Bill Johnson - Move From Discouragement Into Hope by Changing the Way You See
It’s not that we pretend those things never happened or that they never existed; it’s that we bring them into the relationship with the Lord so He can heal the place of pain and turn it into a place of strength. Every loss is supposed to be a place of vengeance—not your vengeance, not mine, but where God shows Himself strong. Why build a life formed around the disappointment of loss when you could use it as a place of promotion for breakthrough?
Today, I want you to go, if you would, to Mark chapter 8, and I want to talk to you from this chapter. This is one of the most important chapters in my life; that is in no way an exaggeration. I had an unusual experience, probably going back 20 years. It seemed that every time I opened my Bible, it just opened to Mark 8. I could be wanting to go to the Psalms, and it would open to Mark 8. I’d want to go to the book of Jude, and it would open to Mark chapter 8. It doesn’t do that anymore, so it’s not a crease in the Bible; it’s not a broken spine. It just opened to Mark 8 over and over again. After probably a half dozen times, I thought this was weird; maybe I should read it.
I tend to be very systematic in my reading. I’ll read like the Old Testament, New Testament, Gospels, or Book of Law, and I take sections, maybe the Epistles, the Minor Prophets, and I just read over them. Sometimes I read them over and over again. I did the Gospels once constantly for 10 years, just continually reading and rereading, and I discovered it’s actually all about Jesus. That was probably good that I read the Gospels. What I do for my recreational reading, which is like going to a cabin on the weekend, I have certain places that I like to go and feed on, and Mark 8 is one of those. There are about eight or ten verses that I feast on, and the reason is that these verses cut me; they literally pierce my soul every time I read them. It’s a two-edged sword; it heals where it cuts. So we need to welcome that cutting of the word of the Lord into our soul because it actually imparts and shapes a perception of reality that you don’t get any other way.
I remember Dick Mills, a wonderful friend of ours, had this message once. If you could imagine a guy standing in front of me, you know, 4 feet away, with this big sword, and the tip of the sword is at my chest, and then that guy says, «Come here,» it was a picture of literally walking into the sword of the Lord. That’s what we do when we open up the word. We open it with Him, not just to learn about Him, but to engage with Him. Mark chapter 8 is this fascinating story about, for me, the renewed mind. In fact, what I plan to do throughout the summer is, on several occasions, talk to you from the Gospel of Mark because, for me, the Gospel of Mark illustrates the renewed mind better than any other part of Scripture.
The renewed mind is essential to our faith every single day of our life. The Holy Spirit is working on us for the renewing of the mind because it is God’s heart to invade this world with His will. Why the renewed mind? It’s His heart to invade this world with His will. What does it say about the renewed mind in Romans 12:2? Don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God. What is the will of God? The best definition for me is found in the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples: «Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.» Pray that with me: «Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.» Say it again: «Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.»
So what does a renewed mind do then? It proves the will of God. We see the miraculous through faith; we see the miraculous through presence. The most consistent way to see the miraculous is through the renewed mind. There’s no cancer in heaven; He said on Earth as it is in heaven. And it’s through the renewed mind. The renewed mind is not the source of faith. Faith doesn’t come from the mind; it comes from the heart. Faith is not the product of striving; it’s a result of surrender. That’s why it’s a heart issue.
But the renewed mind creates the context for faith, like the banks of a river. The renewed mind creates a context for faith to flow. We see Jesus talking to the Centurion, and He’s stunned by his faith when He gives an explanation on how authority works. It was his understanding that was renewed, which came only by revelation. Understanding of authority was the context that gave evidence that he had real faith.
So the Lord is, I believe, working on us for the renewed mind. Now, a couple of weeks ago, I likened it to a truck driver, and I’m going to do it again because it fits my illustration best. A truck driver will take off with his load, and after driving a while, that load begins to settle. So the truck driver often will pull over to a truck stop and tighten down the load because things have shifted and settled. How many of you think maybe in the last 18 months we’ve had a few things settle, and we need a little bit of cranking down, tightening of that load? That’s kind of what I feel we’re doing over these next number of weeks here in the summer.
Mark chapter 8: let’s begin reading with verse 13. «And He left them, and getting into the boat again departed to the other side.» Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread; they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. Then He charged them, saying, «Take heed; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.» And they reasoned among themselves, saying, «It is because we have no bread.» But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, «Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember when I broke the five loaves for the 5,000? How many baskets full of fragments did you take up?» And they said to Him, «Twelve.» «Also, when I broke the seven for the 4,000, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?» And they said, «Seven.» Then He said to them, «How is it you do not understand?»
