Bill Johnson - Answered Prayer (When Your Prayer Meets God's Solution)
Thank you, thanks, thanks! Nice to see you. That camera bar back there—I thought it was a tennis net and I thought, «Man, we’ve got tennis in here! That’s awesome! That would make some people very happy.» All right, nice to see you. I get here right now in this season about every other week, so I’m sure you weren’t here last week, but it’s nice you showed up when I was here. It’s good to have you, and bless our online community. We’re so thrilled to have friends and family around the world, so we honor and bless you as well.
Well, I do have some funny things to share, and that seems to be the theme of the first service today. I just wanted to do this the entire time for about 30 minutes. Sometimes it’s just that kind of day, and I’m not guaranteeing anything today, I just want you to know that. They’re all old, so I’ll just pretend they’re new. Actually, I have one new one: A man and his wife’s mother-in-law went on a vacation to the Holy Land. While they were there, the mother-in-law passed away. The undertaker told them, «You can have her shipped home for $5,000, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for $150.» The man thought about it and told him he’d just as soon have her shipped home. The undertaker asked, «Why would you spend $5,000 to ship your mother-in-law home when it would be wonderful to have her buried here and spend only $150?» The man replied, «A man died here 2,000 years ago; he was buried here, and three days later, he rose from the dead. I just can’t take that chance.»
I’ll give you another one: A Baptist preacher went to see a member of the community and invited him to come to church on Sunday morning. The man was a producer of fine peach brandy and told the preacher he would love to attend his church if the pastor would drink some of his brandy and admit it in front of the congregation. In kindness, the preacher agreed and had a small glass. Sunday morning came, and the man came to church. The preacher recognized him from the pulpit and said, «I see Mr. Jones is here with us this morning. I want to thank him publicly for his hospitality this week, especially for the peaches he gave me and the spirit in which they were given.» Thumbs up!
All right, three friends from the local congregation were asked, «When you’re in your casket and your friends and congregation members are mourning over you, what would you like for them to say?» Daniel said, «I would like them to say I was a wonderful husband, a fine spiritual leader, and a great family man.» Roger commented, «I’d like them to say I was a wonderful teacher and a servant of God who made a huge difference in people’s lives.» Frank said, «I’d like for them to say, 'Look, he’s moving! '»
Now I’ll do one more; I’ve never done this one before. This is about socialism: In socialism, you have two cows; the state takes one and gives it to your neighbor who doesn’t have a field to put it in. In communism, you have two cows; the state takes both and gives you some milk, then the cows die due to neglect. In fascism, you have two cows; the state takes both and sells you some milk, and the cows die in the war. In Nazism, you have two cows; the state takes both and shoots you. This one is to offend everybody within reach! Then the cows are killed in the war. In traditional capitalism, you have two cows; you sell one, buy a bull, the herd multiplies, the economy grows, you sell them, and retire on the income.
All right, I have the whole front row interceding for me right now! In the Nuremberg Trials, one of the men on trial was asked the question, «How did you get the people of Germany to buy into your deal?» I’m paraphrasing, and they said, «It was easy. It has nothing to do with Nazism; it has to do with fear. You can control people if you can get them to be afraid.» The tool that the enemy has been using ever since—I mean, way back to the Garden; it goes that far back—but there’s been an intensity level that has increased dramatically in the last 18 months. The effort to control the values, thoughts, and conduct of people through fear is extraordinary.
I’m not a fan of socialism; I have friends who are, but I’m not one of them. Socialism is communism in diapers. I’m not looking for any applause or support; I just want to make some statements, knowing that it’ll sit well with some and it won’t sit so well with others. But at least we can think critically. Socialism has an overemphasis on government at the expense of human responsibility. Humanism is the religion of socialism. Socialism worships at the shrine of human rights over responsibilities. Human rights and human responsibilities are valuable, but they can never exceed human responsibility, or you end up in a moral decline. It’s vital that you and I understand what’s at hand, and we battle not against flesh and blood. The goal is not to incite some sort of activist movement where we launch verbal abuses toward people who disagree; that’s nonsense. Because that’s playing on the devil’s field. When you play on the devil’s field, you can’t win. We can only win on His field, and it’s the beauty and wonder of the Gospel. The Gospel has answers and solutions for every single human dilemma.
