Bill Johnson - My Heart Burns for You
So Father, my cry, my cry, is that you would impart grace right now, that we would find our hearts burning for You at the most unusual and sometimes awkward times—sitting on the plane, in the hotel, wherever—just that we would be a people who know how to cultivate the burning heart of affection that refuses to be offended, that refuses to embrace resentment and all the negativity, because our hearts are burning for You. I saw a church marquee that was great; a picture of a sign at a church said, «It’s too hot outside to keep changing this sign.» I thought, «Man, maybe they’re from Redding!» Underneath it, it just said, «Sin bad, Jesus good.» Details inside. That’s one of the best church marquis I’ve seen—details inside! That’s awesome.
The pastor dies, and he’s waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him is a guy dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, a leather jacket, and jeans. St. Peter addresses the cool guy, «Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you into the Kingdom of Heaven?» The guy replies, «I’m Dennis, a retired airline pilot from Florida.» St. Peter consults the list, smiles, and says to the pilot, «Take this silk robe and golden staff. Enter the kingdom.» The pilot goes into heaven with his robe and staff. Next, it’s the pastor’s turn. He stands tall and declares, «I’m Pastor Bob, Pastor of Christian Life Center in Anaheim, California, for the last 30 years.» St. Peter looks at his list and says to him, «Take this cotton robe and wooden staff and enter the kingdom.» He replies, «Wait a minute! The pilot gets a silk robe and a gold staff, and I only get cotton and wood? How can this be?» Peter responds, «Up here, we go by results. When you preached, people slept. When he flew, people prayed.»
This is the second week of—uh, I think we’re doing three weeks or four weeks on the subject of prayer. I think it’s three or four. Anyway, there’s more coming. My wife started last week with a wonderful word on prayer, and they asked if I would do the second one. I love so many subjects. Perhaps the one that rocks me the most, in some ways, is the subject of prayer. When I was growing up, coming into early adulthood in my late teens, I hated reading. I read one book my whole life through school—I faked every book report! I hated to read. I read one book in the eighth grade about a hot rod, go figure! I still remember details of that book that marked my life. Just want you to know.
But I remember when I said that I would abandon all for Jesus—yes, I became an avid reader immediately, and that was a miracle all by itself! I remember consuming books, especially on prayer. I think I read seven or eight books back to back, just continuously reading about prayer. The whole issue of prayer, the privilege of communing with God, making a difference in the course of history, is a huge part of life. I’ve taught about many things over the years. I had three different topics chosen for this morning, trying to flip a three-sided coin to decide which one to do. But when it came time to speak in the first service here, my heart was just turning towards one thing. It’s not so much a teaching as it is just a conversation. It feels like a fireside chat—if we go outside, it will be absolutely like a fireside because it is hot out there.
I had an interesting experience about a week or two ago, and another experience about a week before that. Let me just take you through them. About a week or so ago, I woke up in the middle of the night, I don’t remember why—I might have used the restroom or something. I woke up but began pondering a particular problem that concerned me. If you’re anything like me, the wheels get going, and it’s hard to get back to sleep. I was locked in awake mode. The crazy thing is that when you function like that, all you’re doing is messing with problems you can’t fix; it’s got to be the worst waste of time ever!
But anyway, I was contemplating that problem, and I just couldn’t get back to sleep. Finally, it was maybe 20 minutes before it was time for me to get up that I dozed off. When I woke up at that moment, I immediately had this thought: my worship was replaced by worry. Let me give you some context. Something I learned to do quite a few years ago was—if I were asked by our students or others what the strength of my life was, if I had to reduce everything that I am and do down to one thing, I would say the strength of my life is my affection for Him; it’s my adoration. What happens is you find your heart just burning for Him in ways that don’t require works. Although I’m not going to say anything correctly, so just get used to it now.
It’s not a song that I sing, it’s not my hands raised; it’s just a burning heart for Him. The King—a King Solomon made this statement in the Song of Solomon: «Though I sleep, yet my heart is awake.» A number of years ago, I learned that as I was going to sleep at night, I would just lay there and turn my heart of my affection towards the Lord. In that moment, there would just be this engagement with Him, just a sensing of His presence. I began to discover that you have a better day if you have a better night. In Genesis, it says during creation: there was night and day, which made up the first day. So biblically, our day actually begins the night before. That’s when it starts.
