Bill Johnson - Costly Prayers Shape History
Thank you, go ahead and sit down. Thanks so much. Um, well, I love you too, thank you. I just feel so much love in the room here. There we go. It was months ago when we weren’t able to meet in here, so we met out in a tent, and these guys pitched a couple of huge tents out there. We were there in horrible weather. I remember seeing some of the team kneeling, and the rain was pouring in right where they were kneeling. I thought that was good. The kids were there, all bundled up in blankets, playing with their toys and making a difference in Jesus' name with anointed toys. Since then, we have been able to meet, and we’ve kept this going but have wanted to maintain what the Lord really—I don’t want to say birthed, because it’s been around for a long time—but really began to develop in us, and that is a real mission of prayer.
The whole concept stems from Revelation chapter 5. I was looking at it just a moment ago; in fact, I am reading Revelation right now. There’s this verse in chapter 5 where it says the 24 Elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and a golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the Saints. A bowl of incense; you heard it talked about just a moment ago. The bowl of incense represents the prayers of the Saints, and I was thinking earlier today, anticipating being able to come and be with you tonight about one of my favorite stories. It’s in the Book of Numbers. If you want to turn there, I’m not going to talk long, which is a miracle, but I do believe in miracles. I want you to turn, if you would, to Numbers chapter 16. I’ve got several verses; we’ll just see what we have time for because I’m not going to do a full teaching. I want us to get back into worship and prayer.
There’s this situation in Numbers 16. I love reading Numbers and all these bizarre stories. Here’s this plague that is just killing—I don’t remember how many now—thousands of people if I recall correctly, and it says in verse 46 that Moses said to Aaron, «Take a censer, put fire in it from the altar, put incense on it, take it quickly to the congregation, and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun.» Then Aaron took it as Moses commanded, ran into the midst of the assembly, and already the plague had begun among the people, so he put in the incense and made atonement for the people. Here’s a phrase: he stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped. What does the incense represent biblically? Prayer. He stood between the living and the dead.
If ever there was a time when we needed the people of God to rise to our potential, to our call, to our place in prayer, it’s right now—to stand between the living and the dead. There are times when the measure of sin, etc., that exists in a given situation requires judgment, but the Lord looks for mercy and seeks those who will intercede and pray. That’s really our role. Many would look at this and say, «Well, if God sent the plague, just let it go. It’s supposed to discipline everybody and put them in their place,» but that’s not the heart of the Lord. There are times when circumstances demand response, but He’s looking for someone who will simply pray. This harp and bowl concept, once again, that IHOP does so well, is a mixture of intercession and worship, and it’s what’s been going on here for months. I love the picture here of taking incense—or let’s just phrase it this way, the cry of your heart—and running into the middle of a battle.
Prayers of convenience get answers of convenience. Token prayers get token answers, and prayers that are costly—prayers that are literally put on the line—are the ones that actually shape the course of history. We see it with Hannah. We see that when Hannah wanted a son, she prayed repeatedly and nothing happened. Finally, she came before the Lord, and she was beside herself in the way she prayed. Eli, the priest, came to her and said, «You know you shouldn’t come to the temple drunk,» and she said, «I’m not drunk; I’m just grieved in heart.» She was praying outside of her norm, and sometimes it takes prayers outside of our norm. Sometimes we get a religious muscle developed where we have a norm, and then there’s outside of the norm. You just make the lights go on and off; it’s amazing.
Praying outside of yourself puts you on the line. You put your reputation, your thoughts, your self-esteem—your whole being—on the line, and there is a summons before the Lord to see something changed. It’s not an everyday prayer; to be honest, it’s too exhausting. Jesus talked about those of you who when you fast should put oil on your face, do all this, and make sure your countenance doesn’t carry the heaviness of battle during prayer time. Ensure that when you’re in public, you’re not that person. Many of us were turned off at an early age to intercession because everyone we knew who was an intercessor was depressed. They were the sourest-looking people on the planet; we didn’t want to be like them. The Lord is really calling us into a place of intense prayer. Fasting is not an act we do to gain brownie points; it doesn’t increase our favor. Fasting is because we’re hungrier for something we can’t see than we are for what we can see.
Fasting is simply one of the ways to refine focus, and refined focus is where we see the greatest display of God’s given authority. Refining focus is that laser beam of effective service in prayer. What happens in prayer so often is that prayers of convenience—I must be careful here because some of the most powerful prayers in the Bible were one-sentence prayers. If you read the book of Nehemiah, you’ll see them, but they weren’t prayers of convenience; they cost him. They followed pretty radical obedience and pursuit of the will of God, and yet he prayed these one-sentence prayers. Sometimes we think in terms of long hours of religious activity, which has its place, but there are times when we pray and pray and pray and then pray, and something happens. Sometimes we keep ourselves busy with the activity of prayer, and then there’s an insight; then there’s a word that comes to mind, and then there’s somebody who walks over, and there’s an agreement in prayer. Sometimes the breakthrough waits for a moment. We position ourselves with the absolute embracing of our assignment to pray until we see breakthrough. There’s that kind of moment that comes upon the people of God where we pray but continuously position ourselves for God to show us what else needs to be done because sometimes the breakthrough comes at the end of a simple decree.
