miracle through Peter and John at the gate; there’s a lame man who is healed. They are quickly arrested, threatened, and told to never do that again. Peter asks the question, «Whether we obey God or obey you, you figure it out!» Which was a question they couldn’t answer. When they were released, they went to a prayer meeting, which is fun to see—how as soon as you get out of prison, you just go to a prayer meeting! He says in verse 29, «Lord, look at their threats. Grant that Your servants, with all boldness, may speak Your word, stretch out Your hand to heal, and let signs and wonders be done through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.» When they prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness!
Listen to me carefully: Peter and John, if you read chapter 3, were arrested because of a miracle, but also it specifically says because of their boldness. What does Peter pray for when he gets out of prison? More boldness! Now, let’s be honest. The church right now wants to be at peace with everybody and not take a stand for anything. Don’t ever exchange the favor of man for the favor of God! Let the favor of God bring about the favor with man, not the other way around, because you won’t get it. I have friends who mirror the world around them to gain favor for the cause of Christ. You cannot gain any favor you get through mirroring their culture; you will have to sustain it by becoming like them, which means you’ve lost your witness. They prayed for greater boldness. What’s happening here? We’ve got arrest, persecution, threats, and the prayer for what brought on the persecution and the threat! So what happened? We have about an intensity or refining of focus.
See, something happens in persecution: you don’t have people attending church to make business contacts. «It’ll be good for my business if I’m just seen with other Christians"—that disappears as an option when you have the possibility of losing your life! Nobody wants to have a good business by losing their life. You start losing some of those things; but what do you gain? You gain refined focus. You get the favor of God—the favor of Heaven leaning and looking our way to bring about the most significant breakthrough. I believe the Lord is fully intent on answering the prayer that we pray on Earth, as it is in Heaven. But it’s not an overnight deal; He’s looking to see who can carry what—who can carry what—and He will test it in favor. He will test it with money; He will test it with anointing. What do you do when cancer disappears under your hand? How do you tell the story? Again, He’s not looking for areas to punish; He’s looking for how much can I trust them with? Can I give them more? The last time I used them to break that impossibility, there was more of them in their testimony than there was in the experience.
Are you traveling with me here on this journey? Alright, so we see in verse 33: «With great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.» Let me make a comment here: why are miracles necessary? Miracles are necessary for two basic reasons. One, it is impossible to adequately display the love of God without a miracle. It’s impossible to fully reveal and adequately reveal the love of God for an individual apart from a miracle—that’s one. But the other thing is that it is the miracle that testifies Jesus actually was resurrected from the dead. You heard testimony tonight of the resurrection of Jesus.
Chapter 5: Ananias and Sapphire die because they lied. Verse 5 says, «Great fear came on all those who heard these things.» I’ll bet it did! Verse 11: «So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.» Verse 12: «Through the hands of the apostles, many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all in one accord in Solomon’s porch, yet none of the rest dared join them. The people esteemed them highly.» Verse 14: «Believers were increasingly added, multitudes of men and women…» By the way, just a side note: in the gospels, when a crowd was counted, it was counted by how many men were there, and the scripture would say «besides women and children.» After the day of Pentecost, both men and women were counted. The gospels reveal the culture of that day, not the will of God. When we see the day of Pentecost, we see a level playing field; you have 120 in the upper room, both men and women; they were all counted. Children were never counted. Just to break that mold, Jesus used a child’s lunch to feed 15,000 adults.
Alright, you alright? Chapter 6, verse 1: «In those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint.» Of course there was! Verse 7: «The word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.» As a result of this, persecution intensified. Stephen, who was one of the deacons, becomes promoted in the glory of the Lord to such a point where Saul leads a group of people that stone him to death. It’s in chapter 7. After that, the persecution intensifies again.
Let’s go down to verse—uh, chapter 8, verse 1: «Saul was consenting to his death. At that time a great persecution arose against the church, which was at Jerusalem. They all scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria—except the apostles.» Devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation. It’s interesting—the believers made great lamentation. Verse 3: «As for Saul, he made great havoc, entering every house, dragging off women and men, committing them to prison.» Verse 4: «Isn’t this encouraging? Just hang on, because it ends well.» Alright, it ends well.
