Bill Johnson - Learn How to Recognize the Presence of God
The God who is everywhere wants to be somewhere. Theologically, we know He is everywhere, but there are levels and measures of His presence. Many people stop short of a divine encounter because they are satisfied with good theology; they are willing to accept a concept that they know is true, but it is not something they have experienced on an increasing level. Remaining childlike is how we grow; we stay on top of the fact that we don’t know a lot. I know something. I know whom to follow, but I’m in this steep learning curve, learning to recognize Him.
I think there are a few excited people here, and that’s good. It’s easier to work with excited people than with depressed ones. You know, the Lord is healing some people who have nerve damage in various parts of their bodies, especially in the lower part of the body. Any kind of nerve damage—whether it’s numbness or that phantom pain thing where you can’t put your finger on it but there’s just this ache throughout your body—anyone experiencing that kind of nerve pain, please put a hand up because we’re going to minister to you in just a moment.
There’s also someone with some kind of injury on the inside of the right Achilles tendon. I saw someone earlier today who has issues from the lower part of the spine all the way to the tailbone. It’s that whole section; it’s not just the tailbone, and it’s not just the middle of the back. Is that you? We have several people. All right, well, I’ll throw it at him. And there’s also someone who had hip surgery that didn’t go well; the results were not what was expected, and you have lingering issues with your hip. Who is that? Is that you?
Additionally, does anyone have an ear infection that has been lingering for a while and you can’t seem to get rid of it? Is that you right over here? Okay. Is there anyone who broke their right ankle, and it didn’t heal correctly? I believe it was a break that didn’t heal well. Does that make sense to anyone here? Right here? Okay. Way in the back? All right.
Now, about the heart: is there anyone with a heart murmur, heart palpitations, or an irregular heartbeat? The Lord is healing something in the heart. So if you have any of the issues I’ve called out, I want you to stand up. I also sense that there are several folks here who have had some sort of head trauma—a blow to the head. I don’t know if it was a football injury from 20 years ago, or if you just fell off the couch and hit your head. But if you have had head trauma where concentration or migraines has been a real issue for you, raise your hand. Some of you have had it for at least a good 20 years or longer. Who is that?
Now, for someone who has lost their sense of smell—perhaps due to COVID—if you lost it, please put your hand up. We have a couple right over here. Stand up if that’s you. We’ll try to have people lay hands on your nose kindly. Let’s start with these requests, and see where we are.
There’s someone who has pain in this part of the head right here. Who is that? Is that you? Okay, right here on the side of the head. I mean, you can have it anywhere and still get healed, but there’s specifically someone who has it here. Okay, right here. We declare that it’s gone now in Jesus' name. Move your head around.
All of you who are standing, put a hand on your ear and keep it there until someone comes to you. Those of you who are sitting, if you’re devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you to go to someone who’s standing. But don’t start praying yet! Just have them pull their hand down; that will help me know how many people we have.
Now, is there anyone we missed? If you were standing for prayer and we missed you, wave your hand at me, and I’ll get someone to you. Oh, it looks like we’ve covered everyone.
All right, very simply, find out how to pray. What’s the problem? Keep your story short. Wait, wait, wait, don’t start yet. You guys are so eager; I love it, but cool it. Find out what to pray for, give them a very simple explanation. If it’s a proper place to lay your hand, then lay your hand on the problem and command it to be healed. Just begin to pray and declare the word of the Lord over their bodies. Amen.
Holy Spirit, we welcome You. We ask You to come right now, even to do creative miracles, restoring things that have been destroyed: cartilage, joints, nerves—be fully restored now in the name of Jesus. Go ahead and find out how to pray for them. Those online, join with us in this; if you have any of the issues mentioned, this healing is for you. There is no distance in prayer whatsoever, and we declare that healing word as you pray for anyone with head trauma, lift it off of their head as though you could see it lifting off and just declare, «This ends today! This ends today in Jesus' name!» Thank You, Lord.
