Bill Johnson - How to Hear God's Voice Through Scripture
Keeping ourselves connected to what God is saying is a Life Source; it is not optional; it is life itself. I live because He talks. Good morning! Still morning? Yeah, still got a little bit left. A police officer pulled over a driver and informed him that because he was wearing a seat belt, he had just won $1,000 in a safety competition. The officer asked, «What are you going to do with the prize money?» He responded, «I guess I’ll go to driving school and get my license.» At that moment, his wife, who was seated next to him, spoke up, saying, «Officer, don’t listen to him; he’s always a smart aleck when he’s drunk.» This woke up the guy in the back seat, who blurted out, «I knew we wouldn’t get far in the stolen car!» Right about that time, there was a knock from the trunk, and a voice asked, «Are we over the border yet?» I don’t know why that’s funny, but it is. I read this a couple of months ago, but you deserve to hear it again.
This is how I learned to mind my own business. I was walking past the mental hospital the other day, and all the patients were shouting, «13! 13! 13!» The fence was too high to see over, but I saw a little gap in the planks, so I looked through to see what was going on. Some idiot poked me in the eye with a stick! Then they started shouting, «14! 14!» Oh goodness, that is just classic! It is one of the better ones.
All right, well, I have the privilege today of talking to you about the Word of God. I remember as a young man, first of all, in school, I got good grades—I keep saying I wasn’t a good student! My mom always corrects me afterward, but she’s not here, so I can say it: I wasn’t a good student. I didn’t learn some of the study skills that you should learn in school. I was able to kind of cram before a test and get a good grade on the test. So anyway, it was creative learning on my part. I hated reading, and I hated writing. The two things my life is spent in right now—I mean, it’s like the Lord says, «Hmm, divine humor! Let’s see how this works out.»
But I didn’t enjoy reading at all; I hated it. I remember when I really gave everything about my life to Jesus—everything: lock, stock, and barrel, as they say—in my commitment to Christ. I remember I loved to hunt and fish, but honestly, I didn’t care if I ever hunted or fished again. I didn’t care if I ever owned anything besides the clothes on my back. Honestly, every ambition I had was all laid on a cross on an altar, and I just said yes to Jesus, and that was my response to what He was doing and speaking into my life.
I remember I started reading, which was a miracle. I actually read seven books back to back in a fairly short period of time, all on the subject of prayer, for example. I just couldn’t get enough. I’ll never forget where I started: I began reading this book called «The Normal Christian Life» by Watchman Nee. Has anyone else read that book? It’s a classic—great book! I remember my experience of reading this: I was blown away by his insights. While I was reading, I thought to myself, «This is all from the Bible.» I had a hunger for knowledge, so I would read people’s books; I especially had a hunger for the Word of God. You can be fed with people’s books—I write them; I hope people read them and find them helpful—but they supplement the meal, which is the Scripture.
The Word of God is perfectly fit to speak into any and every given situation of our lives. When I said yes to Jesus to absolutely serve with Him as my Lord and to be a true disciple, I just had this hunger for the Word. I’ve never stopped in that pursuit of hunger. I’ve had times where I’ve been hungrier than others, but one of the things I learned in the Kingdom is that in this natural world, you get hungry by not eating. But in the Kingdom, you actually get hungry by eating. So putting yourself in a place where you have continual exposure to what God is saying actually creates an appetite for the Word itself.
I began to read somewhat randomly. I found it helpful for me to have a disciplined place of reading. I like to read from Genesis to Revelation, or maybe just the New Testament: I’ll read from Matthew through Revelation. In fact, when we moved here to Reading, I took a period of time—about 10 years—where the bulk of my reading for 10 years straight was just the Gospels and the Book of Acts. I just read over and over again. I remember at one point, John Paul Jackson was here, and he spoke to us about this next wave of revival and what would be involved in that. The Lord had spoken something very clearly to him—that it would be all around Romans chapter 4.