Sometimes it’s an act of obedience, and honestly, I’ve seen situations where we pray and pray and finally see no breakthrough, but we just leave it and say it’s done. We just walk away; I refuse to wrestle with this one anymore because there’s that sense of confidence from the presence of God that it’s a done deal. Sometimes inactivity is your greatest activity; sometimes the position of rest is your strongest position. Sometimes it’s violence—in a Christian sense. Let me redefine that because this will be reposted, I’m sure, but not my explanation, just the violence part. Violence in the kingdom is faith, and it’s faith that’s followed with activity. Faith is violent because it requires action, and you can’t take biblical action and have nothing happen. You can be busy with Christian activities and have nothing happen, but this response to the Spirit of God, where we make that decree, where we give that gift, where we march around the building…
I remember—I have so many interesting stories in my own history of learning this, and I’m still learning, by the way—but interesting experiences in this breakthrough of prayer. I remember what would be called our level of maturity—you know, going back 40 some years ago—our level of maturity was quite small, but our prayers were very sincere. Yes, they were the prayers of a spiritual child, and they moved Heaven. I mean, I could take you to a location here in town where drugs were pretty much dealt in the open. There would just be a line of people, and it was out in the open; you could get anything. We went down there one Friday night, about 25 of us, and we just cried out to God. We got in a big circle, and the guy at that location came out and mocked us and called the police. The police came and asked what we were doing, and our leader said, «We’re praying for you.» The officer told us to keep it up and left. But that place, which was a center of drug dealing in the area, never was again; it actually ended that night. I don’t know what happened.
I was able to compare notes with a friend of mine, who was a heavy drug user during that time who later got saved, and we were talking about this location. He said, «Yeah, the strangest thing happened. I went there one Saturday night to buy what I normally buy, and I couldn’t find anybody there.» I said, «Yeah, we were there Friday night; that’s why.» Because we were there Friday, something happened. The Lord just took the simple prayers of about 25 of us who cried out to God, «God, do something different here.» Sometimes you just have to step outside of convenience; sometimes you have to go somewhere. Sometimes you have to walk on the property; sometimes you have to find the verse that God is breathing on and camp there, making the decree of that particular passage, praying that verse.
There’s an unwillingness to back off from an assignment because Heaven has not yet invaded Earth in that particular location. There’s an aspect of prayer that is the easiest aspect in the world to avoid. In fact, why don’t you do this: go to Galatians 4 and Colossians 4. Galatians 4 is what we’ll read first. Verse 18 reads, «It’s good to be zealous in good things always and not only when I’m present with you. My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.» There’s the phrase I want: «I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.» That’s a very strange statement for a man to say. I mean, labor pains? I’m having labor pains until Christ is formed in you? That’s what leaders do. Yes, it’s so true. See the weight of your responsibility? The weight of your prayers? They’re not prayers that are easy; they’re not prayers of convenience.
But you have to remember to put oil on your face, so to speak, when you get up from prayer. Walk out to be with people, and don’t carry that heaviness as you love and care for them. That’s the big deal; it’s not very complicated, but it’s challenging. It’s very simple, but challenging to carry out. You get alone with the Lord, you do business with God. I don’t know how else to say it. Nobody feels like they know what they are doing. Nobody gets before the Lord and says, «I know exactly what to do. I’ll do steps one, two, and three, and then I’ll get the breakthrough.» It’s a relational journey; you don’t know what you’re doing, so you get before your Father, you bring along His word, and somehow you make it work until there’s breakthrough. Yes; you read to get insight; you cry out to God to make your heart known, and in that place of vulnerability, He’s able to adjust your heart when it needs adjusting. Sometimes He’ll refine the focus; sometimes He’ll intensify.
But it’s the prayer that says, «I am unwilling to be satisfied with the discipline of prayer; I must be satisfied with the breakthroughs of prayer.» Many people have faith in prayer; it’s kind of weird. It’s faith in God. Look at Colossians 4, and this is the one that illustrates it best: «Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.» Did you see that? Always laboring fervently, and the word here is labor as in giving birth, in case you were thinking it was just diligence. Laboring—I was with my wife when she had all three of my kids. If I wasn’t born again, I would probably worship her. I mean, what she went through! My goodness gracious. Honestly, that’s a joke, but you get the point. It’s stunning what they endure.
