Bill Johnson - God's Promise, He Is Working All Things Together for Your Good
Sometimes we pray for a situation; intercession requires standing in the shoes of another and praying on their behalf, as though it were our own issue. When you pray for your neighbor, it’s not simply praying at them; we pray as though their struggles are ours. This is incredible! Jesus and the Holy Spirit both put on our shoes and pray for us as though our issues were theirs.
A man, his wife, and his mother-in-law went on vacation to the Holy Land. While they were there, the mother-in-law passed away. The undertaker told them, «You can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for $150.» The man thought about it and told him he’d just have her shipped home. The undertaker asked, «Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your mother-in-law home when it would be wonderful to have her buried here and spend only $150?» The man replied, «A man died here 2,000 years ago, was buried here, and three days later rose from the dead. I just can’t take that chance!»
I want us to pray. We just prayed for impossible financial situations, and I’d like for us to pray for another one before we get into the Word. Anyone who is facing what seems to be an impossible medical situation, I’d like for you to stand if you would. You already did that? That’s good; you can do it again. No, you covered it all right. I wasn’t here; I was at the other campus. We actually get translated; it’s a car that drives us slowly and safely.
All right, let me try one more—see if you covered this one. Yeah, you’ve already covered everything I wanted to do. Did you cover my message too? Should we just go home now? Yeah, you opened with it. That’s awesome! All right, good night! No, no, no. If you covered it, that’s good; would you say amen to it?
The last thing I wanted to pray for, corporately, if it hasn’t already been taken care of today, is for those who are facing any kind of family or relational impossibility. It seems impossible, but I want you to stand. We’re going to pray for you. For those who are watching by Bethel TV, we bless you and ask you to join your faith with us as well for your breakthroughs and for the breakthroughs represented in this room.
You guys know what to do. You have people standing around you who need you to join your faith with theirs and pray for that relational miracle. For some, it’s family members who have turned from the Lord; they need to be restored. For others, they’ve never come to faith. For others, it’s just confusion, a dividing wall that’s come against people. Whatever the case might be, just pray for these folks. Pray for them out loud right now. Pray for that spirit of breakthrough to come upon them, that God would restore families, family members, and relational issues—that there would be healing there in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord.
We pray the same for those who are watching at home, over Bethel TV. We pray that the spirit of reconciliation would come upon your household, that there’d be great healing and restoration. The God who restores everything would restore every single household represented here. We declare that the God of all peace will establish peace over families. We pray in Jesus' name.
All right, you guys did well. Bless them, hug them, give them a high five or something beautiful! Open your Bibles to Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8. Before we open this, I want to give you a brief word and report: Eric and Candace are in Austin, and they send their love. Eric texted me this morning to make sure I gave you his love. They helped to open Bethel Austin in Texas, and I guess it went so well that they had a thousand seats spoken for a long time ago. That’s a good way for a church to start with a thousand people; it’s pretty amazing!
That is up and running, and I guess they did really well. I had great reports. Lauren Valon is there to help with the grand opening, and she sent me a text saying Eric and Candace did so amazing. Candace just dropped a Holy Ghost bomb on the place and stepped into her element; it was just so beautiful! Just to let you know, the family outside of here is doing well, and it’s very encouraging to hear the constant reports.
For those of you who may not know, we’ve never taken it on as a primary goal to create other Bethels around the world; our joy is actually serving the existing church. But occasionally it becomes very obvious that we are to plant one, and so we do that. But it’s the exception, not the rule. But we also take great pleasure in Bethel Atlanta, Austin, Ohio, Cleveland, and wherever else they are. They are there; bless them, Jesus.
All right, and then we have another spiritual son. I was just in Portland this week. I head to Indonesia tomorrow, but Portland this week with Chris Overstreet was just amazing. They got this auditorium that seats 9,500 people, and they had 7,000 seats sold, leaving 2,500 for people to come in from the community to receive Christ.
