Bill Johnson - Your Spiritual Inheritance and God's Heart for Continual Revival
But for me, having an impact on the course of history by shaping mindsets and cultural values and being able to help others step into breakthroughs is crucial. This encourages people to pay a price so that their next generation can inherit what they have, allowing every generation to surpass the previous one in anointing, insight, and breakthroughs. We are going to pray for some folks who need a miracle in their bodies, and I believe there is a team of people whom Eric spoke to. If Eric talked to you and you know who you are and have a word of knowledge, please come up here. Otherwise, it might just be in my imagination. Come on up, and you can bring the mic—oh, there it is. Great, come on up.
Every day is a good day for healing; it’s always a good day. The Lord gives us these directives in Scripture; one was covered in song tonight: «On earth as it is in heaven.» You know, it’s not a light prayer; it’s not just something to keep us busy until He returns. It’s a military assignment. It’s an assignment in prayer because God is looking for a prayer partner to agree with so that He can cooperate and fulfill His purpose for the earth and our purpose for being here. When we pray things like «On earth as it is in heaven,» it covers all kinds of issues. It deals with areas of difficulty, problems, depression, relationship issues—everything. But it certainly includes sickness. I believe that the Lord is going to give us a greater conviction for healing. It’s one thing to have a conviction for something you’ve done wrong; it’s another to have a conviction for something that God wants to do that is right, and they both stem from His righteousness. Healing is an expression of the righteousness of God; sin is to my body what sickness is to my soul. Sickness didn’t enter the world until sin did. It doesn’t mean that if you have an affliction in your body, there is sin in your life. That’s not the connection; the connection is that we live in a broken world, and the healing grace of Jesus is a demonstration of His righteousness. That’s why it says in Malachi that He will come with healing in His wings. The Son of righteousness will come with healing in His wings; it’s actually a demonstration of His holiness. When the Lord drives out an affliction, He is manifesting in a physical sense what holiness looks like.
We are going to recover a fascination with the word «holy»; it’s a word that is avoided by so many, yet it is the essence of all beauty. Yes, beauty is born from holiness; the Scripture says, «In the beauty of holiness.» So if we could just gear up tonight for this whole idea that the Lord Himself is going to demonstrate His own righteousness by breaking off affliction and bringing healing to people’s bodies, hearts, and minds, I believe the Lord just wants to set people free—and that’s always the case. But tonight, when we came in, there was such a strong sense. I know Chris called it out when he was praying up here a little bit ago: there’s such a strong grace, such a strong anointing for healing that I feel is the most important thing we can do right now.
We’re going to call out a number of conditions, and if you have a condition mentioned, just raise your hand; you won’t need to stand. We will have you stand in a little bit. I should know this better, but is there an L1 and L2 that has to do with the back? Yes? Where is it in the back? It’s right in here—right there. That’s where I saw it. I saw an L1 and L2, and the L1 was bolder, stronger, so that tells me there’s somebody here who needs a miracle in the L1 and L2 part of the back. It actually looked as though there was a hole in it. I’m not saying that was the problem, but that’s how I saw it. It was just a flash, and I saw this picture. The Lord is healing L1 and L2.
There’s also, I believe, the Lord is healing diabetes; it’s become a very common disease, and I feel like we’re supposed to pick a fight with that thing. We’re supposed to pick up stones and run after it because it’s becoming tolerated. Whatever you tolerate will dominate, we heard years ago. I feel like the Lord is healing that tonight. You will know when you’re being healed because I believe several of you will actually feel electricity go through your bodies, and you will know it’s the purging holiness of God driving that infirmity out at its root.
I also see someone here who needs a miracle in the lower right jaw. It’s in a tooth; I don’t know if it’s abscessed or what the issue is, but it’s the lower right side of the jaw. If that’s you, put a hand up. Okay, we’ve got several of those. Alright. So I’ve got a couple of words of knowledge: IBS or Crohn’s disease—just stuff in the intestinal area. Raise your hand if that’s you.
Now, IBS or Crohn’s—which one is it? I heard IBS. Okay, raise your hand if it’s IBS. Alright, Crohn’s disease. Raise your hands if anybody has Crohn’s disease. Okay, right. And then I saw a sty in people’s eyes—it’s just an annoying thing that scratches your eye when you blink. Alright, okay. And then I saw arthritis in the hands earlier—anybody with arthritis in the hands? Yes, if I were you, I would throw your hands up as quickly as you can whenever something mentioned that you have; don’t even hesitate—just put them up quickly because quick obedience gets quick miracles, and that’s what we like.
So, alright, go for it. The first I heard was tendinitis, so… okay, tendinitis—hands shot up. I saw a crushed big toe, and I saw it connected to a worksite, like a construction site, or just doing some sort of labor where the toe was crushed. Alright, does that make sense to anyone? Crushed toe? Some sort of a worksite injury? Plus, oh, you—I didn’t notice your hand; you’re working the camera. Bless you.