Thank You, Lord. Increase the anointing for breakthrough right now, God. Increase the anointing for breakthrough. Thank You, Lord.
Okay, now those of you receiving prayer right now, move around and try to find what has happened, what God has done. Just test it, challenge it. Move your head around; do whatever you need to do. As soon as you find you’re at least 80% better, wave both hands over your head like this. As soon as you find you’re at least 80% better, put both hands over your head like this and wave.
Back over here? Yeah, yeah. Right down over here? Another one? All right. Just give me your attention for a moment. The part that is as important as the prayer is where you examine yourself to see what God has done. I’m going to ask you to move in a way you couldn’t move; do something to test yourself. As soon as you find you’re at least 80% better, wave both hands over your head. It helps people around you to be encouraged about what God is doing and provides testimony. Just stand and wave your hands if that’s you.
So check yourself right now. If Jesus healed you tonight, wave your hands over your head. Right over here? Got another one. Over here? Another one over there? Thank You, God. Another one down here? Another? All right, another right here. Beautiful. Thank You, Lord.
All right, you guys are sitting down on me. How come you’re sitting down? We’re not done! Please stand up. We’ve got work to do here. You can rest while I talk later, but right now you need to stand with me. Don’t let your faith sit down.
All right, turn and pray for the person again. If they’re not 100%, pray again. If they are 100%, have them pray for you. Thank You, Lord. Lord, just increase the anointing for breakthrough; just increase it, Lord. Increase the anointing for breakthrough. We speak to the hip joint: be fully restored. We release forgiveness over any medical personnel who may have made mistakes. We just declare healing grace in Jesus' name to every single part, every single person. Thank You, Lord.
Thank You, Lord. Go ahead and end your prayer. Now everyone who received prayer, don’t just sit down; check yourself out! Check yourself out real good. Move around; testify if you’re at least 80% better. Wave your hands over your head so we can see who you are. Got another one over here? Beautiful. Thank You, Lord.
Right over here’s another? Yep. Thank You, God. Over here’s another one. Beautiful.
Hey, Tom, go find out what happened back there. You know what? I’d pray again. There are certain pockets where things are just breaking loose here, and you might as well get in on it. If you received prayer and it’s not finished, then have them pray again.
Thank You, Lord. Wow, wow, wow!
Okay, go ahead and be seated. Let me ask a question here. How many of you still have someone being prayed for? Good, thank You, Lord. If Jesus healed you tonight, stand up. I just want to see who you are. Just stand! Come on!
WOW! Bless the Lord! Bless the Lord!
What happened here, Tom?
Hey, Bill! Hi! Great to see you; you look great! Oh, Holy Spirit, so cool! He’s the coolest! Sorry! What happened tonight?
So, I’m a nurse; I’ve been a nurse for 10 years. I have pretty terrible chronic back pain. It hurts all the time because I pull patients in bed 24/7. So it hurt to sit down; it hurt to stand up; it hurt to worship; it hurt to do anything. I could barely move back and forth without my whole lower back and both of my hips wrapping around to the front hurting all the time. I used to have to get massages every other week so that I could work because I was hurting so much.
These precious humans who love Jesus put their hands on me and prayed for me because the Holy Spirit gave a wonderful word. Now it doesn’t hurt at all! Hallelujah! You said the pain level was at an eight, and now it’s nothing?
The pain was an eight, now it’s nothing. It’s 24/7.
What couldn’t you do?
Just standing in worship. A lot of times I stand because it’s easier than sitting; I work a job where I’m standing and moving all night long, so it’s not easy to sit down. I stand; I work in the hospital, so I’m always at attention all the time. Carrying all that tension is hard for me. I can’t sleep because I’m in pain; I wake up and I’m in pain, or I’m on the couch and I’m in pain.
I don’t hurt right now! Come on! Bless the Lord! Thank You, Lord!
Wow, wow, wow! How did 40 years go over here? Are you good?
