Bill Johnson - Value the Memories of What God Has Done In Your Life
As I read over that again, I remember I cried. The Lord heard me, and He delivered me from all my fears. See, it’s a memorial stone. They are all through here—this book is a diary of a history, of a journey of walking with God. I cannot afford to forget because if I forget, the enemy has many things he’d rather I think about. Nice to see you; thank you, it’s good to be seen. I saw this a week or two ago. I liked it. I was at the McDonald’s drive-thru this morning. A young lady behind me leaned on her horn and started mouthing some ugly things because I was taking too long to place my order.
When I got to the first window, I paid for her order along with my own. The server must have told her what I had done because as we moved up, she leaned out her window and waved at me, mouthing, «Thank you, thank you,» probably feeling a bit embarrassed that I had responded to her rudeness with kindness. When I got to the second window, I showed the server both receipts and took her food too. Now she has to go back to the beginning of the line to start all over again. The moral of the story: don’t honk your horn at old people. I had this in my Bible for a long time; I don’t think I ever read it to you. I got my concealed gun permit yesterday.
Now the first service cheered, so you guys obviously know it’s too late. You’re much more politically correct. I went to the local Bass Pro Shop to get a small 9 mm pistol for home protection. When I was ready to pay for the gun and bullets, the cashier said, «Strip down facing me.» I made a mental note to complain to the NRA about a gun control whacko running amok. I did just as she instructed. When the hysterical shrieking and alarms finally subsided, I found out she was referring to how I should place my credit card in the card reader. I had been asked to shop elsewhere in the future. They need to make instructions for seniors a little clearer. I still don’t think I look that bad. So, oh so funny.
All right, Book of Judges chapter 6. Judges chapter 6. I’m going to talk to you about Gideon. It’s not so much a study just on Gideon’s life; I’ve done that before, and it’s been years. I really enjoy reading almost all the Old Testament stories, and I love the story of Gideon. He was afraid. He was a guy with very little sense of self-worth; at least that’s what it appears. He was hiding in a wheat press or wine press, beating out wheat. It’s hard to get the revelation of wheat, the Word of God, when God is pouring out wine, but that’s another subject. Many people still try to do it when God is serving wine—drink; when He’s serving bread—eat. He knows the seasons for His movements, and so He’s trying to beat out the wheat in the wine press. The Lord shows up and calls him a mighty man of valor, and he responds. It’s amazing to me that God could show up and you just have that quick of an answer.
«Oh yeah, if God is with us, where are all the miracles that our fathers told us about?» I mean, how do you carry an offense so deeply and for so long that you have an immediate answer to an angel that shows up? Anyway, he has this dialogue; amazing things happen. The Lord shows up, and there’s an offering; it’s a pretty cool scene. Then he starts doing what the Lord said in terms of getting an army together. He has enemy armies around him that are enormous in number, and he puts together an army of 32,000 soldiers. He goes to his soldiers and says the Lord gives him the first test: «Everyone who’s afraid, just go home.» So out of 32,000, 22,000 go home. So there are 10,000 left.
How many know if you’re in the 10,000, you want the second opportunity to go home if you’re afraid because two-thirds of your army just left? They were already way outnumbered when they had 32,000, but now they’re reduced to 10. There was one more test, and this test was unrecognizable; he just invited all the guys to come and drink. They’re at this pool, and they drink. All the soldiers who got on their hands and knees and just dove into the water were 9,700 of them. There were only 300 that brought the water to their mouths while they kept alert to their surroundings. So when God reduced 32,000 down to 300, it wasn’t just a reckless selection of 300 people; it was the 300 best. It was the group He could build on. Oftentimes when the Lord reduces us, He reduces us to our place of strength. What He’s about to build next will have a foundation that will last, and that’s what happened in this moment.
So, He’s reduced to the 300 most alert, fearless soldiers, and they were the ones that were equipped and ready for battle. It’s a strange battle strategy that only Jesus could come up with, but He puts them around this camp. They’ve got pitchers and torches. They break them, and the enemy just thinks they’re going to die, and they do. But right before that, the Lord speaks to Gideon and says, «If you’re afraid, go down into the enemy’s camp.» And he does! It says he was afraid. All the soldiers that were afraid got to go home; leaders don’t get that option. You have to deal with your stuff. Sometimes the way you deal with your stuff is not going where you think you should go to get encouraged. God sends him to the enemy’s camp.