I’ve been learning to turn my affection towards Him, and in that place of His presence, such peace comes over me that it’s very easy for me to go to sleep. In that place, it doesn’t matter if I’m on an airplane or at home in bed or in a hotel somewhere. That’s what I do; I turn my affection towards Him. Just as soon as that presence begins to settle on me, there’s great peace, and I just go to sleep. If I wake up in the night for whatever reason, it’s been—I don’t want to say it’s 100% because I don’t think I do anything 100% successfully—but the majority of the time, if I wake up in the night, I instinctively turn my affection back towards Him. This particular night, I didn’t. When I got up in the morning, I felt like the Lord spoke to me, and He said, «Worry replaced worship.»
I had probably done that a thousand times in my life, but it was the only time I recall Him actually speaking into the situation. «Worry replaced worship.» It would be like sitting at a table for worship and instead, I chose to give a seat to fear, anxiety, and worry. You know how when you have the Lord speak to you, things become clear that have been cloudy forever? Suddenly, in that moment, I knew, and it helped me to understand something that happened a week or two before that. If you can imagine with me—again, I’ve already said I don’t do this 100% of the time—but it is dominant, a predominant part of my life; a sense of affection for the Lord, in the middle of the day, just driving down the street, sitting in my office, it doesn’t matter when—I just consciously turn my affection towards Him, and He’s such a lover, He’s just drawn to that.
I don’t know if He comes, or if I go, or if I just become aware; I don’t care. I let the theologians figure that out. Right now, I just enjoy turning my affection towards Him, and He will come; He’ll just rest upon me. It makes such a huge difference in my life—this burning affection for Him. I love that song by Martin Smith, Delirious: «My heart burns for You.» That phrase is one of my favorite phrases in all of church history, literally in all of the music that I’ve heard. If you can imagine doing that day after day for an extended season, then I remember waking up one day, and it’s very hard to explain to you how—how many of you remember when you were children and spent your first night at someone else’s house and felt homesick? Or you went to summer camp and were just longing to be home? I remember that! Some of you were probably just glad to get out of the house, but there were a few of us that struggled with homesickness. Chris was glad to get out of the house; I was homesick. Well, I woke up that morning, and this is hard to explain, but let me do my best.
I woke up that morning and felt homesick, and I wasn’t sure why. In that moment, I felt homesick, just empty. I woke up and began to ponder and think, and I realized: oh, last night, I didn’t turn my affection towards Him. It’s hard to describe, but that abiding presence actually becomes home. That abiding presence is like a room that you’re in; it’s like the place where you live. I woke up with that homesick feeling. Thankfully, I could see it clearly, so I knew what to do. The point I want to make is there is something about this affection for the Lord.
The subject for today is prayer, so we’ll get there. What I’ve found in my own personal life is that being a worshiper positions me to pray effectively. How many of you remember way back in the «caveman» days, when there were these things called cassette tapes? Remember that? And even before that, 8-tracks? Yeah, alright. But we’ll just stick with cassette tapes. I remember getting a cassette tape of a teaching by a great man of God named Derek Prince. Anyone remember Derek Prince? Great Bible teacher, especially from the '70s. I remember listening to this tape, and he was talking about worship and prayer. He made this statement: if you only have 10 minutes to pray, take seven or eight of them to worship. Then he said you can pray for a lot of things in two minutes.
As crazy as it may seem, that statement changed my life because it marked me with the value that if I have 10 minutes or an hour or two hours—whatever it is—let’s say I have an hour that I’m going to take time to pray, I’ll take 40 or 45 minutes just to worship. Because you can pray for a lot of stuff in a short period of time. I would rather live from that connection of His presence. Something happens in that moment—subconsciously, you become aware of the heart of God. It’s not that you have to strive in prayer. You strive to pray, and you know it’s not that; you just pick up the heart of God. You find yourself instinctively praying His heart with insight into what He wants in that matter, and sometimes our prayers are even shorter.
Years ago, I had a purpose; my Aunt Helen talked to me once and said I should study the prayers of Nehemiah. She called them rifle shots. If you go through Nehemiah, you’ll find quite a few prayers in there, but they were all one-liners. When you’re outside of that bubble of presence, you pray long; when you’re inside, a few words change everything. The effect of your prayer is often determined by the place you pray from. Complaining is prayer in reverse. Complaining actually reveals that I’m losing the battle over my thoughts. Complaining, criticism, resentment—all that kind of stuff—just reveals that I’m losing the battle over my own thought life.
