Bill Johnson - God's Blueprint for Healing Our Land
Feel like I just went to heaven and back; didn’t want to come back. Maybe we didn’t; yeah, we’re still there. That’s right, oh goodness, wow. Um, there’s someone here who struggles with fibromyalgia, and Jesus is going to heal tonight. Um, who struggles with that issue? Right over here? Okay, oh, we’ve got three together. Whenever there’s a specific problem and they’re sitting close to each other, that’s an unusual coincidence, which is the language of the Spirit. It shows that He’s breathing on something, and it always encourages me because, you know, it’s not a support group, but there are three right together with that problem.
So Jesus is going to deliver. In fact, we just saw this last week in, um, Charlotte— a week and a half