So I remember in that meeting, I started reading Romans 4 every day for three years, besides what else I was reading. But I made sure to read that every day for three years, with the exception of five days because of international flights. The point is to stay exposed to what God is saying and doing. There are times I read just the books of the law, sometimes just the poetry books. The point is, I encourage people to have what I call recreational reading but also disciplined reading—not one or the other, do both. Recreational reading for me is this: I have history with God.
I’ve been in trouble; I’ve been disheartened, discouraged, challenged in my faith, confused, not knowing what decision to make. My habit throughout these 40-some years has always been to go to the Word of God when I’m in one of those moments. I read literally until He speaks. I’ve sat down and read 20 chapters—20 plus chapters—just back to back; I will just continue reading until He speaks to me. I find life here—literally life. Jesus—there’s this statement in Scripture: «Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.» I’m alive; I live because He talks.
So I would read, and still to this day, if I have a challenging situation, oftentimes what I do is I will actually go back to a place where I met the Lord before. For example, I’ll go to Joshua chapter 1 and spend time there. I’ll go to Isaiah 60; I’ll go to Psalms 27, 37. I go to these places where I have history with God. I’ve wept before God in some of these places, and the Lord has spoken to me and fed my soul with His Word and changed my life simply because He spoke. I’ve come desperate; I’ve come hungry. I come with His Word in front of me, and there are just those moments in life with Him where He breathes upon the words that are on the page.
You can’t always explain what you just read, and I love that part of learning in the Kingdom. He doesn’t touch my mind first; He touches my heart. If I’ll come to Him and surrender, He’ll impact me where the change begins before I understand what He’s doing. That’s a huge part of learning—that’s the way learning takes place in the Kingdom. He would speak that Word to me.
So what I call recreational reading is going to a familiar place in Scripture where I’ve been many, many times before. I refer to those verses as my cabin in the mountains. You know, you want to get away; you want to have a break. You just go up to the cabin; there’s a little lake there; you go fishing, or you can sit by the fireplace, or you can do whatever you want to do. But the point is, you’re in rest mode, just recuperating and recovering. I have places in the Word of God that are my cabin on the mountain; it’s my place of personal refreshing.
This is where I have history with God; this is where I’ve taken time with God through the years, and He’s met with me over these portions of Scripture. I have them marked, and I know where to go because I have history. It’s like being married for 30 years and still having the love letters from when you were engaged; you go back and read those love letters. That’s what it is—it’s a love letter to me.
So many people approach the Scripture so carelessly. I watched a video clip recently, maybe a month or two ago, where in China, where they aren’t allowed to have Bibles in some places, believers will have one Bible and will tear individual pages out of that Bible and pass them around. One family will have one page for a week or two weeks, and then they’ll exchange it with another family to get another portion of Scripture.
In this particular place, someone was able to smuggle in a box full of Bibles. Here’s this home with all these believers, and someone brings this box. You see all these people videoing it; they cut open this box, and here are all these Bibles! They just run, grab them to their chests, and begin to weep uncontrollably because they have the privilege of reading Scripture. The great sobering warning to me is famine always follows misused abundance. It’s to have so much liberal access to something, and you have that thing close off in your heart where it no longer feeds you.
There’s this summons, this invitation to come and engage with God Himself as we read that which gives life. People will sometimes say, «I don’t remember what I read.» I’ve told you this before, but people will say, «I don’t remember what I read.» Well, sure—I don’t remember what I had for breakfast last Monday either, but it still nourished me; it still had its place in me. It’s going through the privileged routine, if you will, of reading Scripture.
Now, I like the random reading—the cabin on the weekend. I love that kind of reading, but I always try to have that disciplined reading through the Scripture: maybe through the four Gospels, maybe through the Old Testament—whatever it might be. The point is, what you’ll find is you’ll be at a point of crisis, or you need clarity for something, and you will discover that Jesus actually has you in the chapter you need on that given day. You turn to where your bookmarker is, you open it up, and you find, «There’s the exact thing I need an answer for,» because He set you up.
He’s big; He’s Sovereign, and He loves to set you up for life. The point is we do the discipline, and then as the Sovereign God, He sets us up for divine encounters—the encounters we need. The only thing is we just have to keep the thing going. I hear people say, «Oh, I read a Scripture this morning; it was so deep, it just fed me all day long!» Whatever. I like food; I consider food to be the will of God for my life, and I choose quality over quantity. I like good food. I have favorite restaurants around the world.