Say this with me: «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will.» Say it again: «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will.» That’s 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18. Let me read it to you out of the Passion Translation: «Let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. In the midst of everything, be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus.» Any situation that I cannot rejoice in or give thanks in means I’m losing the battle over my thoughts.
One of the problems for us is that the angel comes to us as an angel of light. Okay, look up here: the angel of light. What does that mean? It means he will always come to us differently than what he’s trying to accomplish. In other words, he never comes with a red rubber suit, horns, and a pitchfork. For example, offense will come into a person’s life because they think they’re functioning in discernment. Many times, people in prophetic ministry will be angry and bitter, but they’ll call it the burden of the prophetic. No, it’s true! I’m so thankful for our team because they don’t function in that way, but we have a history of being exposed to that for years. It’s justified because the enemy has come in like an angel of light.
What happens for each of us is that our gifts will determine what we’re most susceptible to. But for every one of us, the enemy comes as an angel of light, trying to sneak something into our hearts that actually works in opposition to what we are buying into. So this whole notion of being discerning, I actually open myself up for a spirit of offense and resentment, and all those things are actually outcroppings of this «angel of light.» Rejoicing and thanksgiving completely dismantle that mindset. They expose the root system that the enemy has—the lie that he has used to persuade people to buy into a lie.
Rejoicing, choosing joy… What does it say? «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.» Here we have joy and thankfulness sandwiching an effective prayer life. Rejoicing and thankfulness are absolute pure expressions of faith. It’s what sets us up to pray effectively. Being in the middle of conflict—a situation I don’t like, which, I wish I could change—but until I can honestly move into a place of absolute surrender and celebrate with joy and give thanks in the middle of what I don’t like, I am losing the battle over my thoughts.
Amen? Bill, that was a very, very good point, very good point! What happens to the person who learns a lifestyle—there was a man, a Catholic priest from many years ago called Father Lawrence, who wrote a book called «Practicing the Presence.» His whole ambition was to stay conscious of God 24/7. He never claimed to have arrived at that, but his point was that whether he was washing pots or in the prayer house praying, his awareness of the presence didn’t change. There’s something about the presence—if you can look at it this way: there’s nothing in heaven that is separate from the presence of God.
So, in essence, God Himself is the person of Heaven, and we are seated in Christ. It is a foretaste of eternity. I’m not saying He leaves us; I’m not saying we leave Him; I’m just saying there are times when my affections and thoughts are anchored in things that are inferior. It doesn’t mean He’s left me; it just means it seems that all the things that I am born for are out of reach in this moment until I repent and deal with my wayward thoughts and affections. Stepping back into that place—it’s not guilt and shame that gets me there. In fact, I had a thought this last week that I need to work on: we experience guilt and shame in the same measure that we overemphasize our role in our own conversion.
We are susceptible to guilt and shame in the same measure that we overemphasize our role in our own conversion. «Well, I found God!"—yeah, but actually, He found you first. «But I put my faith in Christ.» That’s right, but He gave you the faith to believe him. He called my name; I responded to His invitation. He initiated. I love God, yes I do, but He loved me first. Anytime we overemphasize our role in this equation, we become much more susceptible to guilt and shame because it’s a product of not being enough or doing enough.
This may sound kind of dumb, but I just, in some way, wish that we were known as the Church of the Burning Hearts. It’s a silly name, but I sure like the meaning. I’m already in trouble. I don’t want to change the name to Burning Hearts, but to the burning ones—the people who know how to be in that place of deep affection. I remember back—how many of you remember the energy crisis of the '70s when there were long gas lines and all that? Well, before that—way back—I remember listening to a man speak. He said his home, he lived on the second floor, and he and his wife found that it just took forever to get hot water from the downstairs water heater to their bathroom.
What he finally learned to do was right before going to bed, he would just turn the hot water on, just a little. So it would just continuously stream water, just a very little bit all night long, so that when he got up in the morning, he could turn that water on, and he had hot water instantly. That’s what a burning heart of affection is like! You don’t have to work your way into the presence to pray effective prayers. You’re there. You’re there! Why? Because you carry a burning heart of affection! There’s this continuous stream of presence—a continuous stream of being one that burns for the Lord. It’s not a works thing, although works come from it; it’s not a performance thing.
It’s not just singing the right songs; it’s just being conscious. You do that for a week, and you’re homesick when you miss a day. That’s all I know to say, is you can tell—because things aren’t as clear in your mind, things aren’t as clear in your heart, your understanding of scripture is not as sharp. Why? Because it’s not something you did wrong. It’s not punishment. It’s not sin; it’s just we were born for the glory. We were born for heaven. That’s what we’re designed for—and all these little things that come in, the offenses and questions, and you know what? If you have a problem with an individual, get a breakthrough in thanksgiving.