I remember when she was giving birth to our last child, Leah. There were others in the room, and I turned to have a conversation. Suddenly, I felt this grip on my arm that caused me to repent. I didn’t know we were in that moment when she needed my complete, undivided attention. That’s what laboring prayers do. They are always unto something. Laboring prayers are not glamorous; they aren’t anything you want to talk about afterward, but you’re certainly ready and willing to celebrate the breakthrough. It’s the child. I remember when we first got married, Benny wanted seven children. Right after Eric was born, she wanted one, which completely rearranged her perspective. But it took a little while, and then she was ready to go again.
Here’s this interesting statement: «always laboring fervently for you in prayers so that labor of Galatians could easily be described as efforts in prayer that you may stand perfect and complete.» I want to read one more verse that will seem somewhat out of place, but I want to tie this up because I’d rather get us back to worship and prayer. Look with me if you would to First Peter chapter 4. I actually had about six or seven passages that I wanted us to study tonight, but I just don’t want to anymore. I do want to end with this passage; it’s very unusual.
How many of you remember the verse in Colossians, I think it’s chapter 1, where Paul says to the Colossian church, «I’m suffering to make up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ»? That verse has bothered me forever. Paul says he’s going to suffer because he’s going to make up for what was lacking. Let’s make something clear: the redemptive suffering of Jesus was not lacking. That’s right. The only thing lacking in the sufferings of Christ is the sufferings that only you and I can carry. It’s not that His was deficient; it’s that our yes requires—ahem—our yes subjects us to difficulty.
I can tell some of you haven’t read First Peter in a while. First Peter 4:1 says, «Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.» Pretty cool outcome! He who has suffered in the flesh ceases a lifestyle of sin. See, many people still struggle with certain sins in their lives because they’ve never said a bold enough yes to God that would attract conflict and difficulty. This conflict and difficulty refine the focus where sin becomes unappealing—a bold yes that attracts opposition. It’s not an attempt to attract opposition; it’s not being obnoxious so people don’t like you; it’s just being bold enough in your yes to follow Jesus that people pick it up and oppose you, and that journey is a part of what helps us, if we can say with Paul, makes up for what was lacking. The part that was lacking was that Jesus couldn’t do what I needed to do.
Suddenly, we refine focus to where things that were once appealing no longer have their appeal. Why? Because I’ve walked through fire; I’ve walked through the water; I’ve walked through the war; I’ve walked through the battle. The things that may have been mildly attractive a year ago are no longer appealing at all. Why? Because there’s been a fire, and it’s nothing to glorify; it’s just a fact of life. Arm yourself with this mentality that says, «My yes will bring opposition, and I’m okay.» As I’ve told you many, many times over the years, if I don’t live by the praises of men, I won’t die by their criticisms. Arm yourself with the realization that an absolute yes to Jesus brings breakthrough, creates eternal friendships, partnerships, and conditions for opposition. You don’t get to pick and choose; they all come in one glorious package.
That was pretty cool, huh? Why don’t you stand? Let’s get our team back up here. I don’t know if there’s something you want to do. I’m going to lead you in prayer, and then I’ll turn it over to these folks because they’re smart—they’re in charge. Jesus said in John 16, it’s a portion of Scripture that has stood out to me for quite a few years, and I’ve taught on it several times too, so this will perhaps be a reminder for many of you. Jesus said, «Whatever you ask for in John 16 will be given to you that your joy may be full.» I know this sounds strange, but in some ways, you and I have to take responsibility to get answered prayers. Oftentimes, we pray carelessly and blame the lack of breakthrough on Him, saying, «It just wasn’t His will,» when in fact, He was inviting us into a place with refined focus where we’re unwilling to settle for anything but the will of God. Strangely, He describes this as one of several times in Scripture where He says, «This is your access point to fullness of joy.»
See, I’m either going to have joy from the discipline of prayer or from the breakthroughs that prayer brings, and the fullness of joy only comes from breakthroughs. In other words, you were born to get answers! We were designed to see things happen—to have the ache of God work in us where we relentlessly pray, lifting our voices to see things happen. I want you to take a moment just to put a hand on someone next to you—grab their hand, do something—and ask the Lord to release over them a real spirit of prayer, a real anointing for prayer, that John 16 would be fulfilled in them. And, Lord, keep us from the tokenism that often happens in prayer but move us into the kind of prayers that Aaron did with that incense, where he stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped. God, we want the plague to stop because we stand between the living and the dead. We stand in that place. Pray for that mantle of prayer to come upon those around you. I want to hear you pray; I want to hear you pray out loud for breakthroughs, Lord God—breakthroughs!