Bill Johnson - Effective Prayers, How to Move Mountains When You Pray
I don’t think it’s a leap in logic to see where Jesus connects forgiveness to effective prayer. Listen, when you stand to pray, the context is to move mountains—the obstacles to what you’ve been assigned to do on the earth. So when you stand to pray, when you take your posture to shape the course of history, first forgive. Make sure your hands are clean; there’s no pointing of the finger. First forgive. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Nice to see you. A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude, noxious, and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music, and anything else he could think of to clean up the bird’s vocabulary.
Finally, John was fed up and yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot, and the parrot got angrier and even more rude. In desperation, John threw the bird into the freezer for just a few minutes. The parrot squawked, kicked, and screamed. Suddenly, there was complete silence—not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he had hurt the parrot, he quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out onto John’s outstretched arm and said, «I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I am sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions, and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.» John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude. He was about to ask the parrot what made such a dramatic change in his behavior when the bird spoke up very softly, saying, «May I ask what the turkey did?»
I had a dream a few months ago of me going to England for a period of time, staying in a hotel room, and writing a book. Because I had picked up an assignment to write a specific book on loss and grief, that whole thing happened. Somewhere around the same period, Cindy Jacobs, whom I was with down at Hrock in Pasadena, came to me with a prophetic word saying that I was to write this book. She even saw the cover and the title, which was really helpful because I didn’t have a title. So when a prophet gives you a title, you just go, «Yes, ma’am, yes, ma’am.»
She gave me the title and described the cover. Then she said, «It’s destroying the sting of death.» I liked that title, so I went away for a bit and wrote and finished the book. That was amazing, so I’m pretty happy about that. Michael, my personal assistant, I was telling him about the progress I was making, and he said, «Man, next time you need to write a book, I’m sending you to England.» I think that’s the key right there: just getting this hotel I was at. The dining room’s wood paneling is from the 16th century. If we have anything 40 years old here, that’s old, and there goes hundreds of years. So anyway, it was a wonderful time. I missed you, of course, but I’m thankful to get that part of the assignment done. We’ll see how it comes in the months to come. I’ve got to clean it up a bit, but it’s done.
Mark chapter 11—if you would open your Bibles, please. We’re going to read some out of Mark 11, and then I’m going to read some out of Hebrews 12. If you’d like to have both those addresses marked, that would be helpful. I’ve been doing a bit more traveling of late besides the book travel—in different churches. In fact, I was just in Springfield at one of our favorite places ever. What God is doing there is quite remarkable. What I’ve noticed in the many connections I have with various pastors is just talking about some of the things happening in the local church that are so different and unusual compared to even just a few years ago. It’s crazy, but we found that there’s this spiritual fatigue that hits people at a level we’ve not seen before. So I’m going to talk a bit about that. But there are two things that I see as the greatest cripplers in the body of Christ. In fact, I shared this at the 30-year reunion for Catch the Fire at the Toronto airport. The two things that are the most crippling in the lives of believers are, one, the inability to deal with disappointment, and the other is resentment and unforgiveness. Those two are the most crippling things, I think. You might throw in substance abuse or immorality or all this other stuff—I think all those things are symptoms of these two heart issues that don’t get taken care of.
Anyway, I talk a fair amount here and in school about dealing with disappointment, navigating loss, and those sorts of things, but I haven’t talked a lot about the area of forgiveness. So today, I want to discuss this issue of forgiveness. I have a portion I’m going to read here in a moment out of Hebrews, but I actually had hoped—I don’t have the time or ability to do it today—I had hoped to be able to talk to you out of 2 Peter chapter 1 because I was really stunned by this particular statement that Peter makes in that first chapter. He lists these virtues that are supposed to be in our lives, and he makes this statement: if these things are lacking, it’s because you forgot what Jesus did for you. Wow! So now think about this: if virtues are lacking, it’s because of what you forgot. The implication is that if you remember certain things, virtue is much easier. If you keep in mind certain things—specifically the sufferings of Christ, the things that he did on our behalf—keeping those things in mind actually installs courage, confidence, clarity of thought, and the willingness to pay a price. All those things come from this awareness of what Jesus did.