I remember years ago in Wa-ville, there was a period of time where the Lord was doing so much in a city that unbelievers would boast of what God was doing. Sometimes you actually hear the confession or the proclamation of what God is doing that you may not know, and you hear from those unexpected places. I remember way back when there was an older couple in the church here. The wife was a strong believer; the husband wanted nothing to do with it and stayed away. But the wife was very devoted. Where this guy worked, there was a person who knew he was the husband of a believer, and he wanted to be born again. So he asked the unbelieving husband how to get born again, and he led him to the Lord. You never know where the good news is going to come from; just recognize it when you hear it.
So here’s this really strange story that ends triumphantly, and then there are three verses where there’s a tragedy. I want to talk to you about that. We’ll work our way through the story and see where we get. Chapter 6, we’re going to start with verse 10: «I said to you, I am the Lord your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you have not obeyed my voice.» Look at that verse again. «I am the Lord your God. I told you don’t fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but you’ve not obeyed me.» So how was their disobedience evident? Okay, now think with me. They are commanded, «Don’t fear the enemy’s gods.» Yeah, got it. How did they reveal that they feared the enemy’s gods? Because they worshipped the enemy’s gods. What you fear will always affect what you worship. The Lord works hard to deal with the issues of fear in all of our lives because it affects and infects, dilutes, if you will, the authentic heart of worship that we had for the Lord.
Matthew 21 talks about, or I forget the chapter—I think it’s 22—but it’s in Matthew, it’s in the last half. How’s that? The Lord talks about Mammon. Mammon is a demonic being that works to influence the economies of the world, and God says you can’t serve God and Mammon. Then He uses this illustration: «Either you will love the one and hate the other, or you will hold to the one and despise the other.» For those who are devoted to Christ, you love the one and you hate the spirit that steals, kills, and destroys—the spirit of Mammon that works to ruin people’s lives. But then He reverses it. He says, «Now for those of you who are devoted to Mammon, you hold to the one,» fearing being broke, and it’s affecting worship. You hold to the one and despise any time finances are brought up in church. Fear always affects or infects worship.
If I have the fear of man in my heart, I am bowing to the opinions of others before I make a decision. If I fear some sort of tragedy, I will constantly live in reaction to things. Proverbs talks about the sudden fear that comes in the night, and all of us have been given a reason to never fear again, and yet all of us deal with it at one time or another. It’s just owning up to what the enemy is trying to do. He’s trying to infect my adoration and affection for Him, and it’s affected by fear. The Lord shows up and speaks to Gideon, and it says in verse 12, «The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, 'The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.' Gideon said to him, 'Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all His miracles which I wish more believers would say that? ' Yes, I still do.» Thank you; thank you. I got a better response from that screen. The presence of God is the manifested presence of the Lord, the tipping point for the miraculous. He reveals Himself to be with people because we’ve been given an impossible assignment. He said to Moses, «I’ll be with you.» Why did He do that? Because he had to lead Israel out of Egypt into the promised land. He tells Gideon the same thing. All through Scripture, every time you manifest yourselves because it’s connected to an impossible assignment, the manifestation of the Spirit of God upon us positions us to see things bow their knee to the name of Jesus. Amen?
I want you to move on in this chapter. It says way over in chapter 7, «If you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah, your servant. You will hear what they say, and afterward, your hands will be strengthened to go down against the camp.» So he went down with Purah, his servant, to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp. They’re standing next to a tent, and they hear two guys inside the tent talking about a dream. One of them had a dream about a barley loaf, and the other guy goes, «He has the interpretation: 'That’s none other than Gideon! '» So the Lord had already been working on the enemy’s hearts to cause them to be nervous about a man who doesn’t know who he is. Wow! Brilliant! He doesn’t get it yet, but the master craftsman is at work shaping him for his purpose and destiny. God likes to talk to us about where we’re going, not where we are. So when He speaks to Gideon as this mighty man of valor, it’s the same thing He did with Peter. He called him a rock when he lived as a broken reed. He has this habit of speaking into our lives the things that are necessary to get us into our destiny and our purpose.