My favorite restaurant is down in Napa Valley called The French Laundry. I’ve been to a number of three Michelin star restaurants around the world, and, oh goodness gracious, you almost get a whole new release in your prayer language eating that food. I mean, it’s just encounters with Jesus at that table!
I remember the first time I ate at French Laundry. We’ve been blessed enough to go there a number of times, and I remember the first time. There were about nine courses, and then they threw in some freebies, you know? It’s all just the finest food on the planet. So I remember sitting there, and they bring out this little bowl with caviar and oysters. It’s called «Oysters and Pearls.» Chef Keller is world-famous for this specific dish.
Now, you need to know inside, I hate oysters, and I hate caviar! So here I have this set before me that I would not order if I had a choice. But here’s what we do: you choose the vegetarian menu, which is never going to be chosen by me—or, like, the real people—(that’s not the way to say it) or the meat lovers! So all you vegetarians, you love me week after week; I don’t know how you do it. You endure such torment from me!
But they brought out this little bowl—it’s a big plate, but a little tiny bowl with caviar and oysters and this sauce. I looked at Benny and said, «I’m spending too much money for this meal not to at least try it,» which is not my norm, but I thought I’m going to be bold; I’m going to express great faith. And I took a bite of the oysters and pearls! I could not believe what was happening in my mouth!
I turned to Benny and I said, «I want a chili bowl full of this stuff! I don’t know what’s in the sauce.» You know what we do? As you already know, I’m a cookbook buyer even though I don’t cook. Let’s say you go to French Laundry or some nice restaurant, and you taste the finest thing you’ve ever tasted. You go into the reception area of the restaurant, and there are cookbooks by Chef Keller or whoever happens to be. You say, «Man, I want that again!»
You pull off that cookbook, find «Oysters and Pearls,» and start looking at all these ingredients. You go, «You know what? I don’t like that—those are oysters. I don’t like that—caviar. Oh, look at that spice; I never did like that. Why’d you put that in this recipe?» You go through this recipe and find not many things you would ever enjoy by themselves—unless, of course, you throw in chocolate chips at the end!
So you’ve got this recipe of bitter-tasting things, fishy-tasting things, sour-tasting things, too salty, too sweet, too bland. But somehow, the master chef has put it together in perfect balance. It becomes the best thing you’ve ever eaten in your life! This Book has bitter things, sour things, things that are so sweet, things that are so confrontational, things that are so challenging, things that are so exotic in and of themselves. But when blended into the whole, it is the absolute finest meal you will ever eat; this is that which you were born for. It’s the whole counsel of God.
It’s not just some people—they drive me nuts; they just go through and find just the feel-good verses. No! You need to be slapped! It’s called the sword for a reason! There are things clinging to you that shouldn’t be there. The Bible says the Word of God is good for correction. Proverbs 12:1 says—and this is like in the New King James translation, not The Message Bible—"He who hates correction is stupid.» He who hates correction is just plain stupid! Let me extend it: He who hates to be corrected by Scripture is stupid.
And I tell you what, we have an option because you will be corrected. It will either be in private with a sword or in public with the community, but it will be exposed. Just looking at your faces is such a great joy for me right now, watching the squirming in people’s faces. This is a relational journey! I’m so thankful I’ve got—goodness, I don’t know how many Bibles and Bible programs, study materials, and books I have on my iPad! I love it! I sit on the plan and go, «Yeah, what does that word mean?» And I look it up!
But I want to tell you, do not have a relationship with God over the Scriptures that are on a screen only. Have something you can write on because this is going to be your history. I got up about 3:00 in the morning, August 2009, I think was the year. I was headed to Argentina. I went in to use the restroom, and there was a book by Kim Clement. I looked at the inside cover; he wrote a note to me, a scripture reference. I looked at that reference; it spoke so deeply to me that I went to my Bible and marked it, putting the date down because I never wanted to forget the date. So it’s on the right page in the Book of Nahum in my Bible—the date when I got that book!