I wonder if maybe one of the reasons the Lord has been emphasizing this communion revival—taking communion daily on a regular basis—is to help us review in our own thinking, in our own minds, and in our own hearts what Jesus actually did on our behalf—that he was brutally murdered with us in mind—and that endurance actually helps us to have the courage we need for the lifestyle he’s called us to. I’m just going to read this passage for you. Since I took it way out of turn, let me just read this to you. It says, «Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.» Okay, think with me now. «Consider him who endured such hostility, lest you become weary in your souls.» Some internal fatigue— we’re not talking about physical fatigue from work; we’re talking about the kind that drains us emotionally and mentally. Some fatigue is caused by wrong thinking. Yes, it’s like he’s saying, «All right, you’re thinking about this—stop it! Consider this; otherwise, you become fatigued.» Otherwise, your own internal makeup will become weaker than necessary.
Good, that’s amazing. Yeah, consider the sufferings of Christ, lest you become weary. Yes, the scripture says that it’s the Lamb of God who sits on the throne for eternity. I don’t think there is any ongoing reminder of our past sins in eternity. I don’t believe that at all. But what I do believe is that the Lamb on the throne reminds me constantly of my absolute dependence on him and that I am there entirely by grace. Certain things to keep in mind are not to beat us down; they are not to make us shameful or guilty. It’s not for that purpose. What it does is heighten the fact that we are in this entirely by grace and are 100% dependent upon that grace for the life he’s called us to live.
So let’s take Mark 11. Did I tell you what chapter? Yes? Two of you got it. Well, that’s awesome! This should be amazing. Mark 11, I’m going to start with verse 25: «Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you your trespasses.» Just read it again: «Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you your trespasses.» It’s a pretty sobering set of verses there.
What has come to mind in light of what I have felt to talk to you about today is that when the Lord would talk to his disciples about prayer—for example, Matthew 6 is where we have him teaching what we refer to as the Lord’s Prayer: «Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.» I don’t believe he taught that so we would simply memorize it and make that our prayer life. I do think it’s a model prayer outlining the kinds of things that are important to pray. But what he does at the end of that prayer in Matthew 6 is, the very next verse, as soon as he’s through with the «amen» of that prayer, he says, «When you stand praying, forgive those who have hurt you. If you don’t forgive them, you’re not forgiven.» In Luke 11, he teaches them a similar prayer, a similar model for prayer. I remind you that Jesus taught them this prayer because the disciples asked him to teach them how to pray. Of all the things they observed him do and participated in—the miracles, all the extraordinary things of ascending to heaven, his lifestyle of heavenly encounter, his walking on water—all the stuff, the only thing recorded that they asked him to teach was how to pray.
So he teaches them this model prayer, and at the end, he says, «You have to forgive. If you don’t forgive, you’re not forgiven.» So we’ve got several occasions here where he brings them into this privilege to pray. In John 14, 15, and 16, we have four times in three chapters where Jesus says, «Anything you ask for will be done.» We know that Jesus was not giving us permission to be selfish; he was inviting us into a co-laboring role with him to see his hand released through our prayers that shape the course of world history. We are invited into this partnership with the Lord. Prayer is divine partnership; it is the invitation to collaborate with God to see his purposes accomplished on the earth. Every one of us is designed to see breakthroughs and answers to prayer. We’re wired for this.
What’s interesting to me is that when he brings up this subject of prayer, he emphasizes walking in forgiveness in the middle of the prayer, and then at the end, he goes back and pulls that part out again and emphasizes it. It reminds me of when Jesus, in Matthew 6:33, says, «Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.» Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness! He wasn’t adding righteousness to seeking the kingdom; he was emphasizing righteousness because in Romans 14 it says the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. So the kingdom already is righteousness. When Jesus brings it up at the end of the statement, «Seek first the kingdom and his righteousness,» he’s drawing extra attention. This is extra important: don’t forget it.
He’s doing that in the subject of prayer: when you pray, don’t forget that when you forgive, you’re forgiven. You have to forgive! It’s not optional equipment on a car; it’s not, «It would be nice if you also did this.» It’s not an add-on; it’s the engine! It’s the heart and soul of what it means to be a forgiven person: that we forgive. «Yeah, but they haven’t apologized!» Jesus forgave everyone on the cross. Nobody had apologized. It’s not much of a forgiveness if someone has to earn it.
