Bill Johnson - Position Yourself for Revival, Reignite Your Relationship with God
We hunger not just for routine and formula; we hunger for the reality of presence, the glory of God. The days directly ahead of us, if we yield to them, will be demonstrations of the glory of God unlike anything we’ve ever seen or heard before. They will rewrite our understanding of God’s intentions on Earth. All right, is it still morning? Yes, it is.
Good morning! Nice to see you all. It’s wonderful to have people in the room. It’s amazing! I’ve told you in recent weeks that I discovered I am addicted to humans, and it’s a very serious addiction. It’s so good to be here. How many of you remember when you were kids and they would sing that little song, «Liar, liar, pants on fire»? Does anyone remember that? I saw a meme again this week that I thought was worth repeating: it said, «If a liar’s pants really caught on fire, the news would be more fun to watch.» That’s one I wish I could take credit for. In fact, I’d record it, but I better stop right there before I get in any more trouble.
Why don’t you open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 10? We’re not going to read the poem story, although it would certainly be worthy of our time; it’s just the time we have and what I feel I need to do. What I want to do is take you on a mental journey back to the Gospel of John. Walk through this with me: in chapter 11, Lazarus is resurrected. At the beginning of chapter 12, Mary takes the costly ointment and pours it over Jesus. Following that is the triumphal entry, where people lay down clothing and palm branches as Jesus enters the city.
Never underestimate the value of abandonment in your worship and how it affects and impacts the atmosphere and climate of an entire city. Following that priceless act of worship, we have people crying out, «Hosanna!» The Passion Translation says, «Jesus, be our Savior!» An entire city’s atmosphere changes in response to the offering of one person because it was everything. It impacted the atmosphere of a city. We’re going to move from that into the subject of prayer, which has been on my mind a lot, given what the Lord’s doing here.
I had someone say to me, «I want reformation, not revival.» Of course you do! We always want a resurrection without a cross. Revival is where we experience the holiness of God, the power of God, and it’s costly to live in it. It’s where you die. I’ve watched as people have said yes to what God was doing in them, and it cost them everything. I saw this 25 years ago when an outpouring began here and family members left in some state; it cost them everything to decide if they wanted more of God or something else. I don’t say that to criticize anyone who left because that’s not the intent. A lot of really good people left for whatever reason. My point is that revival is expensive, moves of God are costly; they require people to die.
Revival introduces you to the holiness and power of God, while reformation introduces you to the mind and heart of God. In revival, your yes is so significant and so big that you gain favor with God at a new level. I understand everyone has favor, but do you realize that favor grows? It can increase or decline. Well-used favor is how you increase favor. Here’s the point: the Lord said that when we find favor with God, He makes even our enemies be at peace with us. The way you obtain favor with man is by first obtaining favor with God. When you pursue the favor of man instead of the favor of God, you get neither; you may get political agreement, you may get social interaction, but you won’t get the kind of favor that shapes history.
I’ve seen people compromise their testimony to obtain favor with man, but that’s not the kind of favor that will change the course of history. What the Lord has called us to is to be a people who experience the ongoing fires of revival—the costly experience of saying yes to God. Chris shared a word with us a couple of months ago, and it’s been echoing in my heart and mind for quite a while. In fact, Andrew Mason sent a little video clip from the Rocky III movie, and I’m not even Danny Silk talking to you about movies. Of course, if I were as good as Danny, I’d have the clip up here for you.
It truly is a moving scene and has impacted me deeply. Let me take you through it: In Rocky III, he’s wealthy, powerful, successful; he’s had ten fights with young guys coming up, and he beat them all. He wants to fight this one guy he’s heard of, an up-and-coming fighter who is so hungry. He goes to his trainer and says, «I want you to train me for one more fight.» The trainer responds, «I won’t do it; I quit.» Rocky asks, «What do you mean?» The trainer says, «You’ll lose. What do you mean I’ll lose? I’ve beaten all these ten people.» The trainer replies, «They were handpicked.» Rocky argues, «You mean those fights were rigged?» The trainer says, «No, you beat them, but they were handpicked.»