Alright, excellent. Now this one’s a little broader, but I was seeing a plane flying in the air and felt like the Lord wanted to heal people who have issues that keep them from flying, like circulation problems. You might avoid flying because of that, or there’s pressure in your head, and you just try not to fly because it’s painful. Good deal? Anybody with anything that qualifies for that? Alright, there’s quite a few. That’s a hard one to test tonight unless we launch you, which we may do in the parking lot. A number of times when there’s something it’s hard to examine; the Lord will give an unusual physical sign. For example, with head trauma, many times I’ve seen it—probably several hundred times now—where there’ll actually be a lightness in the brain after they’ve been healed, and yet it still needs to be tested. I feel like the Lord’s going to give signs for you just to encourage you.
Go ahead: sciatic nerve pain—pain in the back—is that your hand? That’s you? And extending down the leg? Okay. Alright, also, a dislocated jaw—okay. A dislocated jaw, I feel like it pops sometimes when you open your mouth; it doesn’t close properly.
Okay, and also someone here has a heart condition, but you are actually aware of pain in your heart tonight. Is that someone here? Okay. Yep, yep. If we don’t see you, you still have permission to get healed. Yes, beautiful!
Alright, I saw someone with issues regarding the nerve connected to the eye. It’s actually from some trauma to it; you’re having issues with your sight, and you might even have pain. Okay, does that make sense to anyone? Alright. And then I also saw broken discs in your back—broken discs. I don’t know if that makes sense to anyone?
Alright, right here. And then the last thing I want to ask—does someone have a nostril that’s closed; you can’t actually breathe through your nostril? It’s actually closed? Okay, alright. I feel like there are people in here struggling with asthma, particularly it’s triggered by eating certain foods, and you’re really struggling to figure out what’s causing this asthma. Alright, be healed in Jesus' name.
Yeah, there are a few. That’s great. Go ahead. I also feel like there are people in here with flat feet, where the arches of your feet have dropped; I feel the Lord wanting to heal that. Wow!
I’m just going to do another back one—again, just about here—must be muscle bruising. I felt like one was from a sports accident and one was from a car accident. And then the other thing I want to go after, because I’m lactose intolerant as well—is there anyone here who has that issue? Okay, yeah, you’d want to get healed from lactose intolerance because then you can’t eat ice cream! It’s one of the basic food groups. You know, I couldn’t eat ice cream for like 35 years because I had that, and last year I just tried it again, and guess what? I can eat it now. I don’t know what happened; I don’t know when it happened, I don’t know how it happened. All I know is that once I was blind, and now I can eat ice cream! Amen!
Alright, all of you that raised your hand for any of those conditions—I’m giving you a testimony to encourage you. Anyone who raised their hand for anything we just called, put your hand up now—I want to see how many there are. Oh my goodness gracious! Alright, if your hand is raised, please stand if you’re physically able. That’s a whole bunch of people standing. My goodness gracious!
Those of you that are sitting, guess what—you just got drafted. Here’s what I’m going to ask you to do: just wait a moment here; all of you that are standing, I want you just to rest in His presence for a moment because I have a sense the Lord is actually going to start healing people before we pray. So, Lord, we just give you thanks right now that it is Your will. You’ve declared in Your word and by Your actions that it is Your will, and You paid the price; You bore stripes in Your body as a payment for the miracles that are right now needed in this room.
So, I declare the healing grace of Jesus—the people with brain damage injuries are being healed as well. Just get into this tonight; the Lord is healing brain trauma, so we declare that healing grace, that healing word over you right now in Jesus' wonderful name. Manifest your heart once again, Lord. Holy Spirit, come. Thank You; it’s beautiful.
Now I want you just to try to do something you couldn’t do. In some way, challenge what you need prayer for, what you need a miracle in. If it had to do with your jaw, your arm, your digestive system, just put your hand—if it’s your digestive system, just put your hand there. Oftentimes you will actually feel—you’ll be aware of the Holy Spirit moving. About half the people we see healed feel it happen; the other half don’t know it until they’ve checked themselves. So, it’s why we ask people to examine themselves.
So try to move—just stir up whatever faith it takes to move in a way that was difficult, challenging, or restricted. Whatever it might be, let’s see what Jesus has done. Everyone that has already been healed, I want you to wave both hands over your head like this. We’re just going to celebrate! Right down here, there’s another; there’s another; there’s another back here—wave your hands! Stand for like 10 or 15 seconds—yeah, that’s beautiful. We’ve got about a half dozen, maybe seven or eight total that have already testified of healing grace. This is wonderful! The Lord is going to do a mighty, mighty work here.
What I’m going to ask you to do, all of you standing, in a moment I’m going to have you put your hand up. It’s the only way I can make sure that everyone has someone praying for them. Those of you sitting, if you’re a born-again believer and in right relationship with God and His people, please join with us. Even if you’ve never prayed for anyone before, He’s the healer, so it’s an easy one. You get to deliver a package that He paid for, and that’s all we’re going to do tonight—it’s that simple.