This is the portion that I read over and over again. In fact, quite honestly, there are times I open to this chapter, and I will just read and ponder verse 17. Jesus, being aware of it, said, «Why do you reason because you have no bread?» Any thought process that begins with what we don’t have will have to be repented of because you can’t build anything substantial on that thought; it makes a poor foundation for human reasoning. That went over pretty well.
So Jesus gives them instruction, and He warns them. He warns them about leaven: the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. There is a third leaven in Scripture; it’s in Matthew 13; it’s the leaven of the Kingdom. We know leaven is yeast; you work it into dough. We lived in Weaverville; we only had wood heat and not even a little space heater for 17 years. Benny would make homemade bread, and she would work that yeast in, work the dough, and sometimes the house was just too cold where the kitchen was, so she’d put it right next to the wood stove, and the fire would activate the yeast, and it would rise. Fire always activates whatever yeast is in your mind; it always activates and reveals. It’s a revealer; it reveals what has been planted.
So Jesus warns against two different kinds of leaven, and leaven represents worldview, ways of thinking. He warns against the Pharisee mindset and the political, or Herod’s, mindset. Herod’s is the political spirit; it doesn’t mind you having a belief in God; it just doesn’t want you to bring Him into the equation, which sounds very familiar in our political climate. It doesn’t mind a belief in God; it just doesn’t want you to bring Him in where that’s a determining factor on policy, etc. The religious system has God at the center of everything, but He’s impersonal and powerless; He’s figurative, not relational, and the Kingdom is the opposite of both of those.
He’s at the center of everything and defines everything by His own person, His own presence. Everything is defined by the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; every value. In Him, we live and consist and have our being. So Jesus warns about these value systems that could, and will, persuade you out of the reality of the Kingdom of God, which is the greatest reality in existence. Paul told us what you can’t see is eternal; what you can see is temporal. The Kingdom of God is not meat or drink; it’s not here in the physical; it’s righteousness, peace, and joy; it’s in the unseen. It’s a superior reality, but thinking from that place gives you a different approach to a problem in the natural.
Thinking from the natural, at best, makes you a beggar hoping to God to invade a major situation. We leave the posture of sons and daughters when we pray only from Earth to get Him to invade a problem, and yet what He’s trying to build in us is an awareness of identity and purpose so that we can effectively use His name, His authority, to accomplish His purposes. It’s not about our kingdoms; it’s not about our fame or success or any of those things; it’s not about my fulfillment of dreams. That’s always a byproduct of fulfilling His.
If God’s not listening to your prayers, maybe talk to him about what He likes to talk about—just a PS. Both of these realities, the political spirit and the religious spirit, both have one overlapping common denominator. If you study the Gospels, you’ll see this repeated over and over again: both of them are heavily influenced by the fear of man. The Pharisees wouldn’t answer a question because the crowd would turn on them; they refused to answer Jesus’s question. The political system refused to make this decision because of what this group thought. Pilate ended up crucifying Jesus because of the political environment. The motivator for many decisions in these two realities is the fear of man.
And the crazy thing is they all think it’s wisdom. Fear masquerades as wisdom, whether it’s fear of a disease or fear of man; it doesn’t matter what it is. Fear will always attract whatever information is needed to legitimize its existence. Fear reinforces itself. I personally believe this—a little side note here—I personally believe that we, as everybody I’m sure would agree with, all have strengths, but those strengths can be turned into weaknesses. Would you agree with me? The boldness of Peter didn’t always work so well, but it really worked well once it was under the Lordship of Jesus. Are you with me?
All right, the fear of man I think starts out as a tender heart that has compassion and care for other people, but the enemy works to manipulate it so that we are actually governed by the gift instead of governing the gift for Kingdom purposes. He works to turn our place of perception from compassion and concern for the condition of people around us to a place where we become imprisoned by the opinions of people around us.
Back to the subject—so Jesus talks to these guys, and let’s go to the end of the story first. He says, «When I fed the 5,000, we started with five loaves; how many baskets did we have left?» They said, «Twelve.» He said, «When we fed the 4,000, we started with how many loaves? Seven? How many baskets were left over?» They said, «Seven.» So you mean to tell me that when He fed the most people, He started with the least amount of food, and He had the most leftovers? Starting with more is not an advantage. Starting with more—that’s Wall Street’s perspective; that’s not Kingdom.