So here we have this amazing statement: «Whenever you stand praying…» How many of you would say that throughout the day, many times a day, even many times in the night, you wake up and pray? You just think of it, might be a phrase, a sentence: «Oh God, help us in this.» You pray it many times a day. He says, «Whenever you stand praying, forgive.» So what if the central part of our prayer life was ignited by the passion to forgive? Regardless! What if that was the driving point of all prayer? «Whenever you stand to pray, forgive.» I don’t understand how this works, but Jesus did say at one point to his disciples, «Whoever you forgive, I forgive.» Is it possible that the church embracing as a primary function the privilege to forgive people is actually what ignites some of the fires of revival, bringing transformation to neighborhoods, to family lines, to cities and nations? That’s at the heart and soul; it’s so critical that he says if you don’t do it, you’re not forgiven.
Come on! It’s not a suggestion; it’s not a lofty idea. He’s saying this is the heart and soul of your walk with the Lord. What’s fascinating about this passage in Mark is that it starts here: «Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him. That your Father in heaven may also forgive you.» This follows a brilliant series of scriptures on faith—faith that actually is world-shaking faith. If you go back to verse 22, Jesus answered and said to him, «Have faith in God.» Dr. Charles Price, we have his book called «The Real Faith» in the bookstore. Dr. Charles Price, from many years ago, wrote what I think is the classic on the subject of faith. In it, he emphasizes that this verse should really be translated: «Have the faith of God,» not just faith in God. He’s not looking for us to have a correct belief system; he’s looking for us to have the expression of God’s own heart flowing through us because of our surrender.
Real faith is not arrived at because of determination: «I’m just going to believe God!» That’s not faith. It may be belief; it may be getting our thoughts together, agreeing that these certain concepts and principles are true, but that’s not faith. Faith is the actual expression of God’s heart flowing in and through a surrendered person. Faith is either a fruit or a gift. A gift is given for a moment; fruit comes in small portions and is developed with use. But both of them come from the Lord himself; they are not the result of determination. I cannot will myself into greater faith. Great faith comes from great surrender. Yes! In fact, let me say this: there’s no such thing as real worship apart from surrender. If there is worship without surrender, then we weren’t worshiping him; we were worshiping worship.
It’s easy to worship the worship, to love the song, to love the band, to love the environment, to love the people we’re with, and never have one moment of absolute surrender to the one we’re supposed to be worshiping. It doesn’t mean we change what we’re doing; what it means is we change our approach. We realize that actually worship only flows through a heart of absolute surrender. In fact, I would say this: all progress in the kingdom comes through surrender. Yes! It’s a yes that precedes all breakthroughs.
So we have this «have the faith of God.» Verse 23: «I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea, ' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say, whatever things you ask in prayer, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.» The very next verse is, «And when you stand praying, forgive.»
So here, all I’m trying to do is say, listen, you and I have been invited into this relational journey with God where what we pray matters to the point where mountains of opposition to the purposes of God in the earth are removed because you said for them to move. That significant role of influence has been given to every disciple, every believer, but it is immediately connected to when you stand, forgive.
Hebrews 12, please. Pretty please. Verse 3: «Consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin, and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons: 'My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? If you are without chastening of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.'»
Verse 10 says: «Our human fathers chastened us for a few days as seemed best to them, but God chastens us for our profit that we may be partakers of holiness.» Alright, so let’s talk about this. I’ll try to think of a joke or something to say in a moment because I can tell you are getting way too tense. I don’t think it gets any better either; I’ve tried twice already and have not found a good place to land this, so I’ll just fly this plane into the side of a mountain and say good luck; hope you make it! That’s kind of the way this one works today. So I’ll do better next week, I promise. I promise.
He says if I’m without discipline, if I’m not chastened by the Lord, then I’m not really a son.
Okay, so here, let me try to paint this picture for you: he goes on to say, I need to read this phrase here—we’ll read it more thoroughly in a moment. He says, «Pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord.» That’s a significant phrase—pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now we’ve got holiness as a subject: I am in Christ; in Christ, the Father sees me as his own son—Jesus pure, clean, spotless, without blemish. That’s how the heavenly Father sees me. Do you understand that? I’m positionally pure before God.
But to a group of people who are positionally pure before God, he says, «Pursue holiness.» Why? The evidence that I am in Christ—pure and spotless—is that in behavior, I pursue holiness. Otherwise, there’s no purpose for him to say to a group of people that are already clean before God to command them to pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
In other words, there has to be evidence that I’m in Christ. What’s the evidence? I try to become in behavior what I am by positional status. There is the aggressive personal pursuit of having areas of my life that are not right get cleaned up, changed, and transformed. When he says, «You come before the Lord in this way: forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors,» he’s saying two things are important for you: every day of your life, number one is repentance, and number two is forgiveness.
