Bill Johnson - Activate Your Ability to Hear God's Voice
You want to activate your hearing? Meditate on what you remember of the works of God. I don't care if you have to go back to the days of Moses, or if you have to go back to your parents and grandparents, or if you have to go back to last week. Show me what kind of father you are because I'm afraid I can only see the surface and never tap into the heartbeat of a father who loves people like you do. Let this memory activate my hearing because I want to hear better. Beautiful. Well, good morning! Good to see you; I'm glad you showed up. How many of you were a part of the Randy Clark healing school and conference this week? How many of you made it to that? We had such an outrageous time. I'm still a little bit rocked from the week. I was talking to Randy last night. There was somewhere around a thousand healings this week with a number of notable miracles. My goodness, I got whacked! We need to have a new dictionary so people know what we mean: whacked, blasted, hit hard—those are all very positive terms! Wrecked, ruined—those are all also very positive words. So anyway, it was just that kind of week for me, and I know for quite a few others.
I have something I read about a year or so ago that I found in my little file here on my iPad, something one of my grandsons wrote about his mother in a Mother's Day card. Cruz is a fascinating child; he has an imagination, and I'm not sure if he knows when it's reality or when it's imagination. I'm not sure if he knows where that line is yet. We're trying to help him, but in the meantime, we're wonderfully entertained by this child. I think it was a year or so ago when Leah came to pick him up at the Christian School here. The teacher said to Leah, "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear what happened!" Leah replied, "What do you mean, what happened?" The teacher said, "Well, Cruz told us that your house burned down." She said, "Oh, he did?" So they're walking to the car, and Leah turns to Cruz and says, "Hey Cruz, did you tell your teacher that our house burned down?" He said, "Yeah." I mean, no hesitancy at all. "Oh yeah, yeah, I did." "Son, why did you do that?" he says, "Oh Mom, she loves a good story." Now, his dad, Gabe, says he's lying. I'm saying he's just creative in his thinking.
At Christmas time, we had our whole family together, and Brian asked him, "Hey Cruz, are those stories real?" We're all so fascinated by what he comes up with that he looked at Brian and said, "They're real in my head. I don't know if they are in yours, but they are in mine."
Here is his Mother's Day card from what I think was two years ago: "My mom is as pretty as a dancing princess; she is as sweet as a horse." His imagery needs a little bit of work here; she is as sweet as a horse. "She is as smart as God," so we'll have to work on his theology as well. But most of all, she's special, like a dragon— a dragon that is nice and can shoot water out of its mouth. So I know that's the goal of every woman in this room—to be recognized as a dragon that can shoot water out of its mouth.
We're going to read a couple of portions of scripture. We'll start with Exodus 33. Today, we're going to focus on two portions of scripture that, in some ways, have had—I hate to say the most influence, but certainly are at the top of the list for influence in my life and thinking over the last 20 years. These last few weeks have been very tender for me; many times throughout the day, whether I'm at home, in the corporate gathering here, at a conference, or in Korea at the Randy Clark event this past week, I feel like I'm about this far away from tears almost all the time, but it's never sadness; it's just the overwhelming kind. For example, this last week, we saw the beautiful testimony of PTSD healed, and Randy has a guy on his team who has personally led 10,000 people into healing of PTSD. It's one of the most extraordinary things; I mean, it is literally off the charts. They're now bringing him to military bases and places where it's running so rampant that they need help, and there are no answers, but Jesus is the answer.
We watched people—I'll try to remember in the next couple of weeks to show you a testimony of one of the miracles that actually happened here in Redding towards the beginning of this launch for them, seeing this horrible affliction of the heart healed. You watch these things happen; you see the woman, they showed the video of the woman who had this metal bar put in her arm, and you see the picture of how this thing stood out. They prayed, and it literally just dissolved. Your mind cannot compute what God is doing—he just literally reduces that and completely heals and restores it. The stories go on and on and on; I mean, they are just extraordinary but, in a sense, all are symbolic of not the season we're in because that's been going on for years. There's a presence that this week was filled with. I don't know if everybody experienced this, but I know the ones I interacted with—there was such a sense of God's presence in the building that it felt like anything was possible at any time.