You were chosen not because of your strengths but because of your weaknesses. You were chosen—why? All of eternity will be spent by us looking at each other’s lives in honor and celebration, but giving thanks to God because it was all by grace. We’ll see it clearly; it was all by grace. Nobody got here on their own; everybody got here by grace. It will be actually the inspiration for praises for all of eternity. Ephesians 2 says it’s going to take the ages to come to unravel the mystery of the surpassing greatness of His grace.
So here we are. He says, «When I broke the 5,000 five loaves for the 5,000, how many baskets did you have left?» They said, «Twelve.» Now go back to verse 17; let’s take a look at this, and let me talk to you for a few minutes about it. «Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened?» This is interesting because conversion gave us the capacity to see. John 3:3: unless you’re born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.
The implication is your conversion gives you the capacity to see. Now in this passage, Jesus says, «Okay, you can’t see; is your heart still hard?» Now, never does He do that in shame; it’s never to rub our noses in something; it’s never to make us feel hopeless. It’s always an invitation to maturity; it’s always an invitation to growth. So He’s pointing out some weaknesses in their perception. What’s the problem here? If you read through this chapter, you notice they just were used in multiplying food a second time for the 4,000. They go from multiplying food to a boat where they don’t have enough food, and they’re afraid of not having food for lunch.
«Why do you reason that you have no bread? Why did you start your thinking with what you lack, with what you don’t have?» All right, let me ask you the question: how many of you have had, honestly, supernatural provision from God? You’ve had God provide for you supernaturally. How many of you, after that miracle of provision, had another financial problem? How many of you were as afraid the second time as you were the first time? All right, that’s the issue right there—our experience in the supernatural is supposed to train us how to think and how to see.
When He asked the question, «Why do you reason?» He never asked that to them in their beginning stages of discipleship; He never would have expected them to have that awareness. The God of the impossible, unlimited supply, is with us. He wouldn’t have expected it, but now that they’ve experienced multiplying food twice, miracles are expensive because they require change.
Miracles that are just observed and applauded but don’t shift perspective have not had their full impact. They’re supposed to actually change the way I deal with the situations of my life. Once you’ve seen supernatural supply, you’ve lost every right to start any thought process with what you don’t have. As I heard somebody say recently, «Once you’ve seen supernatural supply, you’ve lost all rights to begin any thought process with what you don’t have.»
See, miracles are expensive because they require shift; they require change. Any thought process that I start with what I don’t have will have to be repented of because anything I build on it is built on sand; it’s built on that weak foundation. People around you will applaud you; they’ll call it common sense—common to what world? What kingdom is it common to?
«Why do you reason that you have no bread? Don’t you understand? Can you not perceive?» Then He goes on and asks three questions: «Having eyes, can’t you see?» I don’t know about you, but often I find myself in that situation going, «Nope, I cannot see.» I know it’s me, but it’s real. I cannot see.
He goes on and says, «Can’t you hear? Do you have any ears? Do you not hear?» I do hear better than I see, but there are times I’m in a situation where I can’t see; I can’t perceive. It’s seeing from the heart, you understand. We’re not talking about open visions of angels and all that; that’s all wonderful, but that’s not the normal, everyday seeing of the heart of a believer.
I’ve had situations where I remember praying for this guy who had an issue with his back, and I couldn’t see it with my eyes, but I could see it clearly from my heart. There was a black substance on his back that was clinging to him. I know it sounds weird. I didn’t make a big deal of it. The person I was praying with said, «Pull that off his back,» and since we had worked together long enough, they knew just to do what I asked them to do, so they just went as though they could grab this black mass and pull it off his back, and he was healed.
It’s a seeing; it’s a perceiving. Here’s what I’ve learned: He says, «Having eyes, can’t you see? Having ears, can’t you hear? And do you not remember?» The first two, most of us would attribute to somebody connected to their gift. That person really—Chris, for example—has an unusual ability to see. He can see with his natural eyes what I can’t even see by faith. You know, he sees it with his natural, and it’s a gift.
So sometimes seeing, we would relegate to somebody who has that unusual gift, or their hearing; they just have such an ability to hear from God. I love whenever they share something because I can tell they’re hearing from God. But remembering has never been attributed to a gift.
See, I may not have what I think is a qualified gift to see, and I may not have, in this particular season of my life, an ability to hear well, but I can always remember. Psalms 119:11 says this: «The testimony of the Lord is your inheritance forever.» Say that with me: «The testimony of the Lord is my inheritance forever.»
Now, what’s interesting about that is that verse does not say your testimony is your inheritance forever; it says the testimony of the Lord, which then opens it up to everything God has ever done in all of time, in His affair with people, in His activities with people. That means when the water came out of the rock for Israel, that’s my story. That’s my story!