Verse 4: «Those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word.» Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. Multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles. This now is not one of the apostles, because it’s starting to spread through the church. Unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed. Many who were paralyzed and lame were healed, and there was great joy in the city!
So there’s this parallel track: intense persecution or—persecution, I should say—intensifies, and great joy comes upon those who experience the move and the touch of God. It reminds me of Isaiah 60 that says, «Gross darkness, deep darkness covers the earth, but His glory arises upon you.» It’s not in the same place, but it is in the same season. You can feast your eyes on either one; you can be troubled, bothered, and become hopeless because of the work of darkness, or you can feast your eyes on the work that God is doing, and then it will spread to the places that are overrun with hopelessness.
Alright, I’m just about to the sweet spot! Alright, so there’s great joy in that city. Let’s see—chapter 9: Damascus Road. Let’s just summarize it. Saul is rocked! He’s rocked; he’s rocked by the Rock of Ages. Now he gets knocked off his donkey, and the Lord speaks to him in verse 4. He says, «Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?» Now, Jesus has already died, resurrected, suffered, died, and ascended. He’s glorified; He’s at the right hand of the Father. And that Jesus at the right hand of the Father speaks to Saul and says, «Why are you persecuting me?» Because He takes personal what you experience. Don’t ever think the enemy has the last laugh; the Lord takes it personal. He came to Saul and said, «Why are you persecuting me?» Saul’s bewildered; he says, «Who are you, Lord?» You got the Lord part right! I mean, when God shows up, and you’re blinded, you just call Him Lord—you don’t know who He is, but He’s Lord! He says, «I’m Jesus, whom you are persecuting.» Long story short, he gets healed, gets brought into ministry, and things start changing in the climate of the church.
Here’s the verse I want you to see; you ready? The needle in the haystack! Verse 31: «Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit; they were multiplied.» Now read it again because I don’t want you to miss what we just read! The churches—now we’re not talking about individuals! Previous to this, if my memory serves me correctly, the verses we read were always about the number of believers that increased. It was the number of believers that were added. Except in chapter 6, it said the number of believers multiplied. But now look at this: the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit; they—being the churches—were multiplied!
I don’t want you to miss it! It could be oversimplified; I don’t think I’m overemphasizing it. The church has been in this fight to increase in the glory, to increase in the measure of breakthrough. Whenever opposition has come, instead of moving in hatred or resentment or bitterness or trying to call down judgment or prophesying against this king and that king, they move in humility, and they increasingly step into greater places of authority and greater places of anointing. Persecution intensifies, and they say, «God, just give us greater boldness!» Boldness—like that’s going to help? It increases, and it intensifies even further.
We have this continual increase, and they finally step into this place after what they were carrying so dramatically changed the climate that Saul himself is confronted by the Glorious One. The church finds themselves—they don’t know how many more years they’ve got to climb this ladder of pressing in with resolve and refining focus and giving themselves more completely to the ministry of the gospel. They don’t know when the climb stops. But suddenly, they’re in a sweet spot! Then they hear Saul is saved, and then they see the fruit of his salvation. Suddenly, there’s peace everywhere!
They don’t know what it’s like to live without the threat on their life. They don’t know what it’s like to gather with other believers without having some group wanting to report it, some group wanting to come and imprison you. Now they’re in this place! History tells us that the believers in Rome begin to prosper; they begin to increase in their business favor. Their incomes actually make the people around them provoke them to jealousy because they were so favored of the Lord. That happens once you don’t have to fight to stay alive! Suddenly, you get to practice what God has taught you in everyday life, and when you start practicing what God has taught you through the trial, through the hell, through the wilderness, eventually you step into a promised land.