They continue their dialogue, and Rocky insists, «I want to fight this guy and I want you to train me again.» The trainer warns him, «He’ll kill you to death,» which is the worst kind of death—to be killed all the way to death. The scene goes on, and after they’ve exchanged words, the music dials down into a mellow score. They sit down on a couch together, and the trainer turns to Rocky, who asks him, «How come you say I won’t win?» The trainer responds with one line: «We’ve become too civilized.»
You see, favor gives you an opportunity to settle, and it’s not that favor is wrong or not a gift from God; it serves a different purpose than what we are accustomed to. Typically, what happens is people pay a great price for revival; they experience the move of God, they see miracles. I had to come today for that song! As far as I’m concerned, we can start with that and end with that. For two hours, let’s just sing that song. I’m already a mess; I cried my eyes out during the first service, and I’m still a little damaged. That song was so powerful; don’t tell me He can’t do it!
Come on, let me tell you about the hotel back east. A week and a half ago, a lady at the front desk, who I think was a manager, said, «I’m concerned. I fear for the people who listen to you.» We were discussing what God is doing, and I believe God is still doing it. She said she fears for me, and I replied, «Well, I fear for you.» So, when I checked out, she followed me and asked, «Why do you fear for me?» I said, «Because you’ve made it spiritual to disobey Jesus. He’s the one who said, 'Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils, cleanse the lepers.'» So, what if you stink at it? You don’t have the right to change the assignment.
Our conversation was hospitable; I don’t mean to be dishonoring, but it was honest. What happens is people die, so to speak; they say no to everything in their life and yes to God, and something takes place where incredible things happen—things you’ve dreamed about that you never thought you’d see in your lifetime. Yet, now I’ve seen—just in the last couple of weeks—hundreds of people completely healed and set free from so many different things.
I’ve watched as favor opens doors you’re not supposed to go through. I know it opens right doors too, so anything I say today will give you the opportunity to completely abuse me. I’ll just give you permission to be weirder than you already are. It’s worth the risk because maybe somebody will get it right, but favor brings you into a place of blessing and breakthroughs of things that suddenly start moving into reformation, which is where life works. People want their families to be healthy. They want their businesses to succeed. They want the educational system to function well. They want children to grow up with dreams, and all these things are part of reformation.
What happens in reformation? You get favor. Why? Because life works. But what happens is we forget that in a season of favor, it’s easy to become too civilized and forget what got you there. Forget that it was the painful yes, the yes to everything else, the willingness to be ostracized, criticized, abused, all that stuff. I hardly ever talk about this, but I’m feeling something strongly in this season—not just today, but in this season. We have prayer meetings out there. A couple of weeks ago, how did it get so warm all of a sudden? Someone’s prayer must have worked, because one of the last ones I was in was so cold! In fact, I was in the school of ministry teaching; I was freezing and should have had a big goose down sleeping bag around me.
But you know what? I kind of like it. I’m not into self-punishment or self-abasement; you can call it spiritual. But something’s happening right now where I feel like I really don’t want to make anything easy for anybody. I’m sorry, but I’m in that mood again. I just feel like I know what it’s like to work out in the old gym, and I also know what it’s like to stay in the five-star hotel. I’m thankful for the journey, but I fear what happens if we forget what got us here.
Sometimes you just need to train in the old gym; sometimes, it’s just the hardcore inconvenience, the «no» to everything for the greater purpose of God. What God is doing in this moment is worth my entire life because Cy Keith provided us an example years ago. How many of you were here when Cy Keith was here? Not very many. Well, I’ll blame Cy if you don’t like the example. I’m not a gambler, but he used a gambling example, so I’ll blame him. He’s such a great man.
He talks about starting with so little in life—the chips you put in the middle of the table—and then you win, and you’ve got this pile of chips. Well, it’s time to put them all in the middle of the table again, and you keep winning. You never want to find that place where you level off and live off your most recent breakthrough; you continue to invest in what might be possible—something the world has never seen.
Think about this: the Lord has promised to do a new thing. Is it possible that He’s actually thinking of something that has not yet been done before? The way things work throughout revival history is that He pours out His Spirit upon people who generally don’t know anything; they don’t know enough to resist. You read history—it’s true! A bunch of young people just started praying, walking the streets, not knowing how God moves. They got so hungry they were unwilling to live without it, and began to pray.
