Bill Johnson - Discover the Purpose of Power and Authority
Power is not just for miracles; I believe that. As you know, it is about overcoming cancer, addictions, or whatever it might be. We believe in that and pursue it. However, one of the primary functions of power in the Book of Acts is the ability to endure. It was this baptism of fire that made it so they had no other option. They don’t view life as having multiple options; they see it as having only one option: to do whatever He says. It’s the baptism of fire that reduces the options. Thank you; thank you; wow. Coordinates, that’s another level of prophetic right there. That’s awesome!
I was at the McDonald’s drive-thru this morning. A young lady behind me leaned on her horn and started mouthing some rude 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’d done because as we moved up, she leaned out her window, waved at me, and began mouthing, «Thank you, thank you!» She was probably feeling embarrassed that I 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 end of the line and start all over again. I know I shouldn’t enjoy that, but I really do. I think that’s so funny.
One more story: this is about a married woman who decided to go on her own private vacation to Europe. She went from the Midwest to London and then planned to go to Paris, Rome, and Vienna. When she got to London, she called her husband back home in the Midwest and asked, «How are you doing?» Her husband replied, «I’m doing fine, but our cat Lucy died.» His wife started bawling her eyes out on the phone. When she regained her composure, she said, «You insensitive brute of a man! Why did I ever marry someone like you? You have no concern for my feelings!» The husband replied, «Well, what was I supposed to have said?» The wife thought for a moment and said, «Well, when I got to London and I called you just as I did, you could have said, 'Lucy, our cat is on the roof.' When I got to Paris, you could have said, 'Lucy fell off the roof.' When I got to Rome, you could have said, 'Lucy’s not doing well.' When I got to Vienna, you could have said, 'Lucy died.'» Then the wife inquired, «By the way, how’s Mom?» The husband said, «She’s on the roof.» I probably shouldn’t like that one either, but I do. I think that’s so funny.
We’re going to receive an offering at the end. As mentioned, open your Bibles to Matthew 28. We will actually look at some of the material we discussed last week, but I’m going to expand it a bit more today. We’ll start with Matthew 28 and Acts chapter 1. Actually, we’ve got several passages, but we’ll begin with Matthew 28 and Acts chapter 1. Let me clear up some points on this first before we proceed. I have more chances to get this right when I do it at the beginning, rather than at the end of the service.
This is our missions card; it’s for you. Sometimes we use pledge cards where you make a commitment to missions and then put it in the offering bag, but this one is actually for you to keep track of your mission support. What I really want to see happen is for every single member of Bethel to support missions. I don’t care if it’s just a dollar a month; I want it on your radar. If I can get missions on your radar, it will affect our decisions daily. This approach starts moving into shaping priorities, thoughts, ambitions, dreams, and those kinds of things.
We have two parts of our mission fund: one is the general fund—already mentioned—which enables us to support new missionaries or address emergency needs or unusual opportunities that arise. Our team can make decisions to invest around the world. Secondly, we have the individual missionaries that are on the list. I still have the card we put out a few years ago with all the missionaries listed, and I use this every month. If I feel led to invest in Tracy Evans, Ronin, or Heidi Baker, I can denote the mission number and the amount, ensuring that the funding goes directly to them. None of the money goes to administrative costs; it’s always 100% directed toward missions. We cover all the administrative costs ourselves, so that’s available for you.
There’s also a section where you can pray for a missionary and an unreached people group, which you can keep at home to remind you. You can also put a pledge amount that you’d be willing to give every month. Additionally, on the bottom, it says «consider going,» and I do encourage you to do that. When we were in Weaverville, a city of 3,500 people, and the county is 18,000. The political upheaval came early on when someone suggested we have a traffic light. Oh, my; you would have thought we were being invaded by communists! The second greatest turmoil occurred when McDonald’s wanted to open a restaurant there. It’s a small town, and I used to tease them, saying, «This is where elephants go to die.» But then I would talk to them about our international responsibility. If you think it’s a big church in a big city that has international responsibility, then you’re thinking like Wall Street, not like the Kingdom. In the Kingdom, one person in God is a majority.
I talked to Weaverville about our international responsibility. We had weekly prayer meetings for 17 years, and we always prayed for nations. It took a number of years for people to catch this, but we just didn’t stop. I think that in the last year I was there, we had a couple of hundred people in the church, and we sent about 150 of them out on missions. It’s a significant part of life. The way I figured it, I said, «Not even the devil knows where Weaverville is; we get to ambush him.» That was my philosophy, so nobody cared, and we just got to experiment and go for it.
All right, don’t quote me on that. Please don’t. Open your Bibles to Matthew 28, and we’ll read some scriptures here. Verse 17: when they saw Him, this is after His resurrection, they worshiped Him, but some doubted. It’s an average church service right there. Verse 18: Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, «All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.» All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Please work to recognize when heaven and earth are mentioned in the same phrase, because there was always intended to be a likeness, a similarity, and an influence. They are not in opposition; they are not supposed to be in opposition to each other. One is meant to influence the other, and that’s how it has always been designed.