There are people in their heart of hearts who want to succeed but don’t know how, and so out of fear, they buy into a system that promises them bread tomorrow. I’m going to talk just a few minutes on this, and then we’ll actually open the Bible and talk about something else. So I’ll give you a chance to get cleansed by the Word, and all of you that are hurt by my words will recover; I promise. If somebody’s in need over here, if I take your car and give it to someone who doesn’t have a car, me as a government calls that compassion. But it’s not compassion until I give my car. There are many things that slide under the illusion of compassion and justice, and they are actually the opposite. My burden for this hour, for this day, is that as a people, we could be discerning and understanding what’s actually happening.
If you take the last 40 years and look at history in the United States and in the nations around the world, you’ll see a slow, steady march towards a one-world government. I’m not saying we’re close to it; I’m just saying we’re closer than we’ve ever been. Now, if I haven’t offended everyone yet, give me a moment; I’m trying.
With the mark of the beast, you can’t buy or sell or do business, and without a vaccine, they want you to not be able to buy or sell or do business. I’m not opposing vaccines; I’m just saying this is an interesting dress rehearsal for a bigger issue in the future. We’ve just got to be careful what we buy into. Not everything you buy into today will bless you. Let me rephrase that; some of the things you buy into today may cost you tomorrow.
The wisdom of the Lord says in the Bible that the Lord prospers His servant; He adds no sorrow to it. So when the Lord does it, there’s no balloon payment. Does that make sense? There’s not like, «Oh no, when is something bad going to happen?» He doesn’t work that way. When He imparts the blessing to somebody, it comes with sustainability in its system. Socialism is funded by entitlement, and there are many of us in this room that would be 100% opposed to socialism but have married the spirit of entitlement. What you have going on on the inside is actually what creates the room for socialism on the outside, and it’s walking with that kind of wisdom and resolve to honor the Lord with everything you are, everything you have, in a way that’s responsible. The Lord is so interested in increase that when the guy who had the talent in scripture—remember the five talents, the two, the one—he said, «You could have at least put it in a bank and gained interest.» Everything was about increase; it’s not about what you are given; it’s about what you produce.
I realize that can be taken to an extreme where we create a works-oriented environment, and I’m not interested in that, but it’s still true. It’s still true that God rewards according to productivity. We’ve stated a number of times—I know I’ve heard Chris do it, and I’ve done it a few times as well—that the Promised Land was an interesting place. It wasn’t where they went, sat on a beach, sipped iced tea, and waited for Jesus to return. They actually had to go in; in the wilderness, they picked up the manna off the ground; they followed a cloud. Not much else to do; in the Promised Land, they had to plant crops, they had to harvest, they had to work with herds, they had to do all that stuff. The point is, we are never more fully alive than when we are walking in our divine assignment, producing things for His glory. That is what we are wired for.
Now, it is the privilege of a culture to care for those who are disabled, especially war veterans who cannot hold down a normal job anymore. It is our responsibility to care for them, those who are mentally disabled. It is a privilege, so I’m not dismissing all government stuff, but I’m just saying socialism is like fire. I think I already said it; it is like the fire of Proverbs; it never says enough. It never says enough. There is no end to its increase of power, and this is where, as a people, first of all we pray. Secondly, I’ve heard Christians say—forgive me because this is something most of us have probably said—but I’ve heard people say, «Well, there’s no political leader as my savior.» Well, I don’t know one Christian that ever thought of any political leader as being able to save them. Unfortunately, that statement is usually made by someone who doesn’t want to vote or doesn’t want to take godly counsel in how they vote.
I need a drink before I finish this. So, we have the responsibility to understand, to articulate. Now listen carefully: righteously resist, learn how to intercede, and pray to understand that the challenges are to ensure that it’s fixed in here first. I have the highest status you can get with the airline that I fly with; they don’t even tell you how you can get it. There are statuses you get by miles, but there’s one status they don’t even tell you about; you have to be invited. I’ve been invited. I’ve been in there for years, and I’m thankful. Sometimes what happens is I will land late somewhere and there’s a short time between where I landed and where I’ve got to get. They will meet me right off the plane with a sign and say, «You Mr. Johnson? Yes, come with me.» They’ll take me down onto the tarmac, put me in a Mercedes, and drive me to the next gate.
It’s wonderful until I’m really late on a flight and they’re not there. Is anybody catching the picture here? All of a sudden, something they gave me becomes something I expect. I’ve been treated rudely on a plane once and thought, «I just need to pull out my status card to show them who they just talked to.» How did that work out? I didn’t do it. I felt like one guy—oh goodness, I won’t tell you what happened. He was just extremely rude, and he said, «You’re no different than any other passenger.» I said, «We’ll see.» Then I think he looked on his chart to see who I was and my status, and that guy could not do enough for me the rest of the flight.