Here’s what I’m going to ask you to do: I’m going to have you go to someone who has their hand up, but I do not want you to pray until I tell you to, because I need to make sure that everyone has somebody serving them before we start. Okay, all of you standing, put a hand up! Those of you sitting, look around; you’ve got people to pray for. Just go to somebody—have them put their hand down. Okay, we have some rows where everyone in the row is standing, so we’re going to need some of you to crawl over seats.
Alright, keep looking around. I’ve got three or four right up here in front, and we have some others way in the back over there—way in the back. Okay, now there may be a case—since we have so many people standing now—please don’t start yet; some of you are already getting going; please don’t start yet. There may be a case where there are two or three of you next to each other. Please pick the person next to you and say, «I’ll pray for you if you pray for me,» and make some sort of agreement together.
Is there anyone else we missed? Wave a hand at me if we overlooked you. Okay, great! Here’s what I’m going to do: we’re just going to pray. I need you to find out what the problem is. Please keep your answers short; just give them a target. They don’t need to know your history. As you pray for them, lay hands on them. Learn to pray like Jesus did; He would actually speak to the problem and command it to be gone. All right, so let’s pray together. Holy Spirit, we invite you to come with power right now and glorify the name of Jesus through miracles, signs, and wonders. Amen. The Lord is healing ears tonight as well. Find out how to pray and then pray quickly. Thank you, Lord.
You should be praying by now. You don’t need a long story. If it’s appropriate to lay your hands, put them on the problem. Just a moment longer—another 30 seconds or so. The Lord is healing arthritis in the neck and upper back area. You may be praying for someone else in need of that miracle, so just receive it while you’re praying. I rebuke affliction on the eyes; I rebuke affliction on the blood. Diabetes, speak wholeness to the pancreas. Blood sugar levels, come into balance and order now in Jesus' name. Go ahead and end your prayer, but stay with the person. Don’t leave them.
Now just give me your attention. Always stay with the person. Don’t just hit and run; don’t just pray and then leave. Almost always, you need to stay with them to find out what’s happening. Now listen carefully: I don’t want anyone pretending they are well if they’re not. I don’t want that. I believe in the confession of faith, I believe in contending, but right now we’re looking for those who have had a miracle manifest in your body, and I never want anyone to feel pressured to do that.
Here’s what I’m going to have you do: if you prayed for somebody, I want you to be a part of their journey to find out what God has done. For example, if somebody was hard of hearing, I’ll whisper in their ear, and then I’ll back up again. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? Be a part of their discovery! In a moment, we’re going to find out what Jesus has done. As soon as you find out the Lord has healed you, wave your hands in the air and get a little happy, if you would. Check yourself out right now, everyone who received prayer—do something you couldn’t do.
As soon as you find you’re healed, wave your hands in the air. If you’re at least 80% better, wave your hands like this—do it for about 15 seconds, if you would. Both hands in the air like this. Some of you just have to keep praying. Hang on—I’m glad you’re eager! Honestly, sometimes instead of praying again, I’ll keep testing. For instance, if I’m behind them and they can’t hear me, I don’t pray again—I back up. I get farther away, and sometimes they say, «I can barely hear you,» because I’m 40 feet away and they don’t know they’ve been healed yet. That’s a part of the discovery, so I just want to encourage you to be a part of it.
All of you who were just healed, wave your hands over your heads—not mine; leave my head alone! That’s beautiful! Look all over the room—excellent! Now if the person you prayed for is 100% healed, don’t pray again—you might mess them up. Leave them alone. If they have another area to pray for, go for it again. I want you to tell me— we’re going to pray one more time. Jesus ministered to a blind man twice before he could see clearly; we need to be ready to serve a second time.
Turn and pray once again. Thank you, Lord. L1, L5, we declare divine health over you in Jesus' name. Absolute wholeness now in the name of the Lord Jesus! We speak wholeness and restoration to the nerve damage in the eye. We command the tormenting issues with the ears to loosen people now in Jesus' name. Just for another 15 seconds, hang in there! Thank you, God! Thank you, Lord!
Okay, you did good! Now just check yourself out one more time. If you were healed the second time we prayed, I want you to wave your hands over your head. I want us to see who you are. If you were healed the second time, wave your hands right down over here. There’s another one; there’s another one over here; there’s another one there; another one over there. Bless the Lord, thank you, Lord. Beautiful! Another one over here? Yes, thank you, Lord!
Go and be seated, all of you who got healed tonight. Wave a hand at me like this. Just put a hand up. Look at that! Look around the room—it’s beautiful! Why don’t you stand if you were healed tonight? Just stand up! It’s beautiful. We bless you, Lord! Yes, thank you, Lord God! Wonderful!
And others of you who were prayed for, you can find out in the morning. Sometimes it happens later in the evening; I don’t understand this at all. I just know that it happens sometimes. My favorite one is a Randy Clark story where a guy with blind eyes—his eyes were burned out with acid—and a gal prayed for him for several hours, and there was no difference at all. He got up the next morning, and there was no difference. But when he got up the third morning, he had two brand-new eyes—literally brand new eyes! His eyesight was perfect. So, to me, it’s kind of fun just living in anticipation of what’s about to manifest next. We’re not in control of it, but we get to be wonderful participants and spectators both. Just give glory to God!