It’s part of my inheritance. Now, there are some times people don’t enjoy their inheritance; they don’t use their inheritance; they leave it where it is. You know, they inherit a home but never stay there. A lot of us have inheritance in God that some of you never knew were yours, but these are your stories.
When Jesus walked upon that funeral, and a dead child was being carried to be buried, and the mother was weeping, Jesus, with the Father’s heart, was so deeply moved with compassion, He raised the child up. That’s your story! That’s your story.
Why is it important? Because prayerfully meditating on the testimony of the Lord equips us with the ability to see. Here’s what happens for me: I get in situations where I’m trying to see, and I can’t see. There are times I can’t perceive what He’s saying, what He’s doing. I’m trying to hear, and I’m trying to, you know, I’m trying to prime the pump. You know I’m reading the Scriptures and doing, and I’m not hearing at all, but I can remember.
And I’ll stop, and this is what I’ll do: I’ll stop and say, «All right, two weeks ago, we got a testimony of pancreatic cancer being healed—one of the most horrific kinds of cancer anybody could ever have. And right after that, I saw a woman with ALS healed—two of the most horrible diseases.» This is the season for going after horrible diseases! «Where did you get that? We got it from the testimony; it shaped how we think.»
I remember flying back from New Zealand; I spent some time, several years back, with Winky Pratney. He’s a wonderful friend and a hero of the faith for me, and he had had a stroke, and it literally blew up like a quarter of his brain. Through the renewing of the mind, the Lord had healed his brain.
I had just been with Rolland Baker, who had a disease that was eating his brain. They have x-rays, and his brain was dying. So here I’ve got the two smartest men I know—Winky Pratney and Rolland Baker are the two most intelligent guys I think I’ve ever met. Here they both had brain issues that were going to take their life, and they’ve been healed. I came back thinking on the airplane, «This is interesting! God must be healing minds! He must be healing minds! We’ve got to target this—God going after trauma of the brain!»
So here, out of that—not out of a word of knowledge, not out of sometimes He’ll speak to me something, or I’ll see a picture of it; sometimes He just puts it in my heart—I can tell there’s a faith for something. This wasn’t that; this was seeing what He’s doing. So I called out brain trauma. We had one of our own staff guys that had a horrible, horrible fall and had not been able to do anything with his children, any kind of activity with any kind of movement. He couldn’t be in the room when a difficult subject was being discussed; he just would go into panic mode; he couldn’t function.
He was in here when I called that out. He went into the men’s room and just calmly put his head against the wall as his act of faith, and he was completely healed. A woman sitting right over here, a 2-year-old child, had grown up with an abusive husband, an abusive father, and that child was beat as an infant—a misshapen head, disassociated. Wouldn’t associate with parents or people. Some of our students right over there just laid hands on this child. The next morning, the child walked into the mother’s room, which never happened; a child walked into the mother’s room and said, «Mommy, I’m okay now.»
See, it’s supposed to be that feeding 5,000 and feeding 4,000 become the lenses through which you see an empty boat without food. It’s supposed to be the way I see the present challenge. It’s supposed to affect perception because it causes me to look at things differently. By the way, that child’s misshapen head, I believe, was completely normal by the next morning—completely normal!
How different lenses see! To pray for miracles, to look for God to do what only He can do, and then not be changed ourselves in how we think and how we see challenges, problems, is to miss the point. So Jesus, He got His disciples cornered; they’re on a boat; they can’t go anywhere, and He says, «Can’t you see? Is your heart still hard?»
If I’ve ever lived in a season, we’ve got two things going on. We’ve got the residue or whatever you want to call it from the last 18 months, and we have these ongoing testimonies that are being handed to us that are some of the most extraordinary miracles we’ve ever seen. Some of them are happening—pancreatic cancer. A student stood in proxy for her mom—fourth stage. They were going to run scans on her to see if she could survive three 16-hour surgeries beginning in the month of June, and the scan came back: there’s zero cancer! The mother—excuse me, the daughter just stood in proxy, long distance.
It’s supposed to be one of the primary lessons of this last season of having to do things on Zoom and online and all that stuff: the amount of miracles. As it is right now, we have a great number of people that are becoming born again literally through the declared word online. The miracles—empty wheelchairs, out of comas. I have one friend; he’s seen two resurrections from the dead—all through online, all through Zoom—extraordinary miracles taking place. What is it? It’s learning to think and to see from God’s history with people.