I remember when I was in my late teens and early 20s. I was about 18 or 19 years old, and we asked for the keys to the church just so we could come and pray all night. We got people together to pray. We didn’t know what we were doing; our prayers were pretty pitiful. We didn’t understand the importance of worship or anything, but we caught a glimpse of what might be possible in our lifetime and meant to pray. We did the best we knew how; we stayed there all night, praying, asking God to do something significant.
We are in that moment again in Luke chapter 10. I almost forgot—blame it on the song «Don’t Tell Me He Can’t Do It.» Verse 38 says it happened as they entered a certain village. A certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word. This is the one who, in some ways, ushered in a movement in Jerusalem through her sacrificial worship. She sat at Jesus’s feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving.
Say that with me: Martha was distracted with much serving. You’ve heard the statement that «good is the enemy of the best.» If ever there was an illustration for that, it was here. Martha was distracted with serving. Busyness is artificial significance; it gives the illusion of importance. Some of our greatest accomplishments come out of rest. If we’d realized that, we’d fight for it more.
Martha was distracted; she approached Him saying, «Lord, do you not care that my sister left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me.» That’s awesome! I just thought this morning, wouldn’t it be great to do a Bible study on all the bad counsel given to Jesus? Like when Peter said, «Man, don’t die! That’s not a good plan. Don’t die.» Here’s another one right here: «Tell her to help me!»
Jesus answered and said to her, «Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about so many things. But one thing is needed. Mary has chosen a good part, which will not be taken away from her.» My goodness! I’d like to suggest that it was that one thing that impacted the atmosphere of an entire city, bringing about what we celebrate today, Palm Sunday.
Chapter 11, verse 1: It came to pass that as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, «Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.» Stop right there for just a moment. You’re very familiar with the prayer, but just walk through this with me for a moment. I don’t know of any other thing they asked Jesus to teach them.
Now, let’s put ourselves in their shoes: if you see Him multiply food, if you see Jesus walk on water, if you see Jesus raise the dead, if you see Jesus calm storms—there probably would have been a lot of things on my list I would’ve had Him teach me. But for some reason, in their minds, they could trace all that back to this one thing. The only time they asked Jesus to teach them was in this verse where He said, «Teach us to pray.»
There’s a place where John the Baptist is beheaded, and they come to report it to Jesus, and Jesus is impacted. Remember, He has all the same feelings and temptations we face, though His was without sin. He still experiences disappointment and loss. I personally think Joseph probably died prematurely because you don’t see him in the picture later in life; that was something Jesus had to walk through. In this case, we see John the Baptist die; Jesus looks for a place to pray by Himself but the crowds follow Him.
He’s moved with compassion and ministers to the crowd, but then He goes to a mountain to pray. The disciples noticed that when He came down from the mountain, every single sick person in the crowd got healed. They’re seeing the miracles, but they’re not asking for Him to teach them the miracles; they’re asking Him to teach them how to pray because, in their observation, that was the source of it all—the one source that drew the crowds, the one source that set the standard for everything Jesus was and did.
So, He taught them a prayer commonly called The Lord’s Prayer. It’s not an accurate title because it’s not a prayer He could have prayed; it contains a confession of sin, and He had none. Let’s go through the prayer: «Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.»
Let’s stop right there. Sometimes familiarity creates resistance to the freshness God has for a particular passage. Sometimes I’ll get a different Bible to see it on a different part of the page; oftentimes I’ll get a different translation. I’ve got to do something to jar my sense of complacency and come back as a child to relearn again. I think one of the safest ways we walk with Jesus is to do whatever we can to examine our hearts and let the word examine us.
Here we have this incredible prayer. If you can look at it this way, this prayer is a template that reveals the values of God. If we could take this prayer and put it as a template over our thinking, what would happen is it would shape the kinds of values natural for us. It’s like this pattern; anything that doesn’t survive this template shouldn’t be in our lives in the first place.