Is there anyone who had something significant happen tonight that you’d be willing to testify about? I’d love to hear two or three testimonies of something Jesus just did. I need Tom if you could help me out or get me the mic. There’s one right there—just run back to him. We’ll have Tom run. See Tom run. That’s what this part of the service is all about.
What did Jesus do for you?
I had a really bad ringing in my right ear. It would literally keep me up at night. I was telling Tom that when it was quiet, I could hear it very clearly all the time. It’s completely gone!
How long have you had that?
About a year and a half. I got really, really sick to the point where I was dry heaving, and something in my ear popped. It’s been that way for about a year and a half, and now it’s gone!
Lord, we thank you. We thank you, Jesus! Beautiful!
Somebody else real quick? There’s one right back there, Tom—right in the middle. In fact, there are two of them. Just walk on water or on chairs!
So, a couple of weeks ago, I was actually prayed for about some abuse trauma. I grew up getting abused and all sorts of stuff, and I had no way to test it. When I would get my face touched, my whole body would just tremble; it was that bad. But I was just sitting there, and I realized I had my face prayed for, and I was completely fine! And I was getting my jaw prayed for because it was broken when I was a baby and it clicked my entire life. But as they were praying, I thought, «I’m not freaking out!» This is amazing!
That is so huge! Thank you, Lord!
How’s your jaw?
It’s still popping like really bad.
Guys, put your hands on there. I can’t imagine the Lord would just leave that healed and everything else and just leave that. So, Lord, we thank you that you heal jaws and we declare forgiveness over the one who caused the abuse. I ask now for the working of grace and healing that jaw for the glory of the name Jesus. Amen!
How are you doing?
It’s very light now.
It used to just go pow?
Yeah, and now it’s just kind of…
See? It’s on the way out!
Yeah!
Yeah, that’s beautiful! We celebrate that with you! That’s wonderful news!
We had another one here. We’ll do one or two more and then we’ll move on.
Yeah, I was coming to this service with pain in my back here. When you called L1 and L2, then the back problem for the second time, I just grabbed it; that’s for me! It’s been like seven months and on and off. But when my friend prayed for me over here for the second time, it’s completely gone! I can do all these movements! I came with limited movement, and my back was so painful!
Show us what you couldn’t do!
I do this—it was really limited. I couldn’t. I felt the pain, but now it’s just gone after the second prayer.
Interesting!
Yeah!
Beautiful! Now we have room—we have time for one more.
I wanted to get up when the other gentleman spoke because I had multiple personality disorder due to abuse as a child. Actually, during worship tonight, I felt all the parts come together and unite as one. I could physically feel it in my body that they came together!
Thank you, Jesus!
You know, sometimes if you’re anything like me, you’re guilty of categorizing miracles: hard ones and easy ones. Healing a hard one is as easy for Jesus as a cold. In fact, I’ve seen more cancer healed than head colds because with head colds, we have remedies. We’ll leave that right there. Anyway, and this is so easy for the Lord to do. I saw the Lord heal schizophrenia in a moment of time, literally as lightning of God went through a man’s body, head to toe, and he was completely whole.
I declare that over you in Jesus' name.
Now, one more testimony, and then we’re going to move on.
Tonight, I’ve been suffering with a wrist that hurt me for about a month and a half—a deep pain in the joint of my thumb. I said, «Lord, I claim it!» When you called arthritis, I thought, «I don’t want to receive that; I’m pretty young, but I don’t want to live with pain either.» So I raised my hand. The darnest thing happened! I’m just sitting there, and it just went away—like poof! Gone! It does hurt to push on it.
Thank you, Lord!
Wonderful! Let’s just give thanks to the Lord! We give him thanks! Lord, we give you thanks!
Open your Bibles to Deuteronomy 29. Since we’ve gone so long, I’ll make this shorter than planned. Considering the fact that I had planned to go for four hours, that doesn’t say a lot, but that’s not true. But it felt fun to say! I actually want to take you to one of my life passages. I have two main ones, and we’re going to look at one of them tonight out of Joshua 1. We’ll get there in a few minutes. The reason is that when Chris was teaching this morning in the second service, he mentioned that passage, and it just warmed my heart enough that I thought, «Well, I want to talk about that again.»
So I’m going to take a little bit of time to talk to you about that particular passage. Deuteronomy 29—we’re going to start there and bounce through the last couple of chapters of Deuteronomy and end up in Joshua 1.
Deuteronomy 29, verse 29: The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
I want to read that again. I feel so weighted by this verse right now; to be honest, it almost feels like we could spend the evening there. I don’t know that we will; let’s just see how this goes.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God. That means there are things that you and I have questions about that we are required to trust Him for before we understand why, how, or what to do. The realm of mystery is as important in our lives as is the realm of revelation.
I personally think the Lord entrusts to us revelation knowledge of His word—not in addition to Scripture for those who may be new—but I believe He entrusts us fresh revelation from His word in equal proportion to our measure of trust in Him, in mystery. The more I trust Him in mystery with what I can’t explain or understand, the more He trusts me with the things that I can’t understand.