I became mindful of something that I wanted to share with you today, and all of this—I'm going to probably combine like three different concepts or three different teachings or messages that I run with and put them into one and basically boil it down to this: we are stewards of the Divine. We are stewards; we are stewards of the testimony of God. We're stewards of the ways of God; we're stewards of the presence of God. It's those three things. Maybe we could add a hundred things to the list, but to me, those three things represent the bulk of why we are on planet Earth and what we have the privilege of doing with our lives: stewards of the testimony, stewards of the knowledge of His ways, and stewards of His presence.
You know, the great revelation that Jesus provided in coming to Earth, putting on flesh, was that he was revealed as Emmanuel, God with us. The whole point of Jesus coming to Earth was so that humanity, so that people could actually discover that God is with us, He is so for us that He is with us. It's tragic to watch people day after day, week after week, year after year of their lives live this far from the answer and be clueless to what God has brought within arm's reach. The Lord Jesus gives us a gift, and repentance is the gift of repentance. Repentance is not something that we randomly choose whenever we want; it's literally a gift. The Bible calls repentance a gift that God gives, and it's part of what He does in wooing us to Himself. Repentance isn't just a mourning over our past; it includes that, but the sorrow of our sin is so deep in its impact that it launches us into a shift in how we think about life, how we think about sin, how we think about our present, our future—all of that is contained in this one wonderful gifted word called repentance.
So, Jesus gives us access to steward these three parts or aspects of God's person, His nature: the testimony, His ways, and His presence. The Bible is filled with principles that come in sequence. For example, "I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter His courts with praise." Throughout scripture, there are these processes He takes us through, where there are deliberate shifts in priorities, in activities and actions, in the way we think, and how we apply truth. There are these places that we come to where there's this shift where we say, "You know what? I'm not just interested in the works of God; I want to know what He's like. I want to know His ways." The scripture says Israel was acquainted with the acts of God, but Moses was acquainted with His ways. That's a huge shift there because Israel missed out on what Moses had, but the implication of scripture was they all had access to it.
They were all acquainted with man on the ground every morning; they were acquainted, they were satisfied with water out of the rock. They never made it past the acts of God on their behalf into discovering the nature of God, and here's the saddest part of that equation: whenever God reveals something about His nature, whenever He unveils something about His nature, it always comes with the invitation to know Him in that way. The understanding of His nature never comes to us just to make us more theologically sound. That's important, but it is secondary. What's important is to know Him in that way, to encounter Him. So when He says, "I'm your provider," I don't want to walk away from that revelation without provision.
When He says, "I am your holiness," I don't want to walk away the same way I came in; I want to leave changed because I have encountered Him, and now relationally I come to know Him in that way. His ways—that's how He heals your body, but what happens is this thing that God is doing in us is so provoking and stirring that we become dissatisfied just standing back and giving a golf clap for a miracle that God has just done. Our testimony gives us, we become provoked inside; I must know this One who does this on behalf of humanity. He does this in people's hearts. I must know this Father who took this guy—we saw the video this week, if you were there—who was locked up in PTSD, absolutely unable to function normally in life, and literally, in moments, completely transformed his life to where he had never been able to play with his children. He's never been able to take on the pressures of life, of work, and all these things, and now suddenly overnight he's completely different and changed. It was no magic wand; it was a person called Jesus who stepped into his life and sorted things out.
So we see this, and we go, "You know, I don't have PTSD, but I've got stuff, and I've got to know this One who settles these issues." We look at the sign as an invitation to know the One who is like that and to make Him known.