I spoke Friday morning; I got there Thursday afternoon with TV interviews and stuff of that nature. That night, Todd White spoke, and Jake Hamilton led worship. It was Nitro and glycerin; it was so fun! At the end of the evening, Todd gave an altar call, and they literally ran to the front. He wouldn’t let them walk; he told them to run. They ran down to meet Jesus, and oh goodness gracious! So, I’m still buzzing a little bit from that. If I talk about it, it kind of gets reactive. It was very, very powerful and very fun! Being in a room with our spiritual sons and daughters, most of whom are half my age or less, in a prayer room before the meeting starts, watching these guys step up to the plate and deliver was just amazing.
The people that Chris brought in for this event were incredible—Marilyn Hickey was there, Lisa Bevere was there, Todd White was there, and so many wonderful people were speaking. It was just great to see Chris pull that off. He has had this heart; if you’ve been around Chris Overstreet, he may have a greater heart for people to know Jesus than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s convicting to be with him; you feel like you’re not doing anything if you haven’t led anyone to Jesus that day. He doesn’t make you feel that way; he just bubbles over with his passion for souls.
He’s talked to us for years about needing to do crusades and stadium events and wanting to get a tent and take it around the country. He’s constantly talking to us about it, and so we finally just said, «Go.» And he’s doing it! It’s just mind-boggling. I wish there was some way to capture this on film to let you see it because everyone in this room is part of this family in some way; you have an investment in what’s happening up in Portland. I was floored by the hunger in the room! I did not expect that level of hunger and passion; it was overwhelming and wonderful.
It is Jesus' time for the Pacific Northwest! I love Portland and up through Seattle; I love that part of the country, and I’ve been there many times to minister and always enjoyed it. But this time, it was like Holy Ghost steroids were in use; it had a little extra «umph.»
All right, Romans 8—are you there? Yes? All right, if you’re not there, get there because you’re going to want to be there. Romans chapter 8 could probably be a book of the Bible by itself. Maybe you could say that for every chapter, but some chapters are very dependent on what precedes it and what follows. Romans 8 is just a complete package.
Romans 4 shows Paul unveiling Abraham as the father of faith and how his faith and hope set a standard for every believer that follows. He actually set the stage; he set the high-water mark that everybody inherits in Christ. This beautiful chapter 5 is an incredible chapter on our justification: that by faith in Christ, we actually appear before God as though we had never sinned. It’s the most astonishing thing.
Chapter 6 is where we find that we are actually buried with Christ. The cool thing, if you can picture what baptism is, says if you’re buried with Christ, then you’re also raised with Christ. Here’s this whole legal basis for not even considering yourself a sinner! He actually says it, in verse 11 or 13—I forget which, but he says don’t even consider it. You have to consider yourself dead to sin; you have to think of yourself in this way: «I am dead to that.» It’s not mind over matter; it’s the reality of the Cross. It’s the reality of the crucifixion of Christ, in which we were included. When we put our faith in Christ, we were actually included in that act and experienced death to an old nature, the nature of sin.
Chapter 7 is a mysterious chapter that has confused many people through the years because in chapter 7, Paul says, «The things I try to do, I don’t do, and the things I don’t try to do, I do wrong,» and he describes his life before Christ. Many people have used that chapter as a definition of the Christian life, and it’s just not consistent with everything else Paul wrote. So, we have chapter 6—you’re dead in Christ; you’re raised in Christ. Chapter 7 describes before we knew Jesus—if we tried to do the right thing, it just didn’t always work out right.
And then we come to chapter 8. Chapter 8, to me, is the crown jewel of these five chapters. It’s the crown jewel because the highlight, the emphasis, in this chapter is our relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the central person and theme in this chapter. It’s not Abraham; it’s not the crucifixion—it’s the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
This is important for this reason: everyone in this room who is born again is born again because He spoke, you listened, and responded. None of us found God; He found us! It’s like running from God through a forest; you trip over a rock, look up, and He’s looking at you, and you say, «I’m so glad I found you!» That’s how all of us got saved. We ended up seeing that there was only one reasonable option—to give ourselves to Him.
All of us are alive because we heard Him speak and we responded. The Holy Spirit is the central person in our life. Every triumph, every victory, every enablement, every bit of grace—everything we experience in this life in following Jesus is active because the Holy Spirit is in our life. The Holy Spirit is God on Earth. Everything about our life either succeeds or fails because of our relationship with Him.