You get into these places of favor, blessing, and increase, and it creates an appetite that if you’re not careful, you might actually think you earned it. Now, I could say I have that status because I spent this amount of dollars, and that’s how the airline takes care of those who spend that much money. Because of all the flying that I do, there are a lot of arguments you can make in your head for why you deserve something, yet it’s that entitlement that has created the spirit of socialism in the land. If we can deal with it here, we’ll be positioned correctly to deal with it out there. Does that make any sense?
All right. That’s all I’m doing. I love my Bible, yes I do! I love my Bible. I have friends that love their socialist government as long as they’re being blessed, but as soon as they say, «You can’t leave your house for two weeks,» it’s not as fun. There’s something about control that we’ve got to be careful not to succumb to. I’m just deeply concerned; it’s what I talk to the Lord about, it’s what I pray about.
I did an interview on a TV program here a week or so ago, and the guy doing the interview said, «If you could speak to the leaders of our nation"—it was a different country—"what would you say to them?» I said, «Get a backbone!» Right? Get a backbone! I appreciate that, but I’m really not looking for applause of any kind; I’m looking for thinking and responsibility. Amen?
It’s important that we know how to recognize the root of something in the political system without picking up a political spirit. As soon as you do that, you will get labeled, and you’ll be called all kinds of names. People give labels so they can disqualify your voice, and it’s just going to take courage. I feel like what the Lord wants from us in this season is a baptism of courage—to really pray in a new season. So why don’t you stand? We’re going to pray on that. I’ll let you get all cleansed and cleaned up from what I just said, and then we’ll get into the Word and see what happens here.
So, Lord, I do pray for a true baptism of courage—that You’d help us live with wisdom and understanding to know the times and seasons we are in and what Your response is to a given problem—not just what we arrive at emotionally through our frustration but true Kingdom response—that we can be builders and not just destroyers, that we can be restorers and not just confrontors. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen?
All right, go ahead and turn to somebody and tell them you really needed that! All right, open your Bibles if you would to 1 Samuel chapter 1. Now, there are many who would say that Jesus didn’t train His disciples in these kinds of things; instead, He taught them how to survive in existing governmental settings. That is absolutely true. He taught how the employees should respond, and the soldiers should respond, and the slaves should respond. He taught them how to do Kingdom in the environment they’re in.
But I also remind you that He told them the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven. It is not leaven as a philosophy; it is leaven as that which helps redefine the environment you’re in. He also said that we are light and we are salt, and all three of these elements affect their surroundings. What the Lord wants for us is to not raise up a political movement but instead to raise up a servant-hearted movement where we get into the systems, love people well, and allow the Kingdom to truly bring about change.
I’m just trying to identify some of the things that I feel the enemy uses. He uses justice and compassion as false fronts for the real Trojan horse that brings in this onslaught of demonic chaos and loss. So, I said I was done; apparently, I wasn’t. Now I am!
All right, I may talk about this again, but I won’t announce it ahead of time, so I want to make sure you show up. It’ll just be a surprise; that’s what it’ll be. I do believe that the Lord is giving us the opportunity, the invitation, if you will, to give birth to a new season. I believe it’s of the Lord, but I do believe it will take courage in prayer.
We’ve talked about prayer more in the last year than probably any five years that I’ve been here. I know I’ve done it over and over again, and many of the team are Sunday night meetings have been focused on prayer. It’s not an accident; it’s tragic in some ways. I wish I could erase everything everybody knew about prayer and start over because we’ve got it so confined to a religious activity that we’ve lost the fact that it’s actually like breath. It’s breathing! When He said, «Pray without ceasing,» He’s basically saying it’s the same as breathing. Just do it all the time; just make it the normal expression of who you are, where you’re at in life.
All moments are good moments to pray. It’s not special words; it’s not that sort of thing. It’s not this professional-sounding petition; it is a communion with God that sometimes has words. But I believe that the Lord—I feel like we’re on the edge of a significant breakthrough in culture and manifestations of revival in a way we’ve never seen before. I feel like we’re on the edge—not quite in the place of transition where you push—but close to that point where we’re about to give delivery to something we’ve not yet seen before, and it will require courageous kind of praying that, for many, is going to be foreign to you.
That’s what I want to talk about—not in any kind of 'you lack here' or something, just an invitation. There’s a story about Hannah. Hannah is this woman who, married, has no children, and she wants children very much. Let’s just pick up the story in chapter 1; I’m going to read quite a few verses, so just follow along, if you would please.
He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Peninah, and Peninah had children, but Hannah had no children. Verse 5: «But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah although the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable because the Lord had closed her womb. And so it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.» Verse 8: «Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, 'Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons? '» A question she never answered—smart woman right there!