One is repentance: «God, I don’t come to you as though you owe me anything; I come to you as a son, and I need your forgiveness.» And that kind of tenderness is not a shame-guilt thing because that doesn’t bring advancement anywhere. But in that surrender, that yieldedness of acknowledgment of the grace of God on my life, I say, «God, I come to you needing forgiveness,» and I’ve already purposed to forgive everyone who has offended me. Sometimes it’s the little things; sometimes we’re not bitter at a person, it may be an institution. «Oh, the government did this,» or «The IRS did this,» or whatever. That’s no more legal than if you hate your neighbor because it’s the poison in here that affects us.
So he says in verse 10, «He disciplines us for our profit that we may be partakers of his holiness.» Go down to verse 14: «Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.»
Looking carefully lest anyone falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. «Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.» You know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
Man, I’m sorry to be so hard-nosed this morning, but I need to point something out here. I remember talking to a guy some years ago—a person of pretty significant influence. He said, «Well, this is what I want to do, and when I’m through, I’ll just ask God to forgive me.» Wow! Well, that’s the spirit of stupid right there. I mean, it is! Because repentance is a gift. You can only repent if it’s given to you as a gift. It’s not something I control; it’s a gift.
My God, here it says Esau looked for the place of repentance; he couldn’t find it. That’s not to freak people out. You know, maybe he will; he probably will forgive you. It’d be great if he does forgive you—that’s awesome! But eventually, you’re going to find out you’re not in charge. We come by invitation.
Somebody find me a good joke here; help me out! Look back to verse 14 and 15; we’ll wrap it up with these two verses. «Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord; looking carefully lest anyone falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.» The root of bitterness springing up defiling many! This is a deep concern for me because I’ve watched this. One of the places I went to just recently was one individual—one individual became offended.
It’s crazy too because they had experienced such an extraordinary unbelievable medical miracle. They became offended, went to social media, and caused well over a thousand people to leave a particular ministry. Why? Here’s one of our problems: we tend to prove our loyalty to an individual by picking up their offenses. Yes! That’s not biblical loyalty.
Another thing that I have noticed is that many people feel powerless in a given situation and fight to regain their posture of power through criticism and complaining. They feel powerful if they can complain about a given situation. It’s an illegitimate authority; it’s an illegitimate power if it points the finger, if it accuses. When the Bible talks about coming to him with pure, clean hands and a pure heart, clean hands are hands that don’t have pointing fingers, not accusing.
This is a bigger issue than maybe any of us thought because it’s when you stand to pray; forgive! When you come to the Lord, make sure that what got you there is your forgiveness and your forgiveness of others. That’s what qualifies you to stand as a son. The very fact that you receive discipline, that you are being dealt with by the Lord, is evidence of your sonship.
If you don’t have that—the wheat and tares. Did I talk to you about wheat and tares? Wheat and tares. You know, in the Bible it talks about wheat and tares—they look the same while they’re growing! You can’t tell them apart, but when they mature, wheat, because of its fruitfulness, bows—it bends before the Lord, while the tares just stand upright. Jews call tares illegitimate wheat.
So this picture of wheat and tares gives us an illustration of sons and daughters who are dealt with, refined by the Lord, and those who aren’t. My God! Wow! In the time of fruitfulness, there’s a humility to one, and there’s not to the other.
I’ve watched for years that here’s one of the scary parts of having favor: if I become bitter, I can persuade you, in the measure I have favor with you, at least I have the possibility of persuading you to join in my bitterness. But we never call it bitterness; we call it discernment. «Oh, I’m just sensing something here! We need to pray about this.» And then I can plant seeds of suspicion in you that create a distance between you and the person I don’t want you to associate with.
We never call it for what it is because we know too much. It’s much easier for me to say, «Well, I’ve forgiven,» and still carry resentment. Yes! And call it something else. When you stand to pray, forgive! At the forefront of your relationship with God is the privilege of standing, cleanly forgiven; therefore, I will give to others what I did not deserve.
The scary thing about resentment, about bitterness, is that it is insidious; it’s infectious! It touches people all around us. I can have nice, happy words on the outside, but if I’m carrying that kind of thing inside, my internal world will have an influence. It doesn’t mean you have to yield to it; it just means you’ll be subjected to a pressure you wouldn’t have been able to avoid if I hadn’t entertained bitterness.