I’m not referring to an emotion, although emotions are included. I’m not talking about feelings, although feelings are included. It is a relationship with a person. This Christian life is a relational journey, and it is a relationship with God on Earth, who is the Holy Spirit, who perfectly represents Jesus and fully manifests the will of the Father.
When we start in this chapter, what we’re going to do today is read a bunch of verses. I’ll just stop and talk about a verse or two and a concept. What I’m looking for is one basic target. I’ve been fighting for the last three services for an adequate illustration, and I’ve not yet come up with one—maybe I will by next week when I won’t need it, but right now, have you ever gone through life and someone says, «Oh, what a beautiful song!» You didn’t even know a song was playing, but as soon as they mention that song, you can hear it. I mean, it wasn’t made up in your mind; you could actually hear it, but you weren’t aware of it. You became aware of it because someone mentioned it.
Maybe you were just going through life not thinking of anything, and someone says, «Do you smell that?» Then you weren’t smelling it before, but as soon as they mentioned it, you go, «Yeah, meat,» or other things, but meat primarily. Yeah, barbecue—thank you, Jesus! As soon as someone mentioned it, yes, I do smell that. Your awareness was heightened.
What I’m looking for is for us to have a heightened awareness of the presence of God. I’ve had certain things happen to me through the years where I became unusually aware of Him, and it’s terrifying and wonderful at the same time. I don’t want to live any other way. Elevated awareness—it’s not imaginary; it’s not that—oh, it’s like Jacob said when he woke up from that dream, «God is here, and I didn’t know it!» That sudden heightened awareness of a reality that existed before he was aware.
The Holy Spirit lives in you; He’s also called the paraclete, the one called alongside to help. The point is, I would like today to help foster a heightened awareness of God on Earth. That I have actually received as a down payment of an inheritance—I don’t understand it. If there was ever a mind-boggling thought, it is the fact that God gave us Himself as our inheritance, and the initial payment is the Holy Spirit Himself, the down payment. He’s called the down payment in Ephesians.
Lara Randolph made a comment years ago: «If God is as big as He says He is, He shouldn’t be that hard to find with someone that large in my life.» It should not be that hard to discern. If He is, I must have my heart and mind anchored in things that are inferior, which have deadened what He has created in me as a capacity to recognize Him.
Amen! Good point. Hebrews, Ephesians—let’s just go through the books of the Bible. Romans. Romans chapter 8. I meant it the first time—Romans 8. We’re just going to bounce around the chapter, so we’re not going to read the whole thing. I actually thought, this morning, as I was reading over this, «Oh my goodness, we easily could spend three or four weeks in this chapter because it is so pregnant.» But we’ll just skim over maybe 7 or 8 verses or something of that nature.
All right, verse one of chapter 8: «There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.» Verse 14: «As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.» Now go back to verse one. «There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ.» Those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit—those who are in Christ walk according to the Spirit. That is the testimony of Scripture.
The evidence of my conversion is that I don’t live according to carnal values—fleshly expressions and values—but instead, by the Holy Spirit Himself. My life in Christ is illustrated by a partnership with God on Earth, the Holy Spirit. It’s illustrated; it is measurable. He goes on to say that those who are led by the Spirit—these are the sons of God.
The reason I want to hit on this for just a moment is there are certain subjects in the gospel that sometimes feel to me like they are elevated so high that they become unreachable, and being led by the Spirit is one of those. It is not! It is your nature. Come on!
To be led by the Spirit—have you ever thought of someone you wanted to call or maybe swing by and visit? It wasn’t a thundering voice from God; you just thought, «Oh, I should call them,» and you call them, and you find out it was a miracle moment that God actually directed you. Jesus made a statement: «My sheep know my voice.» What does He mean by that? There’s a familiarity to the voice of God in the life of a believer, so much so that there are times when I would have thought it was simply my desire, and I find out afterward it was actually the voice of God.
There’s such similarity; living immersed in Christ puts us in a place where we constantly hear that familiar voice. I don’t mean overly familiar in a wrong sense, but that familiar voice—it’s not the thundering voice from the outside; it’s that cry from the inside.