So here’s the thing that really spoke to me this week when I was reading through the story in my own devotions: we start with Gideon saying, «Who am I?» and we come all the way up here, and we’ve got in verse 18 of chapter 8, Gideon speaks to Zubba and Zuno, two enemy kings, and asks, «What kind of men were they whom you killed at Tabor?» They answered, «As you are, so were they. Each one resembled the son of a king.» What happened from chapter 6 to chapter 8? He finally stepped into his purpose, and as soon as he stepped into his purpose, his entire appearance shifted into the appearance of the son of a king. It happens for every person in this room. Forgive me, but I tend to get a little annoyed at people who only volunteer to serve where they think they’re good. You know, I remember my dad’s story. I remember different relatives of mine and different missionaries and friends of ours that we’ve known through the years. So many of them have had these amazing encounters with the Lord where He called them into ministry, called them into service. I’ve never had that experience; I’ve never been called into the ministry. My dad was a pastor here, and they needed help, so I volunteered to teach the junior high boys. They needed a newsletter, so I said I’d do that. They needed a bookstore, so I started a bookstore. I don’t know anything about business! They needed a single adult pastor, so I volunteered to do that, and did that year after year just serving where I could. I had like eight responsibilities—six were administrative—so Divine humor is in place. But sometimes you need to serve where you’re not good.
I mean, why did God assign Paul, the Jewish genius, to minister to Gentiles? Why did He take the rough-cut Peter and assign him to the Jews? Because sometimes working outside of where you’re good causes you to be more dependent on the Holy Spirit. If I can learn to serve where I’m not gifted, well, not only do gifts develop in me, but I become more trustworthy where I am skilled because I develop a lifestyle of dependency. So we come to the end of the story, and there are so many things in here! Verse 4 of chapter 8 says, «Gideon came to the Jordan with 300 men who were with him. They crossed over, exhausted, but still in pursuit.» I think the New American Standard said «weary yet pursuing.» I love that verse. It comforts me. You know, you may be a wounded soldier, but you keep fighting. You may be tired for whatever reason; it may have been a rough season. You just keep marching forward. I may march slower, but I’m going in the same direction. I may not swing the sword as hard as I did last week, but I’m still swinging the sword. The whole point is you don’t stop there. It’s important to take rest; it’s important to take care of ourselves, but sometimes it’s a day or two before we get to that. Right now, I have to be weary yet pursuing. I still have to be in pursuit of the very things for which I was assigned. Gideon took on the appearance of royalty when he finally embraced his assignment.
Now let’s get to the reason I have us here talking about this story today. Towards the end of chapter 8, we have three verses. Verse 33 is where we start: «So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel played the harlot with Baals and made Baal Berith their god. Thus, the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God who had delivered them from the hands of all their enemies on every side, nor did they show kindness to the house of Zerubabel—that is Gideon—in accordance with the good that he had done for Israel.» Look at verse 34 again: «Thus, the children of Israel did not remember the Lord their God.» Jesus, at one point with His disciples, is giving them a profound lesson on influence, values, and thought processes. He’s talking about Herod and the Pharisees, giving a brilliant lesson, and they’re not getting it at all. He had just multiplied food; He reminds them about the multiplying food, and then He asks them this question—it’s in Mark 8, I think it’s verse 18—he says, «Can’t you see now?» Jesus is talking about the unseen. He’s not saying, «Can’t you see the boat we’re in?» He’s saying, «Can’t you see?» He’s talking about realities they have no connection with but should. They’ve seen enough of God’s activities to be connected with what God is doing, but they’re not getting it. So He asks the question, «Can’t you see?» There’s no answer. «Can’t you hear?» No answer. He says, «Can you remember?» Here’s the deal: we tend to think that seeing, perceiving unseen things and hearing the voice of the Lord, we attribute that to either maturity or spiritual gifts. Remembering is a choice. There is a deliberate, intentional grasping of past events as markers along the way that reveal to me who He is. It’s that intentional pursuit of remembering that keeps my heart calibrated to what God is saying and doing.