You want your history with God; you want to underline, you want to make cross-references. God speaks to you out of the Gospel of John, and you see a similar thing back in Joshua. Then find it in John, then go back to Joshua and write the reference down. You want to have that silver thread of your redemptive journey with King Jesus, who is teaching you how He thinks and how He sees.
You need the confrontational stuff; you need the stuff that’s harsh: the Book of Judges—things that by themselves maybe aren’t that pleasant. But in the whole of Scripture, in our journey to know Him and be true disciples, we find that these things don’t contradict each other as we thought; they actually complement each other. This flavor that’s bitter by itself, when added to this part of the meal, enhances the flavor of that part of the meal. This whole Book is written in its entirety to minister to who we are, to bring us into our sense of purpose and our sense of destiny.
I want you to open your Bibles. We’re going to read two portions of Scripture, and the first one is going to be in Psalms 119. I’m going to read the whole Psalm to you—no, no, I’m not. Not actually! Yesterday, I was thinking about it; I just flew in from New York, by the way. God’s doing so many amazing things in New York; I was so thrilled to be there, New York City, right downtown! Wow, fun, fun, fun to see so many hungry people!
I flew home yesterday, and because of the work on the runway in San Francisco, we needed to redirect our flight. So they arranged for us to fly to Sacramento. I have a couple of interns that came and picked me up and brought me home. Sitting in the back seat, I just started thinking about Psalms 119. It’s a Psalm that is so rich in defining the role of the Word of God in our lives.
I actually want to challenge you: sit down in one sitting and read the entire Psalm. It doesn’t take as long as you fear. You know that we read faster than we talk, right? If we read out loud, we read at a certain pace; if you don’t read out loud, you read faster. That’s true for just about everyone on the planet. Do you know how long it takes to read the entire Bible if you read out loud? It’s only 72 hours—72 hours! It tells you how much we read! 72 hours will take you through the whole thing: Genesis to Revelation.
Pay attention to the words: word, statutes, precepts, testimony, Commandments—all those kinds of words because they refer to different angles of this one thing called the Word of God. I want to encourage you at some point to read this in one sitting if you can; split it up if you have to, but go into this with the question: What role is the Word of God supposed to have in my life? If you go to this book with questions, you’ll find answers; otherwise, you’ll find random information.
Psalms 119—we’re going to read about five or six verses, beginning with verse 9: How can a young man or old man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. With my whole heart, I have sought you; oh, let me not wander from your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. I can still hear my grandma quoting this verse to me. I think she was trying to help me; she would quote this verse: «How can a young man cleanse his way?» And then she’d say, «Your Word I’ve hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.»
Let’s stop and look at that concept for just a moment. Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Do you know what happens when you worry? You’re actually planting a lie into your heart until the roots grow down and affect your soul; they impact your thinking, values, emotions—those things come under the influence of whatever it is you’re worrying about. Anxiety, fear, resentment, jealousy, suspicion, offense—all of these things, when held dear, the longer you hold them, the deeper the roots get.
That’s why repentance has to be so deeply felt when we turn things over to Jesus. It’s not a mere, «Oh, by the way, forgive me, sorry about that.» When it’s a lifestyle for many years, where the roots have gone down deep and they’ve affected my personality, my soul, then that thing has to be deeply dealt with. I don’t mean through self-abuse; I mean just through deep confession: «God, I see the impact of my sin—this way of thinking has affected who You’ve made me to be, and it has been wrong. I’ve held onto this for 20 years. God, please forgive me and deliver me from this way of thinking.»
Repentance has to be deep, especially to uproot those things we’ve held on to so dearly for so long. What happens with offense and jealousy is the Book of James actually calls jealousy «wisdom.» It’s one of the craziest things you’ll ever see! The Book of James calls jealousy wisdom, but it calls it «inferior wisdom» that which is natural and demonic. Why even call it wisdom at all? Because what it’s saying is, by acknowledging that it is wisdom, jealousy is kept alive by information.