You’ve had it for 40 years?
Five concussions.
Tom, go over here. You said you had five concussions?
Yeah, I had five concussions. The first one was when I was 12 years old. I completely blacked out and ended up in the hospital for a week.
What did you have? Constant pain? Pressure?
No, I haven’t had pain in my head. Initially, I had a headache, but that would finally go away. It mostly affected my memories, but I had prayer for my memories a couple of days ago, and I was prophesied over. I was told that a guy saw books being put on a bookshelf of all my memories being restored.
This morning was the first time that I could remember good childhood memories!
That’s beautiful! Thank You, Lord.
So what happened tonight?
I had prayer for the memories tonight. I wanted prayer for my whole brain to be back to normal. I’m still having a little bit of residual stiffness in my hip; they are actually getting ready to do surgery on the 14th.
Okay, check it out. I think you’re going to need it. Move your hip around!
Here’s the big one: I had a bulging disc in my lower back and one in my neck. I wasn’t able to bend over without electrical shocks going through my body.
I can touch the floor now!
No pain?
No pain!
Wow! God has been working all week! Thank You, Lord!
Wow, that’s awesome! Come on, Jesus!
Anyone else? Anyone else want to give testimony to what He just did for you?
There’s still that right Achilles tendon thing. Who is that? I’ve got to get you healed so it stops hurting. Is that you? Yeah, the two of you.
You know what? Pray for each other. Just figure it out! Thank You, Lord!
Okay, check it out! How’s it doing now?
Actually, you need to pray for her first!
Yeah, yeah! Pray for her; she has the problem, too!
All right, thanks, Lord.
Is anybody missing cartilage in your knees? Anyone missing cartilage? Stand up if that’s you. Anyone missing cartilage in your knees?
All right, we’ve got a few. Anyone else?
Okay, man on man, woman on woman, lay your hands on the knees and command cartilage to form. He makes all things new! Just declare it over their bodies. We speak to the knees right now: let cartilage be reformed. All the pain—all the bone-on-bone issues—be resolved now in Jesus' name!
Tom, how are they doing? Check out for me; just find out! Ask them!
Okay, keep praying; speak to those knees!
Yes, Jesus spoke the worlds into existence. The Lord spoke the world into being. Let there be light, and there was light! So we declare, let cartilage be formed! He makes all things new!
He makes all things new! We don’t; He does! We declare that healing grace, that miracle anointing in these bodies now in Jesus' name!
All of you that received prayer for your knees, check them out! Just get into the aisle, though; don’t do it where you’re standing. Get all the way into the aisle! Yeah, move around and check it out real good! Anyone who notices a significant difference, wave your hand at me!
I realize probably x-rays and stuff like that need to happen, but oftentimes people can tell right away if there’s no bone-on-bone pain and such.
Wave your hand at me if you were healed from the knee issues! Right over here? Yeah, beautiful! Anyone else?
These two? Yeah?
How are they doing?
How are the knees?
So your pain level before coming tonight was a seven, and what does it feel like right now?
Zero!
And your pain level before coming tonight was a six?
A one!
Wow, thank you!
Good job!
How are you doing?
Find out how she’s doing!
Thumbs are up! That’s good! If I got down on my knees like that, you’d have to call an ambulance!
He’s frozen in place!
Yes! What happened tonight?
I had three surgeries between both knees since 2016, and I haven’t been able to bend on my knees without pain for a long time.
At the moment, I have zero pain!
Zero pain!
Either you’re on your knees or you’re an extremely short person!
That’s awesome! Let’s give thanks to the Lord! Can we stand up?
Give Him thanks! Stand and give Him thanks!
We give You thanks, Lord! We give You praise! We give You thanks! We give You honor, Lord. We give You honor! Thank You, Lord!
Okay, go ahead and be seated.
All right, Tom, we’re not done. Apparently, what happened?