I’ve noticed that for me. If I can remember, I’ll be in a hard situation where things seem to be swirling, and I can’t remember anything that God has done, which is just as stupid as it can be. Then all of a sudden, I determine to remember, and I work my way back, and go, «Oh yeah, on that day, oh, this happened.» I remember right here when a young gang leader came to us from another city, dying of colon cancer—he was healed right there. Come on! I remember right over here when a missionary came, having four diseases in her body. They didn’t want to let her out of the country because of her health condition. She snuck out. The Lord spoke to her and said, «If you get to Beth, I’ll heal you.» She was healed of one disease on the way, then she was healed of the other three over here. Right over there, one of them was Ms. Right; over there she was healed. Right over here, a woman paralyzed for 56 years wow! She gets up out of the wheelchair and walks; her daughter, who never had a mom that could interact with her, is just sobbing because right there she got out of the wheelchair. Right back over here, a woman who had broken her jaw ten years earlier and had very restricted movement and extreme pain—pop! Her jaw is completely healed. Right over here, an Olympic athlete working out on a trampoline had severed his foot from his leg, only attached by the Achilles tendon. They reattached everything, but he had excruciating pain and limited movement. Some people gathered around him. He said his ankle got cold, he heard a pop, and he was healed!
I walk around this room, and it’s a memorial of stones. God said to Israel, «When you cross into the promised land, go back in the river, get stones out of the river, and make a pile. Don’t cut them, don’t shape them. Just pile them.» Because you need tangible, physical reminders of what I’ve done and where I did it. At your home and my home, they’re filled with memorial stones. I think we have a responsibility to capture the meaning of material things that God has given to us. Now, I’m not saying accumulate material things; I’m saying you had a desire for that fountain pen, and a relative gave you one. It’s a pen, but it’s a memorial stone. God knew of the desire that was in my heart, and He honored it with such a nice but insignificant thing. Maybe it was you finally got a chance to buy the home. Maybe I remember a time when I could take you through my house. We had a couch—it wasn’t a very nice couch, but we needed a couch—and the Lord provided a couch for us. I could take you through the home: I remember when this was provided for us! I remember when this happened! Several years back, Benny and I sold our home on the west side of town and bought one over here on the east side, and we’ve been remodeling it for over five years—oh Jesus! Finally, after four years in the other house, we sold almost all of our furniture with the home, including my piano. I’m not a great pianist, but I love to play and have time with the Lord. Yes, yes, Mom, thank you, by the way. My mom is here for the second time in a row. Due to a nightmarish accident seven months ago, she’s been gone, but she’s here two weeks in a row, so this is revival time right here! About a year ago, Benny and I started thinking, «You know, it’s time to get a piano.» Well, they’re expensive, so I started praying into it. Someone, I’m not sure if I’ve ever met them, and they don’t live in this country, sent enough for a piano! Wow! It’s a piano, but it’s a memorial stone! You know, if you stay connected to what God has done in your life, that is represented sometimes by a couch; sometimes it’s represented by a friend, a connection to somebody in a high position that you never could have earned the right for their friendship, yet they value you! There’s something about that friendship. There’s that opportunity at work. There are these memorial stones, and they’re all there to remind us of who He is. Once the piano just becomes a piano, I start to get disconnected from the memories that keep me calibrated to the values of God, to His presence and His purposes in this life.
Israel fell for false gods after they forgot—yes, they just forgot. See, if my mind isn’t filled with the memories of God’s activity in my life, they will be filled with something else, and it will always work to uproot and dissuade my affection from Him to anything and everything else. I want you to look at Psalm 78, please. One of the things I want to encourage everyone to do is to prayerfully walk through your life and have Him remind you, «Oh yeah, we got that piano in this season. We were able to buy that car at an unusual time, but it was the kindness of the Lord.» What happens is you start stirring up that grace for thankfulness. That is one of the most profound weapons we have in our arsenal. Thankfulness removes the tool out of the enemy’s hand and gives it to the Lord’s hand, where He uses it to build us. What the enemy meant for evil to destroy, the Lord uses to build. It’s thankfulness that makes that transition happen! Yes!