In that promised land, the Lord is looking for a productivity that is directly connected to the revelation of His promise in His person among His people. The church started entering into this place, and it says that the churches entered into this place of peace. Then it described what I believe were two conditions. They began to multiply because of two conditions: number one, the fear of the Lord. It’s not hard to fear God in the middle of a hellish situation. It’s a lot easier when it’s life and death; you just—it’s just—you know, I’m all in! Nothing else matters! Don’t care about my business; don’t care about this; don’t care about my house—all of a sudden, all those goals vanish because all we’re trying to do is keep our wife, our children alive! Keep connected to other believers; we want to keep each other safe, keep each other encouraged, and keep praying the promises.
Suddenly, all these things that have occupied our time through the years just simply don’t matter! It’s easy to walk in a purity of lifestyle when you have few choices. But something happened when this thing lifted. When the terrorizer was saved, suddenly there was no more pressure to pay a price. One of the Iron Curtain countries that we sent teams to minister in back in the '80s, we’d send teams in, and the churches were filled to the rafters. They would have these automobiles that they would drive in with secret compartments to bring medical supplies and bibles and various study tools for leaders, and they’d smuggle these things in for the believers. Then the Iron Curtain fell, and our same team went back to the same church. What was once filled with the rafters now was not filled at all because people had options. They weren’t afraid of losing their life; they now stepped into the luxury of having resources, having time, having friends, and vacations.
It’s not an evil thing, but something happens where the heart becomes divided. This verse tells me that there was one group that I can find now in history that entered into the sweet spot, and they were able to maintain the focus and the sacrifice even though their lives were no longer threatened. How did they do it? Number one: the fear of God! They maintained the fear of God. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Apart from the fear of God, the mind of man becomes exposed as a self-centered, arrogant tool that destroys a human life. But in the fear of God, wisdom is born. The Bible says the fear of God is what gives us access to knowledge. The fear of God gives us access to revelation knowledge. It is the fear of God that attracts the voice of the Lord in a given situation so He can entrust to His people insights for the next season—insights for the decisions that need to be made.
The fear of God! I know there are those who say there is no fear of God in the New Testament—they just haven’t read their Bible because it’s all through the New Testament. I know the verse that’s used is «perfect love casts out fear.» Perfect love includes the fear of God; it just casts out every other fear. I hear people say, «Well, you can’t have intimacy with God and fear Him at the same time,» and that person is obviously not married. That’s all I need to say about that! In my household, fear and intimacy work very well together; that’s all I’m going to say.
So this tells us as they come up—this procedure to come into a place of what I would call Promised Land blessing. When they step into that, the very thing that has destroyed other believers through the years to where it breeds complacency—it loses focus. You know, when you don’t need to sacrifice, why sacrifice? Are you alive? Like, are you actually breathing air?
Alright, alright, I’ll end it soon; it looks like you need to go home. I don’t want you to feel like you need to go home; alright? Well, I’ll go a few more minutes; we’ll see! So they come into this place in the scripture. God is so kind to give us this simple verse with two bits of instruction that ensure the people of God can step into a sweet spot of blessing and not fall prey to complacency, loss of focus, loss of heart, turning attention from seeking first the kingdom to seeking the things—the benefits of the kingdom. Jesus didn’t get any of His disciples by sharing with them the benefits of the kingdom! He didn’t say, «I promise these things if you follow me.» He did not! He let them see the challenge, and if they could face the challenge, then they could have the blessing. And that’s the kingdom!
So here are the two things: the fear of God! The fear of God is that which keeps you tender. The fear of God is that which keeps you leaning toward His voice. The fear of God is that which keeps us from the arrogance of independence and a self-confidence that is not from the Lord. There is a faith that looks like self-confidence, and I believe in that, but there is a self-confidence that is actually human-made: it’s arrogance; it’s independence. It does not submit to the will of God. Wow!
Then He uses this other side—which would be like the harsh side—but it’s not—the fear of God doesn’t drive me from Him; it draws me to Him! We’ve got the fear of God on one hand and then we’ve got this other side, so it’s like these two things keep me on the straight and narrow: the fear of God and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Comfort—it’s not just—it’s not talking about just, «Oh, you’ve had a rough day,» so the Holy Spirit comes and gives you peace. I buy into that; I believe that, and I’m so glad that’s what He does. He’s describing a lifestyle in which the Holy Spirit Himself is the continuous source to keep us focused, to keep us alive, to keep us encouraged. The word here for «comfort» is that word «paraclete"—the one called alongside. So He’s saying how this church went into a place of peace where, over on that side, they got to where the churches were multiplying—not just individual believers. They had an explosion in growth; it was no longer just addition. It was no longer just multiplying of disciples, but now it’s churches themselves are multiplying. How did it happen? Fear of God on one hand and learning to walk in this abiding presence of the Spirit of God on this side.