So I tore my ACL two years ago, prayed for healing during Randy Clark, and got healed. Then this past few days, while I was walking a lot, it started hurting again. This morning it was pretty painful; it was like a ten.
And it was an eight sitting there?
Now it’s zero!
No pain! That’s beautiful!
That’s so good!
Is there anyone here that has, I’ve heard of people having problems with like toes in the feet breaking often. They’re like really brittle. Does that make sense to anyone? Does anyone have that? This just came to mind, and I’m wondering if there might be someone here.
All right, if you’re not in the room, I’ll just assume maybe somebody online. I’m sorry, no, they break easily. You know, the bones break easily, so we’ll just declare that for our online family. If that fits for anyone online, we just declare that healing grace in Jesus' name.
Amen!
I’m going to talk, I think, for just a few minutes, and then we’ll open it up for ministry time. We know more about Jesus, who lived on the earth for 33 and a half years; actually, most everything that’s written about Him—except for a few verses—covers a three-and-a-half-year period.
So we know more about Jesus, who was on Earth for 33 and a half years, than we do about the Holy Spirit, who has been here for 2,000 years. He’s not a cloud; He’s not a whisper; He’s not a force; He’s not energy. He’s a person!
The Bible teaches us that, by God’s word, all things are held together; everything is held in place. There’s that mysterious glue, if you will, that holds everything together, and it really is the Spirit of God that holds everything together.
The most dominant feature of our being together in this room is actually the presence of God. It’s crazy to think that I could live this far from the greatest reality on Earth and be unaware of it.
Wow! The God Himself, who according to scripture is described as the Spirit of Resurrection, raised Jesus from the dead.
So here’s a tomb: you have the corpse of Jesus, and the Spirit of God comes, and Jesus is alive. He raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus did not raise Himself; He was dead. The Holy Spirit raised Him up.
Now that same Holy Spirit is resident in everyone who believes. The desire of the Lord is to clothe Himself with you.
There’s a very interesting passage in Judges. If you’d turn there, it’s a very interesting passage in Judges 6. I think this is in the lifetime of Gideon. He is the figure we’re going to point to for just a quick moment.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t speak of Himself; He always directs attention to Jesus and to the Father. But the Father and Jesus talk about the Holy Spirit.
I still don’t understand the whole blasphemy of the Holy Spirit; it’s the worst thing that can happen, the worst thing a person can do. I don’t understand it, but as you hear Jesus talk about it, you can hear the reverence He has for the Holy Spirit.
If you want to know how much God trusts you, you can figure that out by seeing what He has entrusted to you. The Holy Spirit has been given to every believer as a down payment, a seal. A seal protects contents and reveals ownership.
So the Holy Spirit is the seal that marks ownership, that you belong to Jesus. The contents are protected, and He’s imparted to us the Holy Spirit, who is bigger than the universe, to live inside of you and live inside of me. Ephesians declares that the fullness of Him is to fill us. Yes, His fullness is to fill us!
Now, there isn’t a thought that can hurt your head more than that one—the one who fills the universe—for that fullness to fill you. I don’t get it all; I know it’s beyond comprehension.
But here in this story of Gideon, it says in verse 33 of chapter 6: «The Midianites, the Amalekites, and the people of the East gathered together, they crossed over and encamped in the valley of Jezreel.»
But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. Then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, who gathered behind him. He also sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, and they came to meet him.
So obviously here, there’s going to be a war, there’s going to be a conflict. But there’s a phrase I want you to see. Verse 34: «But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon.»
This is New King James. Who has New American Standard? What does it say?
What does New American Standard say? Somebody tell me!
The Spirit of the Lord clothed him!
What does NIV say?
What does it say?
The Spirit of the Lord came upon him!
Okay, any other translations?
Yes, «The Spirit of the Lord clothed him.» Excellent! That’s actually more accurate than the other ones.
The original language says this: «The Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon.»