Psalm 78, of course, is about testimonies. Testimonies are what we remember and help us to stay focused. In verse 5, it says, «He established a testimony in Jacob; He appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children.» So we’re telling testimonies of the works of God to another generation. Verse 6 says that the generation that comes might know them—the children who would be born—that they may arise and declare them to their children. So we now have multiple generations repeating the works of the Lord, not allowing any generation to forget. We repeat the works of the Lord. Why? Verse 7 says, «That they may set their hope on God.» The failure to remember and keep in conversation the works of the Lord actually affects the destiny of future generations. Wow! If I’m unwilling to put before a generation works or revelations of nature, if I’m unwilling to put before a generation the works of the Lord that testify of who He is, if I’m unwilling to give them that space, that information, there’s somebody else out there that will be willing to give them other information. It is space that must be occupied with information, and it will either be what causes them to remember or distract their affection. Verse 9 says, «The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows.» So here’s one of the tribes of Israel, and they are trained for battle. They’re warriors; they’re trained, they’re ready for war, but they turn back when the battle comes.
So why? The children of Ephraim being armed, carrying bows—they’re in pursuit of war; they turn back in the day of battle. Why? Verse 10: «They didn’t keep the covenant of God; they refused to walk in His law.» Why didn’t they have the courage to walk in obedience? Verse 11: «Because they forgot His works, yes, and the wonders that He had done.» They lost contact. See, it’s the exposure to the God who works above my talent, above my skill level, above my ability—sometimes to even believe for the God who involves Himself in my life at that level—living aware of that shifts and changes what I can expect from my life. So you have a whole tribe that is assigned victory; they approach the war, and they turn around because they’re afraid. They’re afraid because they haven’t been obeying, and they haven’t been obeying because they forgot who He was.
Verse 40: «How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, grieved Him in the desert.» Yes, again and again, they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. That’s a stunning statement to me. They tempted God! You don’t want to tempt God. They tempted God. How did they do it? They limited Him! That’s got to be one of the easiest things in the world to do: limit God. I don’t mean we control Him. We never do enough to control Him, thankfully, but the effort to restrict what we are willing to believe for, what we think He’s capable of doing. It’s the guy with the son who’s demonized, «If you’re able, Jesus, would you set my son free?» It’s that limiting thing.
How is it that the ability to limit God becomes a skill that we develop? Verse 42, «They did not remember.» How did they limit Him? How did they restrict what they expected and thought of Him? They just forgot. They forgot who He was; forgot His history. Israel goes through that river, and they pile stones because God knows they’re going to need a natural, physical reminder—something that draws their attention, their affection, back to their history in God. They need continuous reminders. The pile of stones never leaves, so there’s the constant reminder, «Yep, He delivered us! He brought us through the promised land!» When do people tend to forget what God has done? It’s easy to remember when you’re in the middle of a great miracle season. In fact, it’s hard to forget. But when there’s the pause between the greatest breakthroughs you’ve seen and the readiness for the next season, it’s then that people forget.
Our life is set up around encounters, experiences with God—the subtle little touches of the Lord. I still, to this day, when I was up early yesterday and when the clock said 6:38, I had an encounter with the Lord in 1995 in October. It started at 3:00 a.m. and lifted at 6:38. Wow! When I see that on the clock, a.m. or p.m., it doesn’t matter. It triggers the memory: «I encountered God!» It happens all through the book here, right? God, I was crying out to you for help, and I was walking in the woods, and I had my Bible with me, and You spoke to me out of this verse. I underlined it. As I read over that again, I remember I cried. The Lord heard me, and He delivered me from all my fears. See, it’s memorial stones! They’re all through here. This book is a diary. It’s a diary with little notes and notations of a history of walking with God, and I cannot afford to forget because if I forget, the enemy has many things he’d rather I think about. Yet again and again, they tempted God, limited the Holy One of Israel; they did not remember His power, the day He redeemed them from the enemy when He worked signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
I think one of the things that the Lord has instituted or brought into our life is, I’ve already made reference to it, but it’s the act or—I don’t want to call it a discipline; I guess it’s the discipline of thanksgiving. Giving thanks. David had this tabernacle where there was worship from the priests in the actual presence of God, which was forbidden prior to that time, and they would minister to God with thanksgiving, praise, and worship. What he would do is let’s just say this is a group. He’d say, «All right, all of you here, show up this morning at 3:00; you have the shift from 3:00 to 6:00, and I’ve got a list of 100 things here I want you to give thanks for.» Well, that doesn’t feel very genuine. «Oh, shut up, just do it! Just give thanks! Just give thanks!» Right here it says He delivered us from Egypt. Okay, give Him thanks for that! Just give Him thanks for that! You get into that flow of thankfulness; you start remembering who He is, what He’s like, and by the end of your list, you’re going! Therefore, you know, just pushing into another level: God is activating the remembrance of who He is.