All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded you. I remind you, Matthew chapter 10, Jesus commanded them to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils, etc. It was never meant to decline; the miracle ministry was never intended to take a break. It was always meant to be the heart and soul of the Gospel, and it’s the responsibility of everyone who follows Jesus to learn it and impart it.
The way we do things in the Kingdom is that we teach, we model, and we empower. If it comes to healing, the prophetic, or discipleship, anything that we do, you teach it; it must be declared first. Number two, you must model it; you provide the illustration. Number three, you give people the opportunity to do it. So, we teach, we model, and we empower. Acts chapter 1 brings us to the second passage that I want to read to kick off this morning’s message.
Acts chapter 1, starting with verse 4. Being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said you have heard from Me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, «Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?» He said to them, «It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth.»
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The issue of power and authority—these are not optional equipment; power and authority are the engine of the car. You don’t have a car without it. The essence of the Gospel is literally carried out, illustrated, demonstrated, and imparted to people because there’s authority and there’s power. What you notice in the Matthew passage is that authority is for the purpose of discipling nations, while power is for the purpose of transforming nations, and there is a difference. Discipleship has a direction.
Chris Valentin just got back from the Washington Presidential Prayer Breakfast. One of the speakers this year, I think the main speaker for the breakfast, was the President of Rwanda. Rwanda is undergoing one of the most extraordinary reformations in history. From when he inherited this position some years ago until the horrors of innocent slaughter during the tribal wars—about a million people in just a few months—it has transformed into a nation where reconciliation has started. They have learned how to walk in forgiveness and are now building infrastructure that helps everyone win, everyone succeed. This involves education, medicine, business, church life, and wisdom to build structures that facilitate the work of God in families and communities. This is the privilege of nation-building, and that’s what this man in Rwanda is doing. I forgot his name, but he is having a profound effect on his country and surrounding nations.
What is authority for? Authority is for that, for the purpose of discipling nations. Now, only a nation can disciple a nation. I can disciple an individual, but it’s our understanding of being a holy nation that positions us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to be effective in the discipling process. It’s in that posture of understanding that we are actually a nation learning how to discover how God functions as He directs and empowers nations to become something. In that context, we have the capacity for discipling. Yes, 1 Peter 2:9 says, «You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.»
There’s not much talk about our identity as a nation, but that is who we are. Learning to think of ourselves as a people here as a nation of servants brings out the best in all surrounding nations. It’s not competitive; it’s not, «Come serve us.» It’s the opposite. We are empowered with insight, grace, and the Spirit of God to support and release nations into their capacity and potential. Discipleship is about conforming, becoming like Him. Luke says that a student, when fully trained, will be like his teacher. The purpose of discipling is to raise up individuals and, in this context, nations that are like Jesus.
It’s not about preparing people to go to heaven—that’s the endgame, obviously—but there’s supposed to be a way of life modeled in how we do family, business, politics, education, and medicine. All these areas should come under the influence of people who function in authority, not for personal gain, but for the benefit of all, using Divine wisdom to build something. Authority is unto that end; it is not optional equipment for us, nor is power.
Jesus came, having been commissioned from the Father. 1 John 3:8 states, «The Son of Man was sent to destroy the works of the evil one.» Jesus came on assignment to destroy the works of evil. He was commissioned but didn’t come with power. As God, He has all power, and He never stopped being God. However, He chose to live in a restricted way as the Son of Man, dependent on the Father to show Him what to do, and the Spirit of God who rested upon Him enabled Him to accomplish His mission. He did this to model a replicable example for us.
Jesus came with authority; why? Because He said yes to the mission the Father gave Him: to destroy the works of evil. He came with authority, but He needed an encounter because authority comes in the commission, while power comes in the encounter. Jesus was commissioned with authority, but He went to be baptized by John. In that moment, the Spirit of God came upon Him. After that, we see Him walking in power.
The point is that power transforms while discipleship builds. There are many people who undergo personal transformation but don’t know how to do life. Does that make sense? Yes, it does to me.
Let me think this through for a moment. We have seen countless instances where an encounter with the Almighty God leads to incredible transformation—the breaking of all prior addictions. But once all the bad stuff is gone, we still have to build something. Discipleship is for that purpose. Wisdom gives us access to the tools needed to build something lasting. Power starts a revival; wisdom sustains it, and authority grants us access to the realm of wisdom that God has made available for us in discipleship.
All authority has been given to me; disciple nations. Yes, in authority we do, but in power we become. It was recently stated that in authority we function and have specific assignments and expressions due to the mantle of authority we carry, but in power, we become. The power of God shapes a person’s life, values, thoughts, ambitions, etc. These factors are shaped within a person by a power encounter. They are distinct yet overlapping.
I feel like I missed this in the first two services, but I believe the Lord is extending an invitation for a fresh baptism of fire—an individual, family, and corporate baptism. Something significant has been in the air, and I sense a fresh equipping and empowering to release people into different levels of gospel expressions.