Here's the verse that I want us to read; it's here in Exodus 33, verse 13. He says, "Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace or favor in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You, that I may find grace in Your sight. Consider that this nation is Your people." Go back to, at least for me, the heart of this verse: "Show me Your way that I might know You." Say that with me: "Show me Your ways that I might know You." Say it again: "Show me Your ways that I might know You." What's the point? The point is the testimony reveals the nature; the nature is the invitation to an encounter, but in the encounter, we come to know the One who works wonders.
Once you see what the sign points to, you're never satisfied with only the sign again. You hear about this wonderful restaurant, and you drive looking for it, and you see the sign. You don't turn around and go home; you go where the sign is pointing. The sign points to something greater than itself. It's like the exit sign over the door; it's real, but it points to something more real—that's the exit. So you see the miracle of healing or deliverance, whatever it may be—the healing of a marriage or the prospering of a business—that's a sign, but it takes you to a person. The whole purpose of this journey is to know Him.
Israel stopped short; they were satisfied with miracles. Miracles do become boring. Look at Israel: manna every day. After a while, what else is on the menu? I'm in the creation of food before them every day. After a while, "Boy, we'd sure like some meat!" I understand that one. Just between you and me, meat is a vital part of life.
Let me know Your ways that I might know You. Turn with me to the book of Mark, and we'll read where we're going to land today. Mark chapter 8 is a portion of scripture I don't know—maybe I've taught on this here more than any other portion. It wouldn't surprise me if that were true, and the reason for that is it takes me a long time to learn things, and I open to the story on a somewhat regular basis and review it, specifically one particular verse because I need to face the questions that Jesus asks. He asks certain questions. You've heard it before, but whenever God is asking you a question, it's never because He's lacking information. He's just trying to dial something up in you that you don't know is there, or He's trying to lead you into understanding something.
So, He asks these questions, and they're provoking questions. We'll get to them in a moment, but if you picture this with me: the disciples have a three and a half year relational journey with Jesus. During this time, they've watched things happen that just changed their thinking about life in general. They were all pretty insignificant people, from politicians to fishermen, and they suddenly caught a vision for their lives and were willing to die for something. Previously, they just wanted to catch fish, but now suddenly they want to change the world, and they did! They caught that vision by being with this Jesus.
Jesus would use them; He would empower them to do the same things He did. It had to be absolutely frightening and glorious at the same time. It's kind of funny because Jesus would use them so powerfully that they actually began to think they were important outside of their role. They began to think of their own significance in a strange way. You know, like they would argue over who was the greatest. We're too smart to argue with each other, "I'm greater than you." "No, I'm better than you." We're way too religious to do that; we just do that by pointing to somebody else's flaws. It's a more subtle way of saying, "I'm better than you."
Anyway, let's stop meddling and move on here. But the disciples—what did Jesus do? He immersed them in this atmosphere of presence and power, and He gave them significance in a glorious way, the way He had designed for them to live. But in doing so, it dialed up stuff in their hearts that they didn't know was there. Peter was shocked to find out he would deny the Lord; he was absolutely convinced he would last when everybody else fell. Yet, he was the one who denied Jesus.
What happens in these moments where there's pressure? Pressure isn't always negative; it isn't always added because of problems. Sometimes pressure is added because of the miraculous, the way God uses us because of the understanding we receive. There's just this stuff that comes on our lives, and the weightiness of God's work in us reveals fractures. It doesn't cause fractures; it reveals fractures. Why? The Lord never does that to shame us; He never does it as punishment. He always does it so that we can see what He sees.
If I can see what He sees, then I can confess, and confession basically means to agree with God. The weightiness of God's work in my life reveals a fracture—maybe it's a fracture in my thinking. Every time I get in this pressure situation, I just start criticizing myself. Or every time I get in this pressure situation, I want to withdraw from people. Or every time I get in this pressure situation, I blame other people around me instead of taking responsibility. Whatever it might be, that weightiness of whether it's blessing or whether it's responsibility reveals fractures. Why? It's so we can come into agreement with God.