Jealousy, suspicion, resentment attracts information to reinforce the position of offense. You will attract more information to make you feel secure in your conclusion, but it does not exist in the heart of Christ. That’s why we keep the Word of God in our heart: that we might not sin against God. If our reaction is anything other than love, it will lead to sin. If our reaction comes from any other place but love, it will lead to sin. Jesus is serious about us having Him well represented on the Earth for how we deal with the things that come our way. There are only two responses in life: fear and love; there are only two places from which we speak: fear or love.
There are a lot of believers who get confused in this area, and they think they’re discerning something when they become suspicious, resentful, or filled with offense toward another person. That offense actually attracts information to keep them locked into that place. So the Scripture says, «Your Word I have hidden in my heart; I’ve kept it there so that I might not sin against you.»
It’s Your Word in me releasing its spiritual nutrients, if you will, that helps me stay centered in an accurate and authentic representation of who Jesus is. Jesus was talking to a crowd in John 5, and part of that crowd was a group of Pharisees. He looks at the Pharisees and says, «You don’t believe me because my Word is not in you.» So think about this: Here are the Pharisees doing their routine of reading Scripture, studying, doing all this stuff, but they never let it get into their heart.
It only was in their head; they had the concepts so they could debate, argue, accuse—but it was never transferred from their head to their heart. Jesus shows up; here’s the Messiah, He shows up on the scene, and they do not believe. He says the reason you don’t believe is that the Word wasn’t in you; you didn’t put it in your heart. The implication is that the Word of God in my heart sets me up to believe for whatever He’s about to do next.
Verse 11 again: Your Word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you! Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips, I have declared all the judgments of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and contemplate your ways. I will delight myself in your statutes; I will not forget your Word.
You can see statement after statement after statement is to draw our hearts into an affection for Scripture. The Scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and the capacity to hear comes from Scripture. There are two words in the New Testament, regarding the Word of God, that would be wise for us to know: the one is logos, and the other is rhemá. Some of you have heard these words used in the past.
Logos generally refers to the printed or written Scripture; rhema generally refers to that which is freshly spoken by God in a given moment. You may be reading, for example, out of the Book of Ephesians, and all of a sudden this phrase just leaps out at you and brings comfort to your soul, direction, wisdom, insight, faith—whatever it might be. He just breathes on that which is written.
So there’s the logos, which is printed, but the rhema is that which is freshly spoken of God in the anointing. The line between logos and rhema disappears; it all becomes empowered to feed us, to empower us, to direct us, to correct us. I return to the Scriptures frequently—for every day. I just don’t miss a day. I missed one day 37 years ago because I got kidney stones. You know, those are way overrated. It wasn’t nearly as fun as they said it would be! In the middle of the night, I had the boys—Leah wasn’t born yet, so however long ago that was, I guess—and I was in such pain.
I thought hell had come! I was in pain; it was unbelievable! I called Benny—she wasn’t there; she was at a women’s retreat. I called my doctor, who was a personal friend, and he said, «I’ll meet you at the hospital; come down now!» I said, «I can’t! I can’t move!» Oh goodness gracious, I was so doubled over with pain. He said, «All right, I’ll come to your house.» So I called Chris next. I said, «Chris, I need help! Meet me at the hospital; I need you to take my boys!»
There was no one to take them, so Chris comes down. He’s in the lobby with my boys, and I’m there in such pain. I just want to give praise to God for whoever figured out Demerol! It’s magical! As far as I’m concerned, Demerol is an absolute gift from God! They gave me however many shots I needed of that stuff until I was in la-la land, and until that thing passed. The next day, I was fine. But I didn’t read that day! Unless it’s something like that, I’m going to start my day, I’m going to end my day, and if I have the chance, I will during the day read.
Wigglesworth, I believe it was said of him, if he wasn’t speaking or in a meeting, or doing something, he wouldn’t go 15 minutes without reading the Word. He had a little New Testament in his back pocket and would just bring it out, sitting at a bus station, sitting on a park bench—wherever he was—just stop and read, keeping ourselves connected to what God is saying.