I think mystery is as important as revelation because what I don’t know proves where my faith is. What I don’t understand is the challenge or the test of my faith as a believer.
Now, interestingly, in Luke chapter 12, it talks about the fact that God has given us the secrets of the kingdom as part of our inheritance. So we live in this tension that I have the mysteries of the kingdom all downloaded in my bank account, but they’re not all in my possession. Trust is what I do with what I don’t have yet in my possession, if that makes sense.
This passage, «the secret things belong to the Lord,» is a passage you can turn to when something happens that disappoints you or causes you great concern, burden, or loss. We turn to this passage and can find refuge because the secret things belong to the Lord. I don’t have legal access to them unless He gives them to me. I don’t have a right to them unless He gives them to me.
The whole point I’m trying to make is cultivating a heart of trust. Last year, I went through a real challenging season physically and came out with this conclusion: bold faith stands on the shoulders of quiet trust. What He’s trying to do is cultivate in us the quiet, lasting trust that bold faith can stand upon. It’s the no-matter-what-happens-I-trust-him mentality.
I’ll ask later for understanding, but no matter what happens, I just trust Him. No matter what goes on, I just trust Him. My trust in Him is absolutely rock-solid—I will not deter from that.
Many people trust God until there’s a problem, and then they turn and accuse Him: «I thought you said,» and they come against the Lord in ways of accusation that are frightening. Thankfully, God is a very patient father, but I don’t think it’s smart to accuse Him. However, I think it’s good to be honest in your prayers and say, «Hey, I’m disappointed in this,» and bring that before the Lord.
But here’s the point: the secret things belong to the Lord, but here’s the more convicting point to me: the things that are revealed belong to us and our children forever. Now think with me for a minute—how many of you think that Moses maybe understood something about the glory of God that we don’t yet understand? How many of you think David understood a few things about worship that we haven’t yet cracked into? How many of you think Paul understood something about the authority of the word of God or the authority of the name Jesus that we haven’t yet touched?
What does this say? This says that the level of revelation that anyone of these people had in history was meant to be passed on to the next generation and sustained; it was never meant to diminish.
There was never meant to be a superstar with all this insight who dies not having passed it on. The whole issue of the equipping of the saints in Ephesians 4 is that the generals of the faith would equip those around them.
Let me put it this way: you’ll find people with extraordinary anointings in healing, for example—take Randy Clark. Unusual grace on his life for miracles. So what does he do? He spends his entire life equipping everybody else here with an understanding, an experience level, an anointing level so that what used to be unusual becomes the new norm.
That’s great! It was supposed to happen from the beginning of time throughout time. There was never supposed to be a decline in understanding, perception, or anointing. It was always intended—that if you could put it this way—He created the system and the economy in which when a breakthrough comes for one individual, if they will steward that breakthrough well, they can pass it on to everyone else around them. What used to be unusual now becomes the new norm because of the equipping of the saints.
Pick any subject! The holiness of God—there are people in history who had such clear understanding of that and were grasping for it. Today, there are people that understood John G. Lake had an understanding of the kingdom and the workings, the way of the Holy Spirit clearer and more profoundly than anyone I’ve ever read.
His understanding, his perception into the unseen, into the mysteries—that was supposed to be at the end of his life; it was supposed to be the new norm that the next generation builds upon. Are you catching my drift here? The point is it was always meant to be progressive.
The understanding, the experience level, and the measure of authority and breakthrough of every generation was always supposed to surpass the previous because they were meant to start where the last one ended and then spend their lifetime building upon that and distributing what they got so that the next generation could build on it.
What would things be like if in just 2,000 years of church history that happened? This is the will of God! The secret things belong to the Lord, but the things that have been revealed belong to us and our children forever.
Eric and I wrote a book together called Momentum, and part of the reason for writing it was this concept right here because it was God’s intention to always build with every generation. Reinhard Bonnke is a hero to many of us in this room. It’s supposed to be that a generation will pay a price to start where he ends and take it to where he didn’t have time to go. That’s what glorifies God!
I don’t mind the colleges started in people’s names and the statues and all that’s fine, but those aren’t the things that leave a mark of somebody’s life. It’s the fact that the grace on their life was passed on.
John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah. You remember that John the Baptist was called the greatest prophet of all by Jesus. He came in the spirit and power of Elijah, and yet Elisha had a double portion anointing of what Elijah had.
Work on the logic here with me: here’s Elijah, and Elisha had double, and John the Baptist was greater. Why didn’t the Bible say John came in the spirit and power of Elisha instead of Elijah? Because Elisha had more!
Come back next week, and I’ll tell you! The kingdom always celebrates the fathers who start things and recognizes where it came from. Elijah paid the price for it.
I’m spinning here right now, trying to figure out how to do what I need to do or where to go. Here’s the deal: a generation will pay a price for a grace, a gift, an anointing. They pay a price to walk in that anointing. It doesn’t come easy; it does not come cheap.