He gives us this prayer, and I like what Jack Hayford says about it: «This prayer is not a formula for repetition.» Worship is to be longer than a sentence; petitions are not confined to bread; forgiveness is to be requested in specifics, not generalities. Prayer for the entry of God’s kingdom into present Earth-born situations is not accomplished in a momentary utterance. The whole point is that this is much more than a prayer recited; it is a template for prayer, yes, but for values and thinking because it’s about where the mind of Christ becomes evident in us.
Out of our own Christ-like nature, we think what He thinks and we pray what He would pray if He were standing in our shoes—not just religion that makes us dangerous. For example, we know there’s no cancer in heaven, so automatically there shouldn’t be cancer here. Is that true? It absolutely is. But how do you pray to get rid of it? That’s the part that’s often not asked.
As we come out blasting, we might think we know exactly how to deal with it when we sometimes don’t because Jesus handled every situation differently. He was always paying attention to the Father; He didn’t need to figure out if it was the Father’s will to heal that blind person— that was a given. That’s why He healed everyone who came to Him; He just needed to know how.
Ah, this one? I’ll spin in the dirt, put mud in his eyes, and then tell him to go find this lake. It sounds like the most cruel way to heal a blind guy, yet He never does anything out of cruelty; He always operates to build something in us. This man had to rely on others who knew his struggles to help him to that pool in Siloam so that he could wash his eyes and discover he could see.
It was a process that built the man, and the Lord has invited us into a relational journey where His value system, as revealed in that prayer—"Kingdom of God, come"—is fundamentally important. Jack Taylor taught us years ago that it’s not a petition; in the original language it isn’t, «God, we want Your kingdom to come.» It isn’t just a request; it’s a decree—"Kingdom of God, come. Will of God be done!»
It’s absolute confidence in the heart and mind of God, living under that template over our thinking, changing our options, changing how we approach any given problem. When we pray for the kingdom to come, we’re not praying about heaven; we’re praying about the reality of the lordship of Jesus to be felt and realized here.
The rest of the prayer? Various petitions that are all important, obviously. But what I’m feeling in this particular day is that I’ve watched now, extending into my 48th year of ministry, the waves of prayer, the waves of breakthrough, and the settling into the favor that breakthrough provides. The biggest danger for me—or maybe just me—is to settle into the favor that breakthrough provides.
See, the problem is, in revival you are opposed; you get used to it. In reformation, you start getting favor; you get used to it, and it’s just easy to forsake what got you here. What got you here? It was the fire of God’s presence. What got you here? It was the risky obedience saying, «I’m going to obey Jesus, regardless of the cost.» It was the fasts, the cries, the all-nighters in prayer. What got you here was that stuff.
But now we’re in breakthrough! I know, but I feel like I’ve got to get back to the old gym. It feels like I’m not allowed to function out of what I’ve learned; that’s probably not 100 percent true, so just take it as a thought. It feels, at least in a measure, like I’m not allowed to live from what I’ve learned up to this point.
It’s almost like a child who picks up a baseball bat or a tool for the first time; the point is relearning everything His way. The fires of revival were never meant to be abandoned for the greater thing because when you abandon the fire for reformation, the reformation is short-lived. It’s the cross; the willingness to withstand whatever comes is crucial.
I’m going to obey Jesus, regardless. It doesn’t matter what. I’ll be kind, I’ll be honoring, I’ll do whatever I’m supposed to do, and I’ll make sure to protect and guard my relationships. But the bottom line is, I’ll do what He says. I know what it is to pay that price; I know what that looks like. I don’t want to wear a t-shirt that says, «Been there, done that.»
I don’t know if any of this is making sense to anyone else. I might just be talking to myself this morning. I had about three things I felt led to discuss, and I’ve been confused all day. Sometimes you get it right; sometimes it’s just goulash—you take everything in the kitchen, throw it in a pan, and heat it up.
I’m not looking for applause, but thank you. I’ll take whatever. I’m processing Chris’s message; it’s jumping on me. I need to get on this side of the room; maybe D can help me. I don’t want to externally process—I have several things I want to keep internal.
I did see one thing he mentioned: «You want to walk a mile in my shoes? That would be boring. Spend 30 seconds in my head and that’ll scare you to death.» So, here we are—repositioning for the next season. It is different.