It is a Life Source. It is not optional; it is life itself. I live because He talks. The power of His Word way back on the day of creation—He spoke, «Let there be light.» Do you know that at this moment, the universes are expanding at least at the speed of sound, if not the speed of light? They are continuously being formed and created. Why? Because He never recalled His Word! How powerful is His Word! What He declares, He enables; He empowers, and He makes possible!
He wants us to delight in the privilege of having Him speak to us. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 3, and we’ll wrap it up with this one. Are you alive? Is everybody alive? I wrote just a quick list this morning of things I could recall from the Bible on what it says about the Bible. The Word instructs, corrects, directs, inspires, empowers, gives faith, heals, and gives promise.
If you want to know what divine health looks like, study the Book of Proverbs and look at every time you can find life and health, and find out how often it’s actually connected to the Word of God. The Word actually inspires health in the human body.
Now let’s hurry and get on to the Scriptures: 2 Timothy chapter 3. Here’s a promise for you to put on your refrigerator, verse 12: «Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution!» Let me read it again—this is one of the tart verses that helps the rest to be enhanced and cleanses your palate! Ready? Here we go! «Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution!»
Evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Wise for salvation—interesting phrase!
You say, «Well, Bill, I’m already saved!» Yeah, I believe that! I believe when you received Christ you were saved; you were born again. But Paul talks about working out your salvation daily! So there’s this threefold dimension of salvation: I was saved at such and such a time, but I am presently being saved, and when Jesus returns or I die and appear before Him, I will be saved. There’s that triune dimension of salvation.
He’s talking here about the Word of God as being that which enables us to work out our daily salvation. In other words, we should be more saved today than we were yesterday! That should have excited you much more than it did, but we’ll just move on. I’ll pretend it was a good response!
Verse 16: «All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.» Here’s the deal: The Word of God equips me—spirit, soul, and body—intellectually, emotionally, mentally, which is different than intellectually; it’s the state of my mind, physically, in the natural—thoroughly equipped for every good work.
In other words, any challenge that comes before me, I am ready to represent the King with adequate service to invest in that situation so that Jesus is well represented. It’s the Word of God! The Word of God working in and through my life equips me to be adequate and successful in any opportunity I have to represent the King in a given situation!
That the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Keep reading chapter 4; we’ll wrap this up. It says, «I charge you, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom: preach the Word!» Now, this is everybody in the room! This is not just an exhortation for pulpit people; every one of us should be declarers of the Word of God.
It may be in a small group meeting; it may be at coffee with a friend, but the point is you’re engaging in fellowship and there’s the exchange of insight and life that comes from Scripture. Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season! In other words, do it when you feel like it, do it when you don’t! Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching!
Time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap for themselves teachers. They’ll turn their ears away from truth. Here’s this incredible warning in the context of the purpose and power of Scripture! There are people right now that are just making a mess of the Bible because they’re pulling out any words of judgment, any words of correction, any words that make them feel insecure, removing all of that and just anchoring in the promises that are rewarding them.
So there’s absolutely no sting left in Scripture! There’s supposed to be a sting there! It’s never from a Father who wants to destroy us; it’s a Father who says, «I am working intently and seriously in your life, and you will look completely like Jesus when I’m done. To do that, I need to use a sword; it’s only going to hurt for a moment.»
He speaks, and He cuts off that thing that was completely unnecessary. Amen! He invites us into this engagement with Scripture; sometimes it’s inspiring and you just don’t want to stop reading.
Yet there are other times you’re just pushing through because you know there’s life there. I read the genealogies when I’m going through Scripture, and it’s genealogy time—that’s the bland part of the recipe! But it helps the recipe! It helps the whole meal to be what it is—the nourishment that challenges and changes me!
Some people run around saying we don’t need to pay attention to the teachings of Jesus because Jesus’s teachings were actually in the Old Testament, which is true because the New Covenant was when His blood was shed. So all His teachings during His three-and-a-half years of ministry were actually in the Old Testament, and they say we don’t need the teachings of Jesus!