Clothed Himself! We think in terms of the Spirit of God coming upon us because we see that throughout Scripture—the Spirit of God would come upon the prophet, and then they would prophesy. But in this particular story, Michael Thompson shared this with us goodness, 28 years ago, I think, 27 years ago when the Holy Spirit came and took Gideon and put him on like a glove—clothed Himself with Gideon.
The Holy Spirit longs to reveal Jesus to this world. He longs to reveal Jesus, and He wants to do it through surrendered people. Self-willed people can’t reveal Jesus; yielded people can.
He is constantly looking for surrender, for the yes, as it was in Gideon’s case. He put him on like a glove and demonstrated who God was in that situation.
Pastors, teachers, and theologians are constantly asking the question: What does it look like to be full of the Holy Spirit? We all probably have our own theological concepts that we value most and that we like to see, like miracles, power, prophecy, or whatever; fill in the blanks.
The point is that walking full of the Holy Spirit is a lifestyle of valuing a person. It’s not about ministry, but it must overflow in ministry. If ministry is the target, then we always have another reason to be full of the Spirit of God: to perform or to produce instead of just the relationship and the yieldedness.
The surrender to Him will always end up in Him doing something extraordinary, but when I seek Him only so that I might be used, I always have a mixture of motives—part of which is that I would feel much better about life, and part of which is that I could look good myself or possibly be respected among my peers.
But the Holy Spirit works in and through somebody. It’s the most wonderful thing because you get to participate in something you’re not worthy of. Whenever you receive a gift you’re not worthy of, it does Him no honor to discard it. If you are given a gift you’re not worthy of, it increases your sense of indebtedness and your awareness of His heart, His purpose, His intentions.
In John 7, I think this will be the last verse we do for tonight, I want you to see this verse about the Holy Spirit. If you received a phone call from a dear friend and there was a crisis, how many of you think you would stir up your own heart of faith to believe for a miracle for that situation?
Yeah!
It’s important that we know how to do that. It’s important that we remove all distractions because distracted faith is diluted faith. Remove all distractions; focus in on the moment that God has brought across your path.
What would it be like to exercise that same faith to discover His presence—not for the outcome of a miracle? And please don’t ever stop that. I’m just trying to illustrate something.
What would it be like to exercise that same sense of exploration, that faith, that confidence in God, just to discover the God who is with us? The Holy Spirit is called the Helper—Paraclete—one called alongside to help.
Yes!
If you were having a rough day and suddenly the Holy Spirit physically manifested Himself walking at your side, it might improve your confidence. Oh, yes, it might increase your awareness that you’re in a divine moment.
While that’s always true, if you’re anything like me, you are seldom aware of it! Rarely aware of it—not aware of the One Who is actually resting upon you!
So what I—a friend of mine, a pilot friend, was giving me an illustration that really has helped me to understand what you do when you come to a place like this. And I’ll explain.
He was telling me about pilots who were to learn in flight simulators. They would be flying in a flight simulator, and then they would change the oxygen levels in that flight simulator.
They would get the oxygen levels dangerously low so that a pilot is about to pass out. What they’re trying to teach the pilot in training is to recognize how his body reacts to diminished oxygen levels because everybody’s different.
For example, years ago, a professional golfer, Payne Stewart, was killed in his private jet crash. There were Air Force planes able to fly right next to him; they could see everyone inside the plane was fine. But something happened with the oxygen levels; they didn’t recognize when they were out of oxygen; they passed out and just had to follow the plane until it crashed.
So the goal is to teach the pilot to recognize this is how your body reacts to the shift in the environment. Let’s just say—I’m a pilot, and I learned that when oxygen levels are going down, my right leg just begins to ache or I start having ringing in my left ear or whatever it might be. Everybody’s body reacts differently to that shift in the environment.
So it’s wise to pay attention to how your body reacts to the change in the environment. What they do is lower the levels gradually. You have a paper and a pencil and write down what you’re experiencing, and then, of course, right as you pass out, they put it back up, and you find out what you wrote.