I shared a story with you several months ago; I’ll repeat it again. I think it was Gabe, my son-in-law, who sent me a video of this guy who had killed a whole bunch of people. It’s a YouTube video of this court case, and at the very end, the family members of the murdered children and young people were able to talk to this man and tell him what they thought of him. It’s sobering! It’s not the kind of thing I ever look for to watch; I’d rather watch something funny. You know, give me a joke! I need a joke right now!
But Gabe sent it to me, so I was watching this. Person after person looked at this man and said, «You will burn in hell! I hope you rot in hell!"—and just all the kinds of things. You know what I’m not condoning saying they were right; but I also understand you have a child that was murdered and destroyed because of this man! Oh, I can’t imagine what they faced.
Anyway, the video shows person after person telling him exactly what they thought—that they looked forward to him burning in hell. The story went on and on and on—person after person after person—until finally, a lady got up there, and she said, «My daughter that you killed was the love of my life, but I forgive you.»
This guy, this hardened guy who knows how many years it has been since there was a tear shed about anything, just began to weep. You have someone who said, «I forgive you,» and that pierced him. Here’s this hardened guy. You see how many years it’s been? But someone said, «I forgive you.» Jesus didn’t confess; he didn’t repent; he didn’t do any of the right things!
See, forgiveness is as much for us as it is for the people we forgive. It’s how we stay clean. If I don’t think it’s a leap in logic to see where Jesus connects forgiveness to effective prayer, I don’t think it’s a leap in logic to say our lifestyle of forgiveness is actually what positions us to have influence in heaven to see answers to prayer come that actually affect the course of history.
I don’t think it’s a leap in logic at all because God is the one who connects these things. Listen, when you stand to pray—and the context is to move mountains, the context is moving mountains, the obstacles to what you’ve been assigned to do on the earth—the context is you will speak to a mountain, and it will be removed.
So when you stand to pray, when you take your posture to shape the course of history, first forgive. First forgive! Yes! Make sure your hands are clean; there’s no pointing of the finger. First forgive. It’s not a weekly tune-up; it happens throughout the day because we live life! We’ve got this going on and that going on; things that are so offensive, so challenging; people that do this, so many dumb things! And that’s just the church!
That just came to me—I felt inspired! I have found that establishing forgiveness in my heart for a person requires me to put forgiveness into action, if and wherever it is possible. Why do you think he said, «Pursue peace with all people,» and in that context brings in the subject of bitterness?
I remind you, I don’t even need the fruit of the Spirit if I don’t have you guys in my life! I enjoy saying that all the time. I enjoy saying, «Just see me.» My love language is teasing! But think about it— in fact, I can think I am patient if I’m not connected with anyone that will challenge me!
So I can live under the illusion of maturity that is absolutely immature! Wow! Because I’m not close enough to anyone that’s going to rub me the wrong way. So here’s what I pray. I don’t know what you feel; I just know what’s going on in me. I’ve had to listen to this message three times, and by the fourth one I’m going to get saved; I promise. By the fourth one, I am—I’ve got this sense that the Lord’s about to take us into realms of breakthrough that we never knew were possible, both personal and corporate, because we’ve armed ourselves with the humility that says, «I forgive first! I forgive!»
Yes! It’s not because the person has done all the right things— not because they admitted it, not because they cleaned up their mess. It’s because that’s what I owe them! Yes! I keep in mind the sufferings of Christ on my behalf. How could I not forgive? Jesus, if anyone was guilty, I was guilty, and he forgave!
So, Father, I pray for that for us as a church family. I thank you for the privilege of doing life together. I thank you so much for the honor of doing life together. Use us as instruments of forgiveness, God— instruments of forgiveness that cause the awareness of families, of cities—the awareness of entire cities—to increase dramatically because we’ve forgiven.
I want you to say this with me: Father, I embrace the privilege to forgive as a primary responsibility. I say yes! Thank you, Father!
Real quick, if there’s anyone here that does not have a personal relationship with Jesus, he is the forgiver. He is the one who wipes the slate clean and gives us a true fresh start. If there’s anyone in the room that would say, «Bill, that’s me,» and I don’t want to leave the building until I know I found peace with God, if that’s you, just put a hand up right where you are—we just want to make agreement with you. Yes? Anybody? Put a hand up real quick.
Okay, alright. I want to have everybody stand if you would, and hold on just a moment. We’re going to have somebody come up here and tell you what you want!