Well, think about this! Was Jesus the greatest teacher of all time? Yes! If God the Father had Him teach at the tail end of the Old Testament for three and a half years, and that was the only time that teaching was worthwhile, then God is the worst steward ever to exist! To have the best at the last tail end of several thousand years for three and a half years with just a few thousand people under its influence!
It’s crazy! The writers of Scripture knew that these ideas would be coming! In 1 John, he says, «Anyone who comes to you that does not have the teachings of Jesus do not even receive them into your home.» It’s that serious!
Don’t even receive them into your home! That’s not saying your neighbor who doesn’t know Christ; it’s saying those who are masquerading as believers who hold to ideals—don’t engage in interaction with them. If they refuse to repent, they will infect your value of Scripture!
Okay, people come and they say, «Well, there are errors in the Bible.» No, there aren’t! But let’s just pretend there are for discussion’s sake! There are not as many errors here as there are in you! I’m not going to let you redefine what is valuable in here for me!
Other than that, I’m quite happy all the time! I pray that the Lord would gift you with a grace for the Word of God—for Scripture! For understanding! The Bible says knowledge comes easy to him who has understanding.
If you can imagine a mailroom where there’s slots for different individuals, different offices; when you have the slots, you have a place to put knowledge. When you have understanding, there’s context for what God would like to say!
He’s not a bad steward, and He doesn’t release revelation knowledge to a person that doesn’t have a context to put it in! So one of the things that we do is get hungry; we fully respond to what He’s spoken to us so far. We live from His Word; we have history with Him, and then we attract ongoing understanding and revelation so that we can impact the people around us.
So I want you to stand up because we’re going to pray! I’m going to pray for you! Jesus, make it come alive! You know what? I remember when I was probably 19 at the time—the church was in the old facility that no longer exists. There was a little library there. I remember pulling this little tiny white book off the shelf.
I remember I’m not a reader, but I was just starting to engage with reading, and I pulled this little tiny white book off the shelf. I just opened it in the middle and started reading, and while I was reading, I thought, «This is amazing!» I could feel it coming off the page—honestly! I could feel life coming off the page!
I kept reading, kept reading, turned the page and kept reading. Then there was a Scripture reference, and I saw «Oh! I was actually reading the Word, and I didn’t even know it!» It’s why life was coming off the page as He was quoting a passage of Scripture to prove a point. Life— I live because He talks!
So Father, I pray that You would make Your Word come alive at a level we’ve never known before. That every person in this room, all of our friends that are scattered around the globe with Bethel TV, that there would be this fresh gift of hunger for the reading of the Word of God, for delighting in it. You’d expand our wisdom, expand our devotion to the written Word.
I pray this for the honor of the name of Jesus. Amen. Now, I want to have the ministry team come to the front. There’s been an altar call; people have already been invited to Christ. Did Chris do that during the communion?
Okay! If you could hold on a moment, that really would help us! Thanks! Just the ministry team only, come to the front. If there’s anyone here—let me just ask the question: Is there anyone here that would just say, «Bill, I’ve never been a disciple of Jesus, or if I was, I chose my own way entirely, and I want to return to Him today. I want to place my faith in Him and become a true disciple of Jesus.»
Disciple means learner. When we stop learning, we stop being a disciple! And you would say, «Bill, I want to be the learner! I want to be forgiven of sin and really healed from the inside.» If that’s anybody in the room, put your hand up real quickly because I want to make sure.
Anybody? Right over here is one. Anybody else? Right over here is another. Right over there—that’s another one! That’s so beautiful! Come on! Right over here is another one—that’s so cool! So awesome; right over here to my left. Are you guys setting that up?
Right over there to my left is a group of people that we know and trust. There will be a little banner there so you’ll know where they’re at, but right over here to my left—those four of you. And if there’s more, I want to ask the four of you to come quickly to this group over here because I want them to talk with you and pray with you. Leave your seats and come to them right now, and this team is going to pray for you because I want you to be blessed beyond measure!
Yeah, church, bless them as they come! That’s awesome! Right over here—come on! Amazing! All right, are you wrapping up? Come and grab the mic, and tell everybody what to do. Hold on just a second. Let me get to the back, and he’ll tell us what to do!