If you have a problem with somebody and you can’t give thanks, you’re losing the battle. Here’s the cool thing—you don’t have to! You were designed to win! You were designed to win! To give thanks in that situation, the job you have is troubling to you. You can either be the victim of bad circumstances or you can be the victor! You can be the person who turns it around—literally through the simplicity of rejoicing and thankfulness. Just to give thanks consciously, bringing someone to mind with whom you’ve had conflict and giving thanks that God causes all things to work for good.
«Lord, I do—I celebrate! I honestly celebrate the fact that You’re able to use anything that comes my way.» What I’ll do is look into that person’s life, especially when it has to do with believers. I’ll look into that person’s life and find the gift or that thing that they were called to do that has made such a difference in my life, or such an impact on this church, or whatever it might be—and just truly become thankful. Sometimes we’re not thankful for people because we haven’t stopped long enough to consider who they are in Christ. The Bible actually says we’re supposed to honor one another in the fear of Christ. Celebrate the value of a person.
My dad would have this statement that’s probably one of the most important things I’ve ever heard anyone say: «Wash a person’s feet till you know why they walk the way they do.» I remember being in a service—not here; it was somewhere else—and I’m not going to tell you where, but far away. I remember being in this service, and the worship was great, but there was somebody physically close to me who was just making all kinds of noise. I found it quite annoying because they didn’t seem to be singing the same song. In fact, I had this happen once in another country where the gal would only sing in between the lines and would not sing the words and had one of those piercing falsetto soprano voices.
There were two teenage girls standing in front of her who were trying so hard to worship, and then they would break down and laugh. I watched them the entire meeting; they would fight their way back to worship God, then they would succumb to laughter. I mean, it was a well-fought battle—they fought so hard! When the worship was over, I walked up to them and gave them both $20. I said, «Here, you earned this one!» It was one of those meetings! There was somebody over here that was just doing all that stuff, and I’ve been around this mountain enough; I know it’s stupid for me to think critically, so I’m not going to think critically. I’m going to press in and worship, and I didn’t have hard feelings; I just wish she would stop!
But true worship came to a close, and Heidi Baker was standing just a few feet away. She comes over and points to this woman. She goes, «Isn’t that amazing?» Then she said, «35 years as a prostitute, and now she’s free!» All of a sudden, all that noise that was annoying was a symphony! Heidi took the time to wash her feet and find out why she walks the way she does, and that limp became beauty. You see, it’s that heart of tenderness toward presence that makes us more prone to that conclusion than to all the others that we run into. There’s this crazy idea that the church is made up of Marys and Marthas, and nothing would ever get done if it wasn’t for the Marthas.
I remember that story: Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, and Martha was angry with Mary for not helping with the work. I’ve heard people say nothing would get done if it wasn’t for Marthas, and I’m pretty confident it was Martha who made that up! I’m pretty sure Martha made up that statement to justify her reasoning for making sandwiches. Jesus never ordered! Something happens in the glory. This is absolutely true—in the glory, things happen at such a higher level, a higher pace, and greater efficiency and effectiveness that you get done in one hour what might have taken days otherwise outside of the glory.
There’s something about being a people who cultivate awareness of His presence—the glorious One—changes everything! I know of situations where that glory has shown up—because of the affection, the adoration of worshipers—that affection just comes crashing in around a crowd of people that are literally surrounded by friends intending to kill them. The glory comes because there are these yielded, surrendered hearts of lovers of God, and that glory comes, and this army that is surrounding them to kill them falls on their faces, every one of them, born again! Every one of them get up healed! Every one of them get up speaking in tongues! Why? Because something happened! They could preach for 20 years and not arrive at that conclusion, but when the presence comes in that measure, everything changes.
The ambition should be the ambition of the burning hearts—the Church of the Burning Hearts. I’m changing the name here. Right now, just—this is just between you and me: Church of the Burning Hearts. St. Burning Hearts! No, no, something happens in the hearts of those who anchor themselves in that glorious presence. I want to read a couple of verses and then we’ll wrap this up. Open to Matthew 14—I’ve literally got just a couple minutes—but Matthew 14 might be good to take a look at. What impresses Jesus? Do you remember the story of the Centurion in the Bible? He had such a clear understanding of Kingdom authority and unusual faith that Jesus stopped in His tracks and acknowledged His wisdom and faith.