The beautiful part about this is the more we learn to yield ourselves to this work of the Holy Spirit, the more walking in the Spirit is normal and natural. It’s the normal reaction to a given situation. One of the conversations I’ve had with people of late has been, «How do you know what to do in a given situation?»
Because sometimes, there’s a biblical principle that you—let’s just say—there’s a need. Sometimes, there’s a biblical principle of generosity, and sometimes there’s a biblical principle of helping them earn what they have. There’s a biblical basis for both. How do you know what to do? The only way you can know is to recognize the mood of the Holy Spirit.
It’s His voice; it’s His mood; it’s His heart. How is compassion leading you? How is He directing you to express life? It’s this relational journey where it is our nature to illustrate faith. It is our nature to illustrate this life with Christ. Faith is another one of those exalted subjects where people just don’t think they can live by faith when it’s actually your nature to do so. It’s our nature in Christ.
So we move on to verse 26. «Likewise, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.»
He considers it a weakness for us not to know what to pray for. Verse 27: «He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.»
Now, I don’t know how you look at this; this is how I look at it. I’d pray for a million dollars, and then I pray in tongues, and the Holy Spirit says, «Don’t give him a million dollars.» Don’t listen to that last request because we’re trying to make him like Jesus, and that would only mess things up. He always prays exactly according to the heart and will of God. He knows exactly the tools, the elements, the issues that will take us to where we’re all headed.
We’ve all been predestined, according to Scripture, to be conformed into the image of Jesus. So everything that He does in us, He works in us to that end, that the end result is we would adequately represent Jesus well.
Now look at verse 28: «We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.» Look at it again: «We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.»
I’m not a cook; my job is to buy cookbooks because I married a cook. That’s my job—to inspire her, and thankfully, she’s easily inspired. I did a fast some years ago—maybe you’ve heard me confess my sins. I did a long fast, and during that fast, I bought 29 cookbooks. I even bought a deep fryer, and we don’t eat fried foods, but I was dreaming of sweet potato fries. That’s the will of God for my life!
So I bought a deep fryer. I love Amazon.com—one-click shopping—you buy a book on there, and with just one click, boom, it’s mine; it’s in the mail. Then it says, «Those who bought that cookbook also bought these,» and I look and think, «I see why!» Click, that one’s mine too!
Let’s just say we were going to make some cookies today. You need some sort of flour; you need butter or something else that’s not a cookie; you need some sort of sugar. I like coconut sugar; it’s healthier, and I like the flavor. So we’ve got butter, flour, sugar. I like oatmeal chocolate chips—not raisins. No raisins; they can’t make it as a grape. We don’t want you in our cookie.
I personally like them in their pre-spoiled form—a grape. Anyway, then maybe you add some vanilla extract. You ever taste vanilla extract? Nasty! But somehow, that nasty thing enhances this entire recipe. Most everyone in this room has some nasty ingredient in your life that, when worked into the entire recipe that testifies of God’s grace, suddenly that which you didn’t like takes on meaning.
It illustrates the redemptive work of Christ and models grace. A lot of the things we would remove, while he didn’t cause them, He decided, «I’m going to demonstrate that all things work together for good; I’m going to use every part of the recipe, and the end result will be you’ll be like Jesus.» That’s His ambition; that’s His vision for us.
Verse 31: «If God is for us, who can be against us?» I love that verse so much. I don’t know why; I guess it’s because people can be against you. Demons can be against you; the devil can be against you. He’s not saying nobody can be against you because God is for you. He’s just saying, «If God is for you, no one else gets to vote!»
No one else gets a say in the outcome! They can have their opinion, but the council is comprised of God. If God is for you, nobody can be against you!
Now here’s a verse that would probably do us well to prayerfully meditate on for about 20 years. Verse 32: «He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?»
Look at it again: «He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?» Stunning verse, stunning verse! Biblical meditation seems to be almost a lost art, at least in many circles. Eastern meditation opens you up to a spirit world realm, where you can easily come under the influence of an evil spirit. Biblical meditation fills the mind; it’s completely different.