There are gifts that are free, but maturity is expensive. You have people that pay this price, and the need is to pass on that grace to the next generation. But the tragedy is if the next generation doesn’t pay a price, the increase is what they got for free. It’s free—you don’t pay the price for the gift; you pay the price for the maturity.
If there’s not a continual paying of a price so that the next generation can experience measures of breakthrough that you never experienced… see, right now in our school, we have folks that come here, and in six months, they are operating at a level that took me a decade to reach. Is it fair? From his perspective and his opinion, it is.
You want to know when that counts? It’s the way His kingdom works. It’s supposed to be that Jesus became poor so that you might become rich. What’s the point?
I don’t want to apply this to money initially, but I want you to follow the scripture. It says He became poor so that you might become rich. This is almost going to contradict what I just said, so this is why I’m floundering.
You pay a price. Jesus paid a price so that you and I could experience something without having to pay a price. But then when we become mothers and fathers, then we take the responsibility to pay the price so the next generation experiences it.
Did that make sense? There’s the paying of the price so other people can experience things in God that were rare in your day.
I tell you, I would have probably fainted if I had seen just the simple testimonies we had here tonight on a normal average night. If I had seen those 30 years ago, I would have died! They would have had to resuscitate me because it was so uncommon, at least in my world where I was. It just didn’t happen.
All right, the secret things belong to the Lord. Those things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever so that we may do all the words of this law.
Verse 19 of chapter 30: I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, that you may love the Lord your God and obey His voice and cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days.
My goodness, that is just so good! That you may love the Lord your God, verse 20, that you may obey His voice, that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to give them.
Verse 7 of chapter 31: Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, «Be strong and of good courage. You must go with this people to the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the Lord He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, nor fear nor be dismayed.»
Now go to chapter 1 of Joshua. Moses just gave Joshua a command to stay away from fear, to not be dismayed, and to not be discouraged. The Lord picks up the same message to give to Joshua.
Verse 1: After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, «Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I’m giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I have said to Moses.»
Every place the soul of your foot treads, that have I given to you! What is this talking about? Of course, this is talking about a geographical inheritance. Moses has announced, and now the Lord is speaking to Joshua, and He says, «All right, on the other side of that river is your land.
There are other people that occupy it right now, but it’s yours. Any place that you put the soles of your feet, just know that your very presence on that land is testimony that it belongs to you. It is yours.»
There is something about the willingness to experience new things in the Lord. There’s something about breaking out of convenience and comfort zones. Maybe you’ve never prophesied before, and you’re scared to death to do it, but you step on that land, and you’re willing to take a risk. You share a low-risk word with a friend, but you’re sweating it out; for you, it’s stressful, but for them, it’s very simple.
The point is you’re crossing that barrier of inconvenience. The Lord would have you know that every time you stir up courage to step through that barrier of inconvenience and you stand upon something that is new, different, and unusual for you, the Lord testifies, «It’s yours! It is yours! It is yours!»
And here’s part of a misunderstanding on our part: for example, let me use the issue of joy. A number of years ago, there were just many times when joy would sweep through the room, and it was unusual. It was fun, it was bizarre, it was scary, and it was all of the above. It made some people so nervous they left; other people so nervous they came.
I never could figure it out, but anyway it was the joy thing. I’ll never forget—I was at a meeting at a camp, and I was speaking at an adult camp. There was a young lady there that had been raped two weeks earlier. She was obviously traumatized; she came traumatized. She got hit so hard with joy, I mean, she was in the back room interrupting the entire service, you know, because she was within earshot of everyone else. We were trying to be serious in Jesus, and she was back there laughing her head off!
She laughed the trauma right out of her life! I mean, literally, she was completely healed and restored from the trauma because of joy. But here’s the deal: the Lord opened up the river, if you will—the River Jordan—into the promised land.
She stands—I’m not going to use her; let’s use you and me. We stand on the shores of joy. We enjoy it so much. In the weeks and months and sometimes years to come, we say, «Lord, would you please touch us again with joy?» He says, «No! When I gave you the experience, I gave you the authority—the keys for joy; that’s now yours!» When do you need it?
Once you’ve tasted of something in the promised land, if I can use that metaphor, when you’ve tasted of joy or you’ve tasted of the prophetic, or you’ve tasted of that healing anointing, whatever that may be.
When you taste of something, the Lord is not teasing you with something that someday you will have. He is giving you the initial down payment to an inheritance. Your land is where your feet stand! You’ve not seen it all yet; you don’t understand it all yet; you don’t control it all yet, but it is all yours!
Every place the soul of your foot treads, that have I given to you! If we approach some of these things this way in the kingdom instead of waiting for some special speaker to come, which I love, who operates in whatever—joy or prophecy or, you know, fill in the blanks of what your favorite is—instead of waiting for someone to come, you realize, «Wait a minute! Three years ago, I had an encounter with the Lord and I was so filled with joy I felt like I was floating for two weeks. Guess what? Your feet are still on that land!»
And He gave you the keys of authority to access that when you need it. It’s true! I’m telling you the truth!
Jump down to verse 5 now. We’ll take the verses that are my life verses— no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong, be of good courage. For this people, you shall divide an inheritance—the land which I swear to their fathers to give them.