I have friends who have been beaten, imprisoned, and shot at, and they have endured so many horrible things in their commitment to preaching the gospel. Every one of them attributes their endurance to that specific encounter they had with the Lord. They reference that overwhelming power encounter, claiming they never would have been able to make it without it.
You see, power is not just for miracles. I believe in the destruction of cancer, addictions, or whatever it might be. We pursue that. But one of the primary functions of power in the Book of Acts is the ability to endure. It is this baptism of fire that makes it so they have no other option. Instead of viewing life as having multiple options, they understand they have only one option: to do whatever He says. It is the baptism of fire that reduces the options.
As you look through the Book of Acts, turn to chapter nine. You see a cycle in the first eight chapters. When you arrive at chapter 10, it’s about ten years after the day of Pentecost, not just two weeks afterward. In this cycle, you witness an outpouring of the Spirit, an increase in souls added to the church, and then persecution. There’s the outpouring of the Spirit, followed by more souls added, and again persecution; it repeats.
However, something significant happened when Stephen was killed. He was a man described as being full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. I admire him greatly because he wasn’t one of the apostles, yet he rose under their influence to a prominent position through his tenderheartedness. As he faced death, he looked up into heaven, sees the heavens open, and observes Jesus, who is normally seated at the right hand of the Father, now standing to welcome the first martyr of the church.
Stephen then prays, asking God to not lay this to their account—in other words, to forgive them. This mirrors Jesus' prayer to forgive those who crucified Him. Stephen targeted the people that were killing him as potential recipients of God’s future visitation. Fast forward: two chapters later, Saul, who was seeking more Christians to kill, has an encounter with Jesus on the road. God, in His kindness, knocks him off his donkey.
The Holy Spirit, the gentleman you’ve heard about, intervenes, and Saul experiences this powerful encounter with God—he is blind for several days. In an unexpected turn, the biggest enemy of the church becomes born again. The man who previously led the charge against Christians now becomes the major influence in the New Testament, spreading the gospel to the nations of the world. This mission’s movement was birthed out of that moment of prayer: «God, forgive them; they don’t know what they are doing.»
Both authority and power were focused on nations. All authority has been given to me; go disciple nations. You will be clothed with power and will take it to the uttermost parts of the earth. Both realms equip us to impact history, influencing nations. So here’s this cycle of the outpouring of the Spirit, addition of souls, and persecution. The addition continues until Saul gets saved, which leads us to Acts 9:31—one of the coolest verses in the entire Book of Acts. It states that the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. They were multiplied.
Up until now, we have been seeing addition. This exponential increase reflects how power enabled endurance. This endurance has fostered exponential growth. There have been faithful men and women, and now we see multiplication. It’s about the harvest of souls. One of the most important lessons for followers of Jesus is when I value what He values, He begins valuing what I value.
What does it mean to «seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you»? It means you take on what He values, allowing His values to shape you. When that takes place, He’s ready to listen to your values. Why doesn’t He do that first? Because then He’s building a self-centered person instead of a Kingdom-oriented person, one who can be trusted with His blessings.
When blessing becomes the reward rather than the pursuit, it solidifies our devotion to Christ. I didn’t express that as well as I could have. When the blessing of the Lord is added to a life as a reward, it reinforces our devotion to Christ. When the blessing becomes the pursuit, it generates division in our hearts.
One of the most exciting discoveries for me in the past ten years has been the meaning of the word «proverb.» After many years of seeking divine wisdom, it brought together a missing piece for me. Brian Simmons of the Passion Translation shared that the word «proverb» stems from a word meaning to reign or rule, implying that the essence of wisdom enables a person to reign over life.
It’s about ruling over life—not over people—so that money doesn’t control me; I control money. You can determine if you’re controlled by money based on how you think about it. For instance, when conversations revolve around affordability, it indicates that money dictates your decisions. Conversely, wisdom equips us to reign over life.
I’m fascinated by this invitation from the Lord to disciple nations. He didn’t say to disciple your neighbor, which would have been good enough. He set the standard at nations because that’s how He thinks and shapes our decisions today, impacting the future of nations. It will be exciting, fun, and terrifying when we stand before the Lord and see the effects of every dollar given, every act of kindness, every moment spent visiting a friend when it was inconvenient. We will witness the ripple effects into eternity from these various actions.
Nothing else will matter in that moment except what we did with what we were given. It’s not about guilt; it’s about living with an eternal perspective. If nations have not yet been part of your thinking, I encourage you to adopt one. Perhaps pick Japan. Whenever you see it in the news, read an article. Do something that makes it stand out to you or pick one of the 12 tribes to pray for. Just once a week, engage with it. The important thing is to stay connected not just to the invitation from the Lord for your life but also to your identity as part of a family given an assignment.
That reminds me of those coordinates—a little girl, three to five years old, discerned something extraordinary. It led me to want to go and find that Shepherd. Where is He hiding? My goodness, that’s bizarre! But that’s the Lord! It reaffirmed everything for our family in these past two weeks. Amen. Let me show you. I’ll speak through a child. Wow, thank you, Lord. I think I’m done, but I’m pretty sure Chris should come up and do what only he can do. You already know your part.