I’ll tell you, I wonder—we are at a time in our nations of the world where so many people, so many wonderful people, are experiencing Alzheimer’s and dementia. I wonder if maybe it’s the enemy’s attempt to dislodge us from the memory of who God is and what He has done. I don’t know. I’m wondering. I’m also wondering if maybe the unwillingness to remember as a discipline has allowed a thief to come in to steal one of our most important tools and gifts that we have as people. Whatever it is we’ve been given, we have the responsibility to remember—yes, yes—to remember. And I know for me, I’ve been in situations lately where it’s hard for me to remember. It’s hard for me to remember the things I remembered well six months ago, but today it takes more work to recover them, you know, because things get kind of swirly; things get kind of clouded when you’re in a difficult situation. If you don’t work to remember the specific things that God has said, the specific things that God has done, you will fall for the inferior. If you fall for the inferior, you’ll end up with a God who looks like you. God, who He is and what He’s like, has to be spoken, has to be declared. I love the songs that our team writes because they’re just day after day, just decrees, declarations. «I came to you as a beggar; you bled for my pardon.» It never gets old! Those themes you and I will celebrate throughout all of eternity. We will never exhaust the wonders of who He is, and grabbing our moments now is a huge part of what keeps us safe and healthy in a crazy world because we remember who He is.
Why don’t you stand? Lamentations, as this verse of chapter 3, I think it is, says this: «I recall to my mind; therefore, have I hope.» «This I recall to my mind; therefore, I have hope.» It’s the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed. One of the things that I enjoy a lot is, especially when I travel, I get to spend time with alumni. We always try to set up a meeting with alumni that are going to come to the conference or event that we’re at, and I always try to give them a chance to ask any question they want. During the dialogue, there will almost always be, «Do you remember that day? Do you remember that day?»
Then there’ll be some story about the colon cancer or the MS. This last week, the blind eye, blind from birth, opens! I don’t know how I forgot this. A guy came up, «Do you remember when we were in St. Louis and the guy who had no hip joint got up out of his wheelchair and climbed the stairs?» How did I forget that one? Wow! «Do you remember the day we had about ten people here on a Sunday night? I gave an altar call. I said anyone who has any kind of addiction, come forward.» It wasn’t a long one; about ten maybe fifteen people stood right here. We just prayed for them as a group. We didn’t minister one-on-one; we just prayed as a group. Six months later or so, one of the guys comes to me and says, «Do you remember the Sunday night you did that?» I said, «Yeah.» He said, «My friend and I were both heroin addicts for over 20 years each. In that prayer, we lost all appetite for heroin!» Oh yes! I remember! Yes! I remember! It reveals who He is. It reveals what He’s like. It reveals the wonder of this covenant we’ve been brought into, this relationship, this family where we get to explore and enjoy this mysterious One every single day of our lives.
If I think He’s in my life to fulfill my dream, I will be disappointed the rest of my life. But when I realize I’m alive to fulfill His, every day is a dream! So put your hands in front of me; let’s pray. Father, we ask right now, in the mighty and wonderful name of Jesus, that You would rid us of spiritual amnesia and dementia—all these things that just cause us to only see a present problem and not our victorious history—that You would heal us and that You’d forgive us and that as a people, we would be known for remembering, remembering what You’ve done, remembering who You are. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.