Sometimes you get in the anointing and don’t know it because you’re not aware of how you react to the presence and the glory. You can’t have someone that big show up and have nothing happen in you. Some people are much more in tune to that, and I don’t mean to elevate them or put down anyone else.
For me, it’s still taking a long time for me to learn to recognize His presence, but I do it now better than I did 20 years ago. Just to learn the atmosphere—the change—I can feel it.
There are several things that happen to me as the presence of the Lord just begins to increase in the room. And so learning to recognize that—you know, if I’m worried, or anxious, or angry, or whatever it might be, I’m not quite so sensitive to what’s happening.
But if I can come in with a clean slate before the Lord, then I begin to discern and pick up what He’s doing and what He’s saying. The Book of Luke says, «The Lord was present to heal,» which implies He could be present for another reason.
What you want to do is learn to recognize, if I could use this, the flavor of His presence to know what He’s wanting to do. So you cooperate with Him. You learn to recognize over time, «Oh, the last time I felt like this, healing took place,» or «prophecy took place,» or «We had an altar call and people came to Christ.»
But you learn to recognize, and when you learn to recognize it here, where it’s easiest, then you can start recognizing it at Target or in your home.
I realize talking about abstract things invites all the weird people to become weirder still, but my hope is that a few will get it right.
What happens is you recognize that God—somebody put it this way recently; I heard him say, «The God who is everywhere wants to be somewhere.» He’s determined to be in a particular place, and when you find out that the presence of the Lord—first of all, we know just intellectually, theologically that He is everywhere, right?
So we can come in and say He is here, but there are levels and measures of His presence.
Don’t pay any attention to anyone who just says, «Well, He’s always here,» because they’re not paying attention to measures and levels.
Many people stop short of a divine encounter because they are satisfied with good theology. They’re willing to stop at a concept they know is true, but it’s not something they’ve experienced on an increasing level. Remaining childlike is how we grow in this stuff.
We stay on top of the fact that we don’t know a lot; we know something. We know enough to know who to follow, but we’re in a steep learning curve, learning to recognize Him. Because if we can recognize Him, then we can learn to cooperate with Him. And if we learn to cooperate with Him, then I become the clothing of the Holy Spirit; He’s put me on like a glove, and He’s going to glorify Jesus!
All right, let’s do this John 7 passage, and we’ll wrap this up. You all right?
Yeah? All right!
Verse 37: «On the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.»
Look at this again, verses 38 and 39: «He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.» But this He spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in Him would receive, for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
This is concerning the Holy Spirit in our life and lifestyle. I don’t want to say it’s my most favorite verse, but it’s certainly within the top two or three because it describes and illustrates something critical for us to know and understand.
Number one, in the Kingdom, He said, «Come to Me and drink.» A drink becomes a river. He said, «Come to Me and drink, and a drink becomes a river.»
You can only give what you have received, but when you receive from Him, what you are able to release is much greater than you received.
A river flows from the heart. Now the Bible tells us that faith doesn’t come from the mind; it comes from the heart.
So there’s this combination of the Spirit of God flowing from the heart that is yielded. Remember, there’s no advancement in the Kingdom apart from surrender.
So every bit of surrender that is yielded to the Holy Spirit enables rivers to flow freely.
What puzzles me, what fascinates me, I should say about this particular passage, is it says, «The Holy Spirit is the river.»
Whom those believing in Him would receive.
Later in John 14, I think it is, He says, «The Holy Spirit who is with you will be in you.»
So He’s prophesying. Jesus is prophesying to His disciples, saying the Holy Spirit who is with you will be in you. Here, He says, «He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.»
Here’s what gets me: I always looked at the disciples and the messes they created, and I thought they really could have used the Holy Spirit even though Jesus was this far away from them. They really could have used the Holy Spirit living inside of them because they just got a number of things wrong—unlike us!
Yet this makes a very fascinating point. The Holy Spirit wasn’t given because Jesus wasn’t glorified, so there’s something about the work of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life and Jesus being glorified; there’s a connection between the two.