So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernacle of the Lord, and she, being Hannah, was in bitterness of soul and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish. Then she made a vow and said, «O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.» That was a Nazarite vow.
And it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli watched her mouth. Now, Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli thought she was drunk, and Eli said to her, «How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you!» Hannah answered and said, «No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor intoxicating drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now.»
Last verse: «Then Eli answered and said, 'Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant you your petition which you have asked of Him.'» This is an extraordinary story, and it emphasizes to me the purpose behind persistent prayer.
Biblically, we have mandates to pray once and not ask again, and we have mandates to pray and continue asking. There’s a purpose for each! While I don’t want to get into the differences, I do want to highlight this one here. The purpose for persistent prayer, in my thinking, is one of two things: either there are demonic powers involved, and persistence helps to break that down, or I need to be changed into the person that can handle and steward the answer well.
A lot of the things we pray for, if they were given to us immediately, we would not manage them well at all. Much of what we taste of the will of God in our life, much of what we inherit, or taste, or actually experience, is determined by what we’ve become. Much of what we experience in our walk with the Lord—the breakthroughs, the answers to prayer, the extraordinary events that take place in our lives—much of what we experience is determined by what we’ve become, and that becoming takes place often in that kind of praying.
It’s the kind of praying that you’re embarrassed about, but you just don’t care enough anymore. Normally, you’d be embarrassed. It’s the kind of anguish of soul that it no longer matters how you appear to somebody else. It’s not making a scene to get attention; it’s not that at all. It’s that I am so absorbed in that which God has put in my heart; I’ve got to have breakthrough! I think I’ll die without it!
You see that kind of praying throughout history. If you’ve done any reading on some of the great revivals in history, oftentimes people would come to that kind of moment in prayer. They no longer cared about anything at all. They didn’t care if they ever ate again; they didn’t care; they just didn’t care! They just didn’t care about all these things that two days ago may have consumed their attention, but at this moment in time, the only thing that matters is that thing for which God has laid hold of my life, and I will not settle for anything else!
We have that kind of a moment here. Hannah doesn’t know when her breakthrough will come; we know that it’s been years. I would assume, based on her response here, that she has prayed the prayer to have children for many, many years. We know her competitor, the other wife, has had many, so we know it’s years of barrenness. I don’t know how long; I don’t know what kind of prayer she prayed, but it stands to reason she’s prayed this prayer before. Yet, something happened in this praying.
Old writers would talk about this kind of prayer; they would say, «I was on the stretch,» and the picture is that I was all laid out, reaching for that which God has promised. There are many people—those who know better than you would tell you—you don’t need to do that because it’s already all yours. And it’s true! I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ! It is all mine! It’s absolutely true! Ephesians 1 declares it; John 16 declares it! It is all mine!
The problem is, it’s in my account and not in my possession! Often times what is withdrawn from my account that He has laid aside for me is not released into my life until I actually become what is necessary for me to become to not squander that blessing that God has given me. We’ve seen it throughout history. Look at the kings in scripture! How many times did we see a king inherit the throne and then drive it into the ground within a few years of his reign? What happened? He wasn’t equal in character to the weightiness of his assignment, and it is sure destruction when that takes place.
All of us have things in our hearts that we’ve ache for! I doubt there’s a person in the room that has not prayed a big prayer—great things would happen in your lifetime—that you would see in your lifetime that we would experience together. And those are God-born prayers! But great things don’t generally come out of prayers of convenience.
There’s something about costly praying. I don’t mean drawing attention; I don’t mean I’m on my x day of fasting, and I know I’m going to get attention. I don’t mean that! I mean the kind where it’s you and the Lord! There’s something about difficulty that helps you come face to face with the reality: I really am in this to know Him! I’m not just in this to be a blessed person! Difficulty separates those two groups of people. Some are gone as soon as the blessings stop! The glader stops falling from the ceiling, or the whatever it is—the next thing they’re looking for to happen—they’re on their way to find another blessing!
But those who follow Jesus, when difficulty comes, it’s the time we intensify the cry: «God, You said!» Here she is praying things she can’t even utter. There were no words for her; she was just in anguish! Her lips are moving, but her heart is in deep, deep anguish. She’s laid it all out there. Athletes will say, «I left it all on the field,» which means, «I gave 110%! There’s nothing else I could have done to help us win that game; it’s all out on the field!»