Remember the Syrophoenician woman who refused to be offended by Jesus’s comment that He couldn’t give the children’s bread to dogs? She overcame offense and stepped into great faith, and Jesus stopped and acknowledged that faith. Do you remember when Jesus was ascending to the Father after His resurrection? He was on His way to the right hand of the Father to be forever with the Lord. On His way, He saw Mary, out of whom seven demons had been cast, crying at the tomb. Jesus was on His way to the Father, and He was so moved by her love that He stopped the procession and communicated with her for a moment before going to the Father. What moved Him? That love!
In John the Baptist, Jesus was moved by the faithfulness of a man who would pour out his life for Jesus to come on the scene. He said, «He’s the greatest of all the prophets.» When John the Baptist was killed, it’s in chapter 14 of Matthew. It says, «Herod sent and had John beheaded in prison.» His disciples came, took away the body, buried it, and they went and told Jesus. Look at the next phrase: when Jesus heard it, He departed from there by a boat to a deserted place. We don’t know what Jesus was processing, but we do know He had the same emotional framework that we do. The Bible says He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. So there must have been some sort of challenge, emotionally and mentally, that He was facing, seeing this man He had just praised three chapters earlier, the greatest prophet, now beheaded.
It was so challenging that Jesus, the Son of God, sought a place to be by Himself. The very next scene, He’s with a multitude, and He multiplies the food—they are all fed. What does He do after that? It says in verse 23, «When He sent the multitude away, He went up on a mountain by Himself to pray.» What’s the point? In crisis, get along with God. In victory, get along with God. The very next story is that every person who came to Jesus and was able to touch His clothing was healed. The very last verse of this chapter—what’s the point? Stewarding our moments!
We all know how to pray when we’re in trouble. We pray instinctively when there’s a problem. People that don’t believe in God pray instinctively when there’s a problem. If you’re up there, right? But not all of us get alone after a great victory, and it’s in those moments that the metal we are made of, so to speak, is formed. The great breakthrough came following a second time praying. Get alone when there’s victory! It was in that next moment—anyone in the crowd who just touches cloth is healed. There’s such an extraordinary anointing that anyone who just bumps against Him has access to a miracle. It followed not prayer in trouble; it followed prayer in victory!
I believe this heart of adoration that the Lord is wanting to impart for us today as a church family. I know I’ve made reference to this for years, so I understand it’s not new. But I do believe there’s an impartation today. I believe He brought this to my mind because in declaring it, there would be burning hearts all over this room that would find it easy to just turn affection towards Him—to anchor into that place of glory, of presence, to draw from this wonderful God, and from that place, see effective prayers. I want to shape the course of history with my prayers, like you do! But sometimes, the strength of our prayer is actually determined by the place I pray from.
So, Father, my cry for us as a church family is that You would impart grace right now, that we would find our hearts burning for You at the most unusual and sometimes awkward times—sitting on the plane, in the hotel, at our neighbor’s home, wherever—driving to get groceries—just that we would be a people who know how to cultivate the burning heart of affection that refuses to be offended, that refuses to embrace resentment and all the negativity, just a people with Teflon hearts because our hearts are burning for You. Nothing sticks! Nothing of the inferior sticks to a burning heart! Nothing of the inferior sticks to a burning heart!
God, I pray that You would impart this grace to us today. Amen. I’m going to let you go in just a moment, but before I do, I want to make sure that everybody in this room has a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He came, He suffered, He died so that everyone here, our whole Bethel family that is watching online, can know what it is to be born again. It is the most important moment of your life. If I can ask for people not to walk around because this is too precious a moment—except for those up here—if there’s anybody here that would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave this building until I know I have found peace with God, until I know what it is to be born again,» then I want you to put a hand up, and I’m going to make an agreement with you. Right down here is one. Right over here is another one. Anyone else? Put your hands up high; it’s wonderful!
Alright, I see you; there are at least two that I can see. I want all of you to stand. This is what I’m going to ask you to do: if I could have the two of you that raised your hands, and anyone else I missed or you want to get in on this, I want you to come right over here to my left. There’s a banner, and there are people we know and trust. All they’re going to do is talk and pray with you because I want to make sure you leave with what you came here for. So just come on down, church! Why don’t you bless them as they come? Let’s have our ministry team come to the front as well! Come on up, ministry team!