Let me describe what I believe it is: If Jesus would have been given to the disciples before Jesus was crucified, the Holy Spirit would have been working in them, shaping them into the image of the Christ that was headed to the cross and not the one that was glorified.
The Holy Spirit’s primary function is to make us like Jesus. Specifically, it says, «The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not glorified.»
So we know in His death, He was resurrected; He ascended to the right hand of the Father, and He is forever glorified. That resurrected Christ, the one glorified at the right hand of the Father, is the model that the Holy Spirit is working with as He works in your life and in mine, fashioning you into the image of the One who is glorified.
1 John 4:17 says, «As He is, so are we in this world"—not as He was, but as He is, so are we in this world!
The primary reason for the enemy to work so hard to keep us distracted is to keep us unattached from our identity, which is wrapped up in the glorified Christ—feeding on the inferior. Feeding on things that really pull us away from the discovery—not of how wonderful we are, but of the glorious Christ.
Because every discovery we have of His wonder, His beauty, His significance is ultimately a revelation of what He is doing in us. Amazing!
The Holy Spirit longs to be—not just present because He is present, but manifested, discovered, realized, encountered, and engaged with on a continuous day-to-day basis for everybody in this room. Amen!
Why don’t you stand?
One of the prayers that I’ve prayed countless times over the last 30 years is this: «Man, God, just show me how You move. I just want to be aware of the shifts, the movements, and His workings in the room when we’re together.»
Obviously, in the room, but just in life itself. To have that discernment and that sense—the awareness of Him.
I’ve had different things happen through the years where He will use little indicators; to me, it’s like a pilot who has a sore right knee! Sometimes, there will be moments where you may not feel anything emotionally, but you have this physical sensation that you’ve learned over time is how your body reacts to a change in atmosphere.
I realize that sounds very abstract, but I think it’s practical.
Yeah, I think it’s very practical instruction because in Hebrews 5, He says, «Having your senses trained to discern good and evil.»
I have smelled my wife’s fragrance—and I’ve smelled the fragrance of the Lord—in our car for about half an hour once. It was actually a fragrance I could taste; it was like granules of sugar on my tongue!
I would smell it while we were worshiping, and all of a sudden, this fragrance filled the car. I didn’t say anything to her; she didn’t say anything to me. We didn’t want to jinx it!
I didn’t know if it was just a personal experience or what, so we just continued to worship. Our two boys—who Aaliyah wasn’t born yet—sat quietly in the back seat, which is like parting the Red Sea!
It’s a miracle equal to the parting of the Red Sea! They sat there completely quiet in the back seat as we were driving from Weaverville to Redding, and for 20 or 30 minutes, just this fragrance filled the car.
When it finally lifted, I said, «Did you smell that?» She goes, «Yes! Did you smell that?» We began to compare notes.
But there are times where you start—you know, I don’t want anyone to get weird; I don’t want anyone to make stuff up to feel spiritual. But I do want you to be aware that stuff happens—more happens in our corporate gatherings than any of us are aware of.
And it doesn’t take great intelligence; it doesn’t take extreme gifting; it just takes desire!
It just takes a desire, a hunger to learn. So put your hand on your heart and just pray: «God, teach me. Teach me what You’re like. Teach me how You move. Teach me how to recognize Your presence.»
Teach me how to recognize the shift, the change in atmosphere. Teach me how to recognize how I respond to the anointing—physically, emotionally. Some of you will learn to recognize God through your emotions because when He shows up, it affects us in that way.
It’s why the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. Two of them are felt realities.
So, Lord, we just pray for the school of the Spirit for each one of us now, that more and more we would learn that You put us on like a glove, that You clothe Yourself with us.
We want every single part of our life to be immersed in the anointing and in the presence. We thank You so much, God! Thank You!
Now, put a hand on someone next to you and just pray for them! Pray for them good! Just say, «God, get them really good! Get them good!»