It’s that dual—that two-edged sword that says, «Grieve not the Spirit; quench not the Spirit.» It’s that dual role of a relationship: how sensitive am I to the Holy Spirit? You can measure it by looking at do I grieve and do I quench. Grieve is doing something wrong; quench is the failure to do what’s right. So how did they make it into this place where the persecution stopped? They actually started tasting of the promises of the Lord; they actually started tasting of the things that others had enjoyed for years. Their own forefathers in Israel’s history had enjoyed; now they’re starting to enjoy these things.
How can they come into a place of blessing and increase and promise and fulfillment of actual dreams? How is it possible to do that and still increase in everything that is kingdom? The fear of God and the continuous connection to the Spirit of God who makes me mindful of what He’s saying and what He’s doing. It’s these two things that were able to live in blessing and bring even greater increase. I remind you in Psalm 67, which for me is one of the greatest prophetic psalms in the Bible—at least, for the day that we live in—is this prayer: «Lord, bless me!» I like that part of the prayer already! I’m all into that! People got mad at us 20 years ago when we were praying for blessing! There are so many things that come to my mind right now, but I’m demonstrating self-control in measure.
Psalm 67: «Lord, bless me! Cause Your face to shine upon me that Your way would be known in the earth, and Your salvation to the nations.» God bless me! Help us, God, to step into the place of favor with God and man. But God, do it in such a way that what You do in us and through us is a prophetic invitation for nations to come and discover who You actually are! Because see, that has to happen to fulfill the assignment. The assignment is to disciple nations—two assignments: one is to make disciples of the nations, but the other is to disciple nations themselves. To do that, there has to be an effective display on how you live life in difficulty but also in blessing.
Paul said it; «I have learned how to abound; I’ve learned how to be abased.» In other words, I’ve learned how to be blessed, and I’ve learned what to do when it’s not going well. In both situations, I need His strength; I know I need His strength when I don’t have enough, but Paul just showed us we actually need strength when we have more than enough.
So why don’t you stand? Alright, we’ve got a wild and crazy week! Oh Jesus, is there anyone here who has never made a commitment to make Jesus Christ the absolute Lord of your life? Now just everybody listen carefully and don’t move around because this would be the most important part of the evening! If there’s anyone here who perhaps you like the music; maybe you were just brought here by a friend. I certainly don’t know everyone, but it could be that you don’t know what it is to be born again—in other words, you’ve never had an encounter with God where you’re forgiven of sin and brought into His family, where He became your Father. Yet, it’s available for every person in this room. If there’s anyone in that condition and you’d say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave until I know that I’m at peace with God, that I know what it is to be forgiven. I’m willing to turn from my life and follow Jesus.» If that’s you, then real quickly, just put a hand up because we’re going to pray for you. I don’t want to end this meeting without giving you a chance to know what eternal life is like. Is there a hand over here? I can’t—it’s right over here. Okay, great—wonderful! Right here—beautiful—excellent! Thank you, Lord! Amen!
Is there anyone else? Real quickly! This is like the best part of the day right here! The baptisms were pretty good, but this is the best part of the day because eternity begins tonight for this individual. Eternity begins tonight: forgiveness of sin! I’m going to ask for this one and any others that would join them just to walk down here real quickly if you would. Come right over here to my left! Do you guys have that? Get that banner up so they can see. We’ve got a banner over here! If you have a friend that can walk with you, that’s always good! I see that beautiful! Anyone else? Come down here real quick, and we want to make sure that you have someone ready to pray with you and meet with you! Yes, bless him! Would you bless him? Bless—it’s so cool! God bless you! Yes, come right over here! Bless you! Thank you! I love it! Come on!