See, for many, their history works against them. «I’ve been prayed for a thousand times; nothing’s ever happened!» «Yeah, we prayed for my mom, and she passed!» What is it? It’s not that we pretend those things never happened or that they never existed; it’s that we bring them into the relationship with the Lord so He can heal the place of pain and turn it into a place of strength.
Every loss is supposed to be a place of vengeance—not your vengeance, not mine, but where God shows Himself strong. Somebody wrote a book years ago: «Don’t waste your sorrows!» Don’t experience tragedy and then let it just sit there and haunt you; use it against the enemy! Use it! Why build a life formed around the disappointment of loss when you could use it for the place of promotion for breakthrough?
Pancreatic cancer? I just mentioned to you: what did my dad die of? Pancreatic cancer. Two days before he died, I talked to Rick Joiner on the phone, and he said, «God’s going to use this to give you seven times greater anointing against that disease.» You have to bring this stuff before the Lord. I can’t make anything happen; you can’t make anything happen, but I can be available. I can find myself leaning in the right direction. I may not be moving fast, but if I’m just moving in the right direction, there’s hope. It’s you bringing this stuff before the Lord.
Say, «Let Your name be exalted, God. You take—you have the last laugh; You have the last say in this matter.» And then suddenly, you start attracting these stories; you start attracting this news of what God has done and what He’s doing. You will always attract whatever you value.
We did this two weeks ago: any person who values gossip, you put them in the middle of a business with a hundred people; they will naturally attract every person in that business that values gossip. But the same is true with testimony; the same is true with words of faith—you will attract what you need.
«Having eyes, can’t you see? Having ears, can’t you hear? Can you at least remember?» Remember! So He takes me through that list. I go, «Yeah, I’m not seeing well. Oh, my hearing stinks. Sorry, but I can remember.» The first two are attributed to gifts; the third is attributed to willingness. What am I willing to feed my soul on?
So I pray that in this next season, everybody in this room, every one of us, would literally be a magnet to hope and to faith and to testimonies of things that reinforce the why—why we’re alive, the purpose for our life—that it would not be void of the supernatural interventions of God. It would not be occasional; it wouldn’t be that Russian roulette thing, or maybe it’s God’s will, but one out of ten times; no, not that! This is the heart; this is the nature of God.
It is for the people of God. We come with the violence of a John the Baptist, who lays hold of that which has been promised. I pray for that, Father. I pray that You put a grace over every family, that we’d find ourselves mysteriously running into the very story we needed and that You’d help us to wear them like lenses and see through Your history. Awaken for us in the Scripture the very report of the Lord that we need in the season we’re in.
I’m praying, Father, for every part of our family—online family, local family—that You would equip us with the eyes to see what’s been in front of us all this time. See, if this story is true, and it’s from Jesus, so obviously it is, this could represent the greatest spiritual reality in my life, but the hardness of heart can make me blind to what’s right in front of me.
And so often we’re praying, «God, how come? How come You haven’t provided? God, how come the miracle hasn’t happened yet? How come? How come? How come?» When right in front of us is the reality that requires a response, but we’re too hard to see what He’s put in front of us.
So Lord, we turn intentionally away from all those things that would build that crust in our heart to what You’re saying and to what You’re doing, and help us to be unusually tender to Your voice, to Your presence for this next season. I pray in Jesus' name.
The Bible says Jesus made this statement: I was reading it this morning, «What will profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?» What does it profit? What would profit a person to have every dream you’ve ever had, every thought, every ambition fulfilled, and yet you lost your own soul?
In that moment, every person would trade every experience, every blessing, everything they ever had in life for that one sound of Him saying, «Well done, good and faithful servant.» There’s nothing a person wouldn’t give in that moment for that very word. I believe that the Lord brings us together.
We have, oh goodness, I think it’s eight to 10 people a week are coming to Christ just in our online service, but I want to make sure that everybody in the room knows what it is to be forgiven—that’s right—to be brought into the family of God and to be a follower of one; His name is Jesus.
And anybody that would be in this room and just say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building; I don’t want to leave the property until I know I’ve found peace with God, I’ve been forgiven of sin, and I’ve truly become a follower of Jesus.» If that’s anybody in the room, just put a hand up real quick where you are. Give just a moment to look around the room; wave it at me if I miss you because I want to make sure we give full opportunity for everyone here to make that confession of faith toward Jesus.
All right, online, put in the chat that you want to surrender your life to Jesus, and we have pastors there that are ready to talk with you, to pray with you, and we believe this can be the absolute beginning of a whole new life for you. Bless you! Why don’t you go ahead and stand? Tom, come on up and tell them what they’ve won.