I see that, Lord; I see that I have that tendency to beat myself up when this pressure comes. Please forgive me because I believe things about me You don't believe about me, and it's got to change. What is He doing? In His mercy, He's revealing fractures so that we can come into agreement because once we see it and come into agreement, confession releases the capacity to forsake. That was really good news right there. The confession, "I see it, oh God, I beat myself up every time this pressure comes. I'm tired of it. I know You revealed that so that I confess it. I agree with You; there's a fracture in my makeup that blames me for everything, and I know it's not right, and I'm confessing my self-centeredness."
Don't think it's anything other than you blame you every time something is wrong; it's still a reverse arrogance and pride. Face it and call it for what it is because I'm still the focus of my attention. God, please forgive me for this subtle pride that has robbed me of so many things in my life. I'm through with it! I'm finished with it, and by Your grace, I step into thinking differently about me now because of what You said over me.
So, there's that confession; we forsake. He actually releases, in the confession, the divine capacity to forsake, to leave what has trailed behind you all this time. That's the reason for the weightiness of God.
So the disciples, in this journey, had two occasions where they were privileged to see food multiply and feed thousands of people. One time, they fed 5,000 men besides women and children; another time, 4,000 men besides women and children. I think it's important to recognize that, even though it's not the subject of the message today, it's important to recognize that before the death and resurrection of Christ, before the day of Pentecost, only the men were counted. A crowd was measured by how many men were there—the women were there; they were fed in these miracles, but they weren't counted.
After the day of Pentecost, men, women, and children were counted. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit creates a level playing field, and it's vital that we recognize that great grace that is released over the church where we find every race, every economic level, every age—it's a level playing field.
Read in Joel 2 about the outpouring of the Spirit; it becomes a level playing field through the outpouring of the Spirit. But back to the story here: the disciples are with Jesus on two occasions where they see food multiplied, and they were used in the miracle. They distributed the food, and it literally would increase as they passed it out. Jesus didn't throw the boy's lunch in the air and go "Shazam!" and create all food. Instead, he divided it into 12 sections, and the disciples took it out and fed the multitudes. Extraordinary miracle!
So, we're going to look at the disciples the day after. They got a major miracle: 4,000 men besides women and children—extraordinary time. They get in a boat; they're going on a journey. They get some rest and relaxation time with Jesus, and they're in the boat. Alright, are you with me? Longest introduction ever, but we're there!
Verse 14: The disciples had forgotten to take bread. Actually, let's start with 13. He left them, getting into the boat, left them—meaning the crowd—and getting in the boat, again departed to the other side. The disciples had forgotten to take bread; they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. Then He charged them, saying, "Take heed; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
They reasoned among themselves, saying, "It's because we have no bread." But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, "Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?"
I'll actually turn to verse 17 just randomly on my own, because those questions are piercing to me and expose my leaning into thinking differently than Jesus. To me, the prize of all prizes for us right now is the mind of Christ; it is the great prize. It is the reward of repentance; it is the fruit or the result of repentance—the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is the great prize.
I mean, we celebrate the presence, obviously; there's no greater gift than the presence of God: Emmanuel, God with us! We celebrate the anointing, the manifestation of presence that brings miracles, healing, deliverance—all this stuff. We celebrate one another; we celebrate so many things God has given us. But there is one thing that is more transformational than any other, and that is the mind of Christ. It's seeing and thinking the way He sees and thinks.
There's something different about Jesus, who can look at a boy's lunch fearlessly knowing that there's going to be leftovers—there's going to be more than enough. This is going to be such a wonderful moment that we will have more at the end than what we started with. That was the thinking. We know there's an oak tree in an acorn. Well, in circumstances that would come up, He would see the possibility, the potential of a moment—this divine reasoning.