Eastern meditation opens you to a spirit world realm, while biblical meditation is joining your mind with the mind of Christ and considering it. Probably the best illustration of biblical meditation is a cow chewing its cud. It brings it up to chew over and over again.
That’s what meditation is; you take a thought, a verse, and you review it. You pray over it; you think about it. You maybe quote it. You write it on paper, put it on the dashboard of your car. It’s just something you review over and over again because you can tell there is something here for me, and I don’t want to glance over it quickly.
I want to make sure that the full impact of this verse hits me. This is one of them: «How can this Father who freely gave us His Son to suffer in ways that are unimaginable, how would He do something so extreme and not also include everything else that is short of that extreme?»
If He did this, do you think your car payment doesn’t matter to Him? Do you think it’s possible for a Father who is that good to go to this extreme and not care about what you care about? We make Him this religious feature that cares about spiritual things and nothing else, and it’s just not consistent with the testimony of Scripture. It’s not consistent with the lifestyle the model that Jesus Himself gave for us.
Here’s this statement that could stand by itself for eternity: «How shall He who gave us His Son, not also freely give us all things?» This chapter is to endear us to the Spirit of God, who models and illustrates this kind of Father, who models and illustrates this kind of compassion, this kind of deep, deep concern.
Jump down to verse 34: «Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.» Here’s the interesting thing: verses 26 and 27 say the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us; verse 28 says all things work together for good; verse 34 says Jesus makes intercession for us.
I wonder why everything works out? What does intercession mean? It means to stand in the shoes of another. Sometimes we pray for people—I’ve seen this for years. People will pray for a fact at the back door. Once a lady that was visiting met me at the back door and said, «I want you to agree with me and curse the city of San Francisco.» I said, «No.» I said, «I’m not going to be doing that.» She tried to cast a demon out of me—that was interesting. She said, «Come out of him, you foul spirit!»
Sometimes we pray at a situation; intercession stands in the shoes of another and prays on behalf of another, as though it were our own issue. You pray for your neighbor; it’s not just praying at them. We pray as though their struggles are ours, and this is incredible! Jesus and the Holy Spirit both put on our shoes and pray for us as though our issues were theirs.
They’re approaching the Father not because He has chosen evil, and they’re trying to talk Him out of it. There’s been that concept for years that couldn’t be any more wrong. It’s the Holy Spirit and Jesus coming before the Father because prayer is His assignment. It is His will! This is how the economy of Heaven functions. There is a partnership, and there are requests, and in this request, the partnership of God and man, or the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is illustrated through perfect unity and perfect camaraderie. Here they pray for you and for me.
Sandwiched in between the testimony of God praying for us is the covenant promise: it’ll all work out for good. Verse 37: «Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors!» Say this with me: «I’m more than a conqueror!» I don’t just win! I really, really win! More than what is more than a conqueror? I don’t know! It’s like victory on steroids!
It’s out there! I am more than a conqueror through Him who loved us! Verse 38: «I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.»
I remember early in my walk with the Lord finding this verse in the Gospel of John that I put to memory for my sake, where Jesus said, «No one can remove you from my Father’s hand.» There’s this picture: you’re in my hand; no one can remove you from my hand. Here, it describes all of creation—the good, the bad, the ugly—there’s not one part of it that has the ability to create a wedge and separate you from the love of God.
That means you and I live in continuous connection to the expression of God’s love. It is good news! There’s a strange connection; those of you who like to study— which I hope would be everybody—there’s this unusual connection between Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 2. Read them; they complement each other beautifully. Nothing can separate you from the love of God!
There’s this seamless connection between you and the heart of God, and nothing can separate that. My problem is I can live aware of inferior things and lose the God-given sensitivities to His love for me. It doesn’t mean His love has changed; it just means I’m not living conscious of it.
You remember at the beginning I talked about heightened awareness? This is it! In 1 Corinthians 2, he talks about how you can’t hear the promises, the richness of God’s Word; you can’t hear through carnal means; you can only hear through the Spirit. Right now in this room, there are FM signals, AM signals, TV signals, shortwave. There are all these different things that are actually present, but if you have a receiver, you can pick them up.