And it’s that kind of praying! We don’t know if there was a crowd there; we don’t know if Eli was even there the whole time. He may have walked in after she was there for a while; we don’t know. All we know is she put it all on the line, and it was that kind of praying that positioned her for His kind of solution! Here’s the deal: as Mario Murillo told us years ago, she wanted a son, and God wanted a prophet! When she was willing to align with God’s heart, she got the breakthrough!
And that’s what the anguish of soul does; it puts you in a position like Hannah! Hannah is now going to give back to God the very thing He gave to her! At the age of five, she takes Samuel, the son who came from this, to the temple to be the prophet of the Lord for Israel! Wow—extraordinary story!
Yeah, that’s what Abraham did! He did—he put Isaac on the altar! Sometimes you have to take the very thing you ache for and realize, «I just want to be a part of what You’re doing! If I have to give it back, I’ll give it back! I just want to be in the center of the work of God on the planet!»
I will put back into Your hands the very thing You give to me. It’s the process of living abandoned to Him! It’s the process of living on the stretch again—in that place where sometimes it’s not even words; sometimes it’s just the anguish, the pain of the heart! It doesn’t mean we live in that place of continual discouragement or whatever; I’m not inviting people to that! I’m just saying, pick your moments! When God has put that thing in your heart, get before Him and pour it all out on the field! Lay hold of that which God has promised!
Every one of us needs those kinds of moments. I don’t think that’s an everyday kind of praying. I wouldn’t put that on you, but I would say everybody needs that season in their life at some time, where nothing else will do—nothing! Nothing! Nothing will satisfy!
Amen? My cry for you and for me is for a baptism of courage! Yes! Is that backbone? Yes, it’s that backbone to stand when others don’t stand! It’s the backbone that just says, «You know what? I don’t look like much of a winner right now, but I’ve come too far to quit! I must hold to what God has said! If I come to the end of my life and my cry was unfulfilled, then I pray my children will pick it up and see it to fulfillment! We all have a purpose for breakthrough on the Earth!
The Lord described us as salt and light, and the Kingdom as leaven—to have impact and effect on our surroundings! It’s not through political anger and that stuff; it’s by loving people well—but moving intelligently and intentionally to bring about change! Yes? All right, that’s probably enough! You survived! Congratulations! You all get the ice cream cone at the door that Chris will provide for you! All right! Let’s stand together; we’re going to pray.
What’s that? Give our orders to Chris? Giving you orders—what kind of ice cream do you want? Yeah, sorry, Chris, sorry!
Oh Lord, let’s pray together for a baptism of courage—a courage to be released over us as a people that affects our praying! Lift your voices! Yes, Lord! Great courage! Great baptism of courage, God! Great baptism of courage, God! Great baptism of courage, Father! Yes, Father!
I pray that You’d give us a fresh outpouring in the area of courage—that as a people we could stand with a backbone that’s not obnoxious but firm in the Kingdom principles You’ve revealed to us. I pray that they would be contagious, and that You’d give us understanding to articulate well. Give us that Isachar anointing that understands the day that they live in, the seasons, the times that we live in. I do pray that there would be, in the prayer life of this church, truly the birthing of a new season! The turning of a page! The turning of a page! The turning of a page! A new season begins!
I pray this for the honor of the name Jesus. I want to ask one question before we transition: Is there anyone here that has never made a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ? It’s what the Bible calls to be born again! It’s actually to become a disciple; it’s to turn away from the way you’ve done life to the way He would have you do life! It’s to follow Him; it’s to come to know Him; it’s to love Him!
I want to ask the question: Is there anyone here that would say, „Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know that I have found peace with God—that I truly have become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ“? If that’s you, just put a hand up real quickly where you are, and we’re just going to take a moment to pray. I don’t want to miss you!
So, way in the back, thank you—wonderful, wonderful! Anybody else? Real quick, I know we have some online. We’ve had so many people come to Christ online; it’s been one of the most amazing things! Sometimes when we were forced not to be together, I’d sit here and watch—if Chris is preaching, for example—and I’d be on the YouTube channel or Bethel TV and watch the people that would come to Christ. Extraordinary! So we know that’s true!
Is there another one here? Back over here is another one—wonderful! Yes, wonderful! Beautiful! Another one over here—thank you! Wonderful! Beautiful! Another one right here—oh wonderful! So the last one was blessing somebody, so I just took the high five! He’s getting saved too! All right, that’s fine; that’s good!
This is wonderful! I bless all of you. I’m going to ask those—there’s at least three, if not four, that put your hand up that I saw. I’m going to ask you to come up to the front right over here to my left. There are people that we know and trust; I just want to bless you—that’s all I want them to do. If you brought this person who put their hand up, you can walk with them down here. Church, why don’t you bless them as they come now? Come right over here!