You know, I get there eventually; I don't always start there. In fact, just between you and me—don't tell anyone this—it seems like I hardly ever start there. I get there, but starting with His perception is a gift that I long for. I know that biblically we have the mind of Christ, by the way. It says we have it; it doesn't say I have it—yeah, it collectively says we have the mind of Christ. But anyway, I know that we have the mind of Christ, but I want what's in my account to be in my possession.
In other words, I want it to influence my initial reaction. I get there, but I want my initial reaction to be the mind of Christ. I do believe that that's the great prize. So He says, "Take heed—verse 15—beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." He's not warning them about bad bread. He's not saying, "Don't go to Herod's bakery because it's bad. Don't go to the Pharisees. Stay away from their bread." He's warning them about ways of thinking. The way you perceive reality can be shaped by these two themes—these two groups—and these two actually clarify the two primary movements in the earth, apart from the Kingdom of God. There's the leaven of the kingdom, there's the leaven of Herod, and there's the leaven of the Pharisees. Those are three different perceptions of reality.
So Jesus, you know, imagine yourself sitting in the boat. You've just had the most incredible day of your life yesterday; you're in the boat going to the other side. You have a little interaction time with Jesus, and just kind of enjoying the journey. Jesus says, "Hey guys, let me have your attention," and you look towards Him. You're waiting to hear another pearl of wisdom, and He says, "Be careful of the leaven of Herod and the leaven of the Pharisees." They all go, "Did you bring the bread?" Because they thought He was actually rebuking them because they forgot; somebody dropped their responsibility, and they look around the boat and they don't have any bread.
Jesus, of course, is not talking about Herod's bakery or the Pharisees' bakery; He's talking about perception of reality that becomes shaped by a value system that is other than the kingdom of God. It's counterfeit perception; it's anchoring our hearts into the inferior instead of living from the reality of God's rule, His dominion, towards the circumstances of life. Every believer has the amazing privilege of living from heaven towards earth; that's the call; that's the privilege of God; that's what it is to abide in Christ.
So here we have this warning: "Be careful of the leaven of Herod and the leaven of the Pharisees." Herod represents the political system. It's humanistic in nature. It does not mind you believing in God; just don't bring that into the everyday affairs of life. In other words, it's okay that you confess to be a Christian; it's alright. Just don't bring Him into the political office; don't bring Him into the classroom. It's the humanistic; it's man at the center of everything.
Man as God is a real letdown. The Pharisees' leaven is not any better because, while it believes in God, He's impersonal and powerless. It's in form, it's in shape, it's in ritual, it's in routine. It's not in relationship; it's not anchored in knowing; it's not anchored in encountering. It's just this routine that we follow. So Jesus says, "Don't fall into either of these two ditches. This ditch here will kill you; it's called humanism, and this ditch will kill you; it's called religious routine and form without relationship. Both of these things are dangerous, and they're both cancers to your soul. Be careful of these things." He's warning them, and they completely miss it.
He asks them these questions, and this is what I review on a somewhat regular basis: "Why do you reason because you have no bread?" Why does your reasoning start with what you don't have? Why does your reasoning start with what you don't have? Why? Why are you doing that? I can just see—I feel like I'm in the boat, to be honest with you. Often I feel like I need you to ask me those questions again. "Why do you reason that you have no bread?" Is it because we have no bread? Somehow, I know that's the wrong answer, so I'm not going to say anything. He says, "How is it that you don't perceive or understand?" I don't know. He says, "Is your heart still hardened?" That's the third question: "Is your heart still hardened?" I didn't know it was, but apparently it is. He just takes them through these questions, and all He's trying to do is expose the fracture so that we can make agreement and see things healed and changed.
So good!
When you've experienced supernatural supply—I'll ask you the question—how many of you have had God provide for you in an absolute supernatural way? All of us have! How many of you, after you experienced that supernatural provision, had another financial problem? How many of you were as afraid and as nervous the second time as you were the first time? That's the point! I learned nothing.