The spirit of a man becomes aware of God and His voice. Suddenly, I start hearing things I didn’t hear before—only because I had my dial turned to receive from what God is saying and doing. But it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there before.
Interestingly, in this passage, He says at the end of verse 38: «neither things present nor things to come.» In 1 Corinthians 3, it describes our inheritance, and he mentions things present and things to come. What’s missing? The past. Why? Because He bought it!
It’s not yours! Your past is not yours! The moment is yours; the future is yours; the past is not! The issue of life is if we revisit the events of our past apart from our awareness of the blood of Jesus, then we’re visiting something that no longer exists! We visit a lie!
When you empower a lie, you empower the liar. So, twice Paul says, «Things present, things to come; things present, things to come.» The past has been purchased! I have no legal access to it apart from the redemptive touch of Jesus!
If there’s an issue I haven’t dealt with, He brings it up always with redemptive purpose—never to lead me into shame. The past, under the blood of Jesus, is not reason for shame; it’s a reason for triumph and victory. It’s a reason for celebration!
If I could pray for something out of this conversation today, it would be the heightened awareness of the presence of the Spirit of God and the redemptive work of Jesus that continues to set us free. Those two things stir up such courage and such vision for the impossible that there’s no more mediocrity. There is no more embracing the inferior!
Suddenly, people become enraged—in the right sense—for the things that God has purposed to do in the earth! There’s this thing that takes place in the heart of a believer that says, «Wait a minute! I was born for more than this!»
Jesus didn’t go through what He went through so we could «do church.» I love—I don’t think the corporate gathering is emphasized enough. I think He has greater intent than what we realize. So, I believe in it a lot, but it’s to set us up to bring transformation, to bring the life of Christ, the presence of God, into this environment around us.
This chapter right here starts off with just the pronouncement: «There’s no condemnation!» and it ends with, «The past is not yours; you own the moment; you own the future! Let’s go for it!»
This partnership with the Spirit of God—that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are praying for—is incredible! I may pray inaccurately, but He adjusts my prayers so that it’s perfect. I may have a wrong idea of what happened, but He corrects it. In the relational journey, I get my values, my thoughts, my memory of my own history becomes recalibrated to what He says is true.
There’s always a chance, when we have a crowd this size, that there are people here who have never made that confession of faith in Jesus Christ. I just don’t want to gather anymore without giving opportunity for people to come to know Jesus. It’s the most important part of the day, and if there’s anyone in the room who would just say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know I’ve been forgiven, until I know what it is to be what the Bible calls born again.» That’s when the Spirit of God changes you from the inside because there’s been a surrender to Him. We’re not trying Jesus; He doesn’t come in trial sizes; He only comes as God, but He’s a perfect and wonderful Father.
If there’s anybody in the room who would say, «Bill, that’s me; I don’t want to leave until I know I’m at peace with God, until I’ve been forgiven.» I want you to put a hand up just where you are now. I want to take just a moment for this. Yes, I see you. Wonderful! Bless you! Beautiful! Anyone else? Real quick! I see this one here. Is there anyone else? Wave your hand at me if I missed you.
All right, beautiful! Let’s go ahead and stand, and this is what I’m going to ask you to do: right over here to my left, we have some trusted friends. Please don’t move around just yet; please hold on just a moment. Trusted friends that I want to talk with you and pray for you. Ministry team, come on down!
Yeah, God bless you! God bless you! Go right over here! Thank you! Beautiful! Come on, somebody get happy! Give thanks to the Lord! Beautiful!
All right, let’s have the ministry team come up here quickly! I want to pray over you; I want to pray for this. Oh goodness, I’ve never heard of an impartation of heightened awareness, but I’m going to go for it anyway. How many of you have ever had a skin condition where just the slightest touch radiated pain? That’s what I want, but in a good sense—no pain; just gain!
All right, let’s pray. Father, I do ask for the wonderful name of Jesus that you would give a gift, a grace of heightened awareness of your heart, especially your presence given to us as a gift. I pray for this in Jesus' name. Amen!