Only be very strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.
I love these verses so much! These are verses that I have turned to over and over and over again in the last 40 years. I’ll never forget as just a young man seeing these verses leap out at me—showing me that I actually have a role in influencing the outcome of my life!
I’m not just this cog in a wheel that just randomly works to God’s purposes. I actually have a role to play. My faith has a role to play, my obedience, my risk—all these things have a part to play in the unfolding of God’s purposes.
Here in this passage is this command: do not be afraid, do not be dismayed! Don’t allow yourself to go there. I battled with—Chris mentioned this morning—depression; it was discouragement that would lead to getting really depressed. But I wasn’t discouraged because of life; I was discouraged because of what I was hungry for in God that I wasn’t seeing.
I mean, that’s just horrible to end up depressed because you’re hungry for God. I tell people, «Listen, your hunger for God can take you one or two places: it can take you to faith and a breakthrough or to discouragement and depression.»
I’ve seen it! I’ve seen people so hungry for God, but they’re not at a place of yielding to whatever God says to do. Hunger is recognizing need; humility is recognizing source.
And there’s something about humility in our hunger for the Lord that just says, «I’ll do whatever you say.» If you feel your job is to give directions to God for what He’s to do, you will be frustrated your entire Christian life. If you feel your job is to take directions from Him, you will be delighted in His goodness all the days of your life.
The problem is if you’re frustrated with God, it’s probably because you’re making demands upon Him that He’s not cooperating with. What He actually said was, «Seek first the kingdom, and these things will come. Seek first the kingdom.»
Whenever there’s the absence of a breakthrough, we need to just resurvey the situation: am I seeking first the kingdom? What does that look like to seek first the kingdom?
It doesn’t mean just, «Oh God, fill the earth with your glory!» I mean that’s an obvious prayer and it would be right, I pray that; I love to pray that prayer. But when you’re talking to somebody who’s tormented by a demon, what does it mean to seek first the kingdom?
It’s to get rid of the demon! It’s not complicated; it’s very practical! There’s something there that causes this gentleman to want to kill himself, so what do you do? You take care of that!
That’s what it means to seek first the kingdom! A sermon won’t help! The laws of spiritual authority aren’t going to help! What we need is a demon to be driven from somebody’s mind!
When somebody has a terminal disease, what does it mean to seek first the kingdom? It’s to seek to drive that thing out of their body! That’s what it means. It’s really practical!
When there’s the inability to sleep, anxiety, panic—what does the kingdom look like? It’s a kingdom of rest. It’s a kingdom of peace! What does it mean to seek first the kingdom?
You have a friend that’s discouraged—what does it mean to seek first the kingdom? It means to come to them with words of faith, words of encouragement. You’ve got a friend that’s going bankrupt; you’ve got someone that’s in crisis financially or whatever. Seeking first the kingdom means we seek divine answers for every problem that we face.
That’s what it means to seek first the kingdom. I think I’ve gone everywhere but through these verses, so here we go!
No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I’ll be with you.
Verse 5: Be strong and of good courage. You’ll divide the inheritance. Be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.
Let me just draw your attention to something: it takes courage to obey God. He said, «Be strong and very courageous that you may observe.» By not keeping ourselves in places of strength and alertness spiritually, we actually miss out on some opportunities where the Lord is looking for rapid, quick obedience!
Keeping spiritually alert and in tune with what He’s saying, readiness to operate in strength—He says this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night. If you keep it in your conversation, you’ll keep it in your thinking.
Most people don’t need to watch what they say; they just need to watch what they think. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. This law you will meditate on day and night that you may observe to do all that’s written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
That’s the phrase that I anchored into as a young man, and it startled me: «Then you will make your way prosperous!»
Let’s look at prosperity real briefly—in every area of life. Prosperity in relationships—are you at peace with people? Are you well-loved? Do you serve people well? Prosperity in relationships and emotional prosperity—is it that you’re not driven to fear and panic?
We all have situations that come up; I get that! But it’s not the way of life. You’re not driven to fear, not driven to panic. If somebody could walk into the room from your past, regardless of what role they played—good or bad—you would not be damaged emotionally because you’re prosperous in your soul.
You’re prosperous emotionally! Your thinking is not constantly trying to live in regret and shame of the past; instead, you’re spending time thinking and creating solutions for what you’re facing today.
A prosperous soul means it’s the bounty of intellect, emotions, and will that says, «I have so much I am ready to obey God no matter what He says.»
It’s a prosperity of soul that you may prosper in every way—in health, it means you have great physical health! You have the ability to serve and take on tasks that others might not be able to do because your health is good!
I just had to fill out an examination today, and I was thankful to be able to check «no» on the list. Don’t have that; don’t have that; don’t have that! This hospital form—I was man, I didn’t realize I didn’t have so many diseases—but I just don’t have any of those things! Thank you, Jesus!
I got encouraged just by checking «no» over and over again! Some people are actually hindered from the will of God because they are weak physically.