It was like, I know He provided; He's so good; He took care of me last time, but the problem that I'm facing right now— I don't know if He's going to do it again. It's just that "Russian roulette" thing; I just happened to hit the right cylinder and got the answer of God. But, you know, He just doesn't always work like that. I don't know; I may be on my own. It could be that I earned this mess, and I prove my devotion by just sucking it up and bearing up under the pressure of this financial thing. He's looking at us like, "Don't you understand what forgiveness is?"
He asks this series of questions: "So why do you reason that you have no bread?" Because once you've experienced the miracle of God's provision, you've lost the right to begin any thought process with what you don't have. That is not brought into the equation!
It fascinates me that in these two stories, Jesus didn't create food out of nothing. I mean, He could have, but that wasn't the miracle. The miracle was that He took—well, there was—and multiplied it. Let's look at the rest of the story here.
Verse 18: "Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember?" This verse has helped me so much. Let me tell you why: He's asking the questions again, and I need the questions of Jesus. So He says, "Having eyes, do you not see?" And there—you know, I'll be really honest; there are a whole bunch of situations throughout my average week or month where, no, I'm totally clueless. I don't see at all what You're doing. I don't know. It's not working; it's just not working. So He follows up with the second question. He says, "Can you hear?" The reality is I do hear better than I see, so He follows with the second question. He says, "Can you hear?"
And there I'm in situations where I go, "Nope!" I hate to say it, but I don't see and I don't hear. So He follows with the next one, and I'm so thankful for it. He says, "Well, do you remember?" You want to activate your hearing? Meditate on what you remember of the works of God. Review the activities of God. I don't care if you have to go back to the days of Moses, or you have to go back to your parents and grandparents, or you have to go back to last week—go back to something that you watched God do. Don't just take it at surface level. God, show me the nature of a Father who would cause that metal bar in the arm to dissolve, that would take a son that was so tormented by combat fatigue in his heart and mind, that You would heal him in moments where he thinks clearly and now contributes to the well-being of his family. Show me what kind of Father you are because I'm afraid I can just see the surface and never tap into the heartbeat of a Father who loves people like you do. God, take me beyond the obvious! Take me beyond the obvious! Let this memory activate my hearing because I want to hear better.
What I've noticed is that remembering activates my hearing, and hearing activates my seeing. He asks some more questions. He says, "Verse 19: When I broke the five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?" They said to Him, "Twelve." Also, "When I broke the seven for the 4,000, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take out?" He said, "Seven."
And He said, "How is it you don't understand?" I don't know. Look what He just did! He asked them about the numbers of people they fed: 5,000 and 4,000. What did they start with? They started with five loaves, and another time, seven loaves. When they fed the larger group—5,000 people—they started with fewer loaves, five loaves, instead of seven, and they had more leftovers—twelve! Wow! When they started with more, the seven loaves fed a smaller crowd, and they had fewer leftovers—seven baskets. Wow! It's divine math. Why did God choose Israel? He said because they were the least. Don't be surprised that He chooses to work in a way where He receives the most glory.
When you start thinking you're pretty cool because God chose you, just remember this great statement I read from Shawn Bolz; I don't know when he made it, but I read it last year sometime, and it goes something like this: "The Lord makes sure that all of our closest friends see our idiosyncrasies, our broken areas of life, and the things that don't always work well in us, and makes sure our closest friends see that so that when God uses us, they all know it's by the grace of God."
That's the reason many people will not come close in relationship—they don't want anyone to know that! And when they do, they withhold glory from God because people never really discover how much that work was by the grace of God. Wow! You see, these miracles that they were exposed to were supposed to have a greater effect on them. This won't sound right, probably, but give me a moment.
It was to have a greater effect on them than merely inspiring them to give God praise. Now, I buy into that completely. I love us responding to God's works, giving Him the honor, giving Him the credit, but He was looking for more. He was looking for their history with Him—feeding 5,000, feeding 4,000. He was looking for their history with Him to become the lenses through which they see their present situation. Wow!