I don’t know what it’s going to look like. I believe that all the things we’ve experienced, that we’ve witnessed, and that we’ve been able to see continue. I’ve not seen any slowdown anywhere I’ve been going; instead, it’s only increasing. But I also have this sneaky sense that the simple is better.
Simple is better. If your eye is single, your body will be full of light. Jesus said if your eye is single, it’s the number one thing—your reason for being alive will affect everything about you. I feel like the Lord has led us to taste of so many wonderful things, and I’m thankful for every one of them.
But for me, it just seems like I’ve been finding my way back to the old gym again—just the tears. I cried my eyes out during the first service over that song «Don’t Tell Me He Can’t Do It.» It couldn’t have had a better message for me today!
I probably should have sat in the front row and just had them sing that for about 45 minutes. That would have been a clear enough message! I want you to stand because we’re going to pray and talk as we pray and wrap this up.
I guess I feel somewhat like a broken record, and it would be pretty redundant for me to emphasize prayer again. We’ve been hearing that for weeks, probably months. How many of you have felt challenged in your own personal prayer life?
Here’s what my prayer life looks like: if I have ten minutes to pray, I’m probably going to spend about six or seven minutes in worship. If I have an hour, it’s probably going to be 40–45 minutes in worship. The heartfelt connection—the awareness of God—is more important to me than any of the things on my list, as valuable as they are. That’s where I live: in that heartfelt connection.
I’ve been having this sense that I talked to a couple weeks ago about the war involved in prayer, and I’m becoming painfully aware of the atmosphere and climate we live in. Things happening in our nation at a dramatic pace—that, I tell you, not to pray is to be stupid! Prayers of authority, and prayers of absolute abandonment to the purposes of God are essential in this season! They always are, but I feel this deeply and strongly.
To say this nation would be saved, it would take a miracle. That has always been true, but it’s never felt truer than today. It has just multiplied. But don’t tell me He can’t do it! So that’s my new t-shirt: «Don’t tell me He can’t do it!»
I don’t think there’s probably a person in the room questioning what He can do. Where we question is what He wants to do, what He’s willing to do, what He could do through me or through you. So Father, I ask that You would cause infectious vision—the willingness to go back to the old gym, the simple ways of deep affection, the simple ways of crying out in the night.
All we want is for Jesus to be exalted. Lord, I thank You. I pray for our online community that there would be a mighty visitation from God in our online community with believers all over the world who join with us day after day. God, I’m asking that You would teach us how to pray—how to come off the mountain and see everyone impacted, just like Jesus.
We hunger not for routine and formula; we hunger for the reality of Your presence, the glory of God. The days directly ahead of us, if we yield to them, will be demonstrations of the glory of God unlike anything we’ve ever seen or heard before! They will rewrite our understanding of God’s intentions on the Earth.
God, I pray that You would actually teach us by the glory, by the manifest presence of Jesus. Show us Your heart, and let this template for prayer filter out of our lives all that has no value, empowering the things that do. I pray this in Jesus' name.
I know there’s always a chance when this many people gather that someone is here who doesn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus. That’s the most important reason we’re here: anyone who cannot say, «I am a true disciple of Jesus. I have been born again and forgiven of all sin.» If there’s anyone in that place, just put a hand up and say, «That’s me.» I’ll acknowledge you right where you are; just let your eyes catch mine, and we’ll come into agreement together.
Online, we have a bunch of people joining us; we’ve had so many people saved online lately. So I encourage you: put it in the chatbox; we have teams to pray with you, to talk with you. We’ve seen extraordinary miracles online!
Just last week in our prayer meeting here, we had two guys who were professional sinners—they were not church brats; they were professionals from another city. They heard that something was happening in a tent here, and they drove over. They sat in a two-hour prayer meeting, and at the end, one of them had the courage to stand up in front of Christians and say, «Does anyone need to get saved?»
Those two guys said, «That’s me! That’s me!» So we prophesy that online as well. I encourage you—listen! I don’t know how this works, but time is getting shorter. Someone asked, «Is this the last generation?» I don’t know, but it’s my last generation. That’s what we ought to remember: we really need to use this time wisely.