Let me rephrase that: we can always obey from the heart, but some people aren’t able to go on the mission they’d like to go on because they don’t have the physical stamina! But they would like to!
They’re not able to help at the park or in this area of ministry or that one because they physically don’t have the stamina; they don’t have the energy, they don’t have the physical strength.
I believe this is my wife’s message, but I believe the Lord wants to take us into a physical health—a prosperity in our physical bodies! A prosperity in health—mentally, that’s where we creatively think of solutions and ideas, not out of stress, anxiety, and fear, but out of just being willing servants of the Lord to pick up the dreams of God and the things He wants to release into the earth!
Some of the greatest inventions that will ever hit the earth haven’t happened yet! God is just waiting for somebody with a hearing ear!
I feel like I feel this thing: keep the word of the Lord in your mouth, keep it on your mind, keep it before you! Continuously review the prophetic words! When I review prophetic words, I have many of them; I have videos of people prophesying, etc. But I also have scriptures on 3×5 cards that the Lord spoke to me either through a friend or in my own devotional time.
I review those scriptures over and over again. You can read them in your Bible; you can borrow them, but they are mine! They’re my scriptures! When I read them, I have personal ownership of that passage!
I have fought, I have wept; I’ve done all these things over this verse! It’s mine now! If you have it too, that’s fine I guess, but it’s my verse, and you have to develop a history with God in the word of God!
Yes, this is Jesus in print. Don’t tell me you love Jesus, and you don’t love Jesus in print! You’ve got to get to know Him, and keep this thing in your heart and in your mind!
Words remain in your conversation because what it does is it positions you to, out of authority, determine you are going to go in the way of blessing and increase and prosperity! You will make your way prosperous, and you will have success!
Say this with me: «I will make my way prosperous.»
Say it! «I will make my way prosperous!»
«I will have good success.»
Say that! «I will have good success!»
When I think of this, I don’t want you just to have a nice car and a nice house. All of that’s beautiful, but for me, having impact for who God’s called us to be on the course of history, shaping mindsets and values and culture, being able to cause other people to step into breakthrough so that other people don’t have to pay the price you had to pay so they could get breakthrough and gain the courage and the momentum to be willing to pay the price so that their next generation could inherit what they have—it’s a cycle that God intended!
Secrets to be His, but revelations to never be forgotten and to be passed on from generation to generation so that every generation surpasses the previous one in anointing, insight, and breakthrough!
I believe we’ve been declaring this same thing for a lot of years, but I believe the Lord is setting the stage for us to learn how to communicate to those around us how to impart what God’s given us because it’s not just up here.
Some of you are just good at business, and you have friends around you that aren’t, and they want to be! You have the authority to bring them into success! Some of you have this unusual grace with raising children; your kids just are wild about you—they always have been, at every age!
You have friends that just struggle. You have authority there, not to boss people around, not to pretend like you know it all, but to serve people and to impart something! Sometimes it’s a simple prayer of impartation: «God, give them the wisdom, the grace to raise children well!»
Sometimes it’s that! Sometimes you just step into a person’s home, and it’s just filled with chaos, but you live in peace. Guess what? You have authority!
You have authority to establish peace in that place. The Lord just wants our breakthroughs to benefit everybody around us, not so they just look at us in admiration—that’s so short-lived.
It’s so that everybody around me can have access to anything I have! That’s the whole point: if there’s an insight, if there’s an anointing, if there’s an authority, that everybody around me has absolute access to anything that I carry!
I think Deuteronomy 29:29 is supposed to be fulfilled in purpose and design before the Lord returns—that there would actually be a generation that experienced passing on everything to the next one and having that one take it at a whole new level!
I think it’s the heart of the Lord, and that’s what I’m contending for.
So why don’t you stand, we’ll end this in prayer, and I don’t know if you have certain verses in the Bible that you just randomly open to, but I have several.
It’s interesting—the verses that mean the most to me are the ones that I inherited in a war. I remember on an international flight, I was crying—literally, just crying—because I was challenged, you know? And the Lord opened up a passage of scripture to me.
I just feel like when I get to this certain passage in Psalms 25, I feel like, «Man, I’m home!» This is mine! Joshua 1—this is mine!
God is determined to make us successful, but this is how! I just pray for you. I pray, God, that you would cause the journey in Scripture to be just that—a journey where milestones are established, monuments are built, where there are just these moments of personal breakthrough where we see your heart for us, and we see opportunities and possibilities in ways that we’ve never recognized before.
For everyone, all of our journey in the word of God, I ask that you would enhance and liven, you would add such fire, such breath to the word as we read your word, that it would so come alive, that we have places where we can camp out for days and weeks at a time where you just nourish our soul and we become people who make our way prosperous because we truly valued what you had to say.
I pray for this in Jesus' name, and I ask, Lord, that you would give us an understanding as a church family on how to give it all away! Yes! How to give it all away so the next generation can go where we didn’t have time to go!
I pray for this in Jesus' name. Put a hand on the shoulder of somebody next to you and pray for them. Just say, «God, help them to get it.» Just help them to get it, Jesus! Help them to get it, Jesus! Amen.