He was looking for them to be so impacted by the multiplying of food that when He starts talking to them about leaven, they don't go into fear mode about what they don't have. Their initial response is instead, "I serve the God of the impossible! He did it before; He'll do it again!" I mentioned all of that this morning because I felt so strongly, in getting ready for today, that the reminder, perhaps, of what we steward—what we actually give oversight to, what we take charge of in our own lives—that we steward the testimony of the Lord, that we steward the knowledge of His ways, and that we steward His presence.
I close with this thought. Moses asked the Lord at the beginning of his call—God called him to deliver Israel out of Egypt—and Moses asked this great question: "Who am I?" God said, "I'll be with you." If I'm Moses, I'm going, "That's awesome, but you skipped my question: Who am I?" Certainly, I will be with you.
I used to think God just ignored his question because He had something better to show him, which in part is true. But, what did He actually tell Moses? How did He, let's look at it this way, who was Moses? God says, "You're the one I want to be with. That's who you are." Your identity is in the One who has chosen to walk with you. That's who you are. You are the one over whom God says, "I am not ashamed to be called their God." That's who you are. You are the one I am not ashamed to display myself upon. That's who you are.
I do love the privilege of being together, and I especially cherish the opportunity to make sure that everyone in the room has an opportunity to know what it is to be forgiven of sin. To turn from the self-centered lifestyle that everyone lives before meeting Jesus—to turn from that one thing that condemns every one of us, and that is sin. There's only one possible solution. God made this statement. He said, "There is only one name under heaven by which a person must be saved."
It's foolish to think there are many ways to God—foolish! Absolute foolishness. If there are many ways to God, then it was cruel of God to make Jesus suffer and die the way He did. If there was any other way to get people to be at peace with God, then that was absolute cruelty. It was done because it was the only possible solution! There had to be the shedding of innocent blood for the forgiveness of sins, and Jesus volunteered to die in my place—your place.
With a crowd this size, there's always opportunity; there's always a chance that there are people here who have never said "yes" to Jesus. You've never said, "I want to follow Jesus. I want to turn from my life. I want to know what it is to be forgiven. I want to know what it is to be born again." If that's anybody in the room, just quickly, I want you right where you are sitting to put a hand up, and we're just going to make wonderful agreement with you that you would know what it is to be forgiven of sin, to be brought into the kingdom of God, to be adopted into God's family.
I'll wait about 15 seconds—that's about it—10 seconds maybe. But if there's anyone at all, please put your hand up. If you're in the overflow room, please do it there so the people there can see you. Is there a hand up? I didn't see it; I'm sorry. Is it right over here? Yes, it's right there—wonderful! God bless you, sir, in Jesus' name. God bless you. Anyone else, real quickly?
Alright, let's go ahead and stand. If you would hold your places, please. It will help us tremendously if you would give this opportunity for this to happen. What I want is for the ministry team to quickly come to the front. The gentleman who put your hand up, if you wouldn't mind doing us all a favor and yourself a favor, come down here. I want you to talk and pray with the people to my left—there's a banner over here; it's called a freedom banner—and it's just a place where some folks we know and love will help you.
Now the rest of you, as the ministry team is coming, just put your hands in front of you. I just want to pray over you concerning this mind of Christ. In fact, maybe I should have you lay hands on one another's head. No, don't do that; shake it too. Let's just pray together, and I want to pray for this mind of Christ thing, and then I'm going to turn it over to Chris and to Tom. If you would hold your places, please—it's very important that we give place to what the Holy Spirit is doing first and foremost.
So, Father, I ask for the glory of the name of Jesus that You would help us to adjust and shift with everything You do so that we see the beautiful opportunities to know You, to love You, and to make You known. We devote ourselves as stewards of testimony, the knowledge of Your ways, and Your presence. I ask for this grace to rest more powerfully on us this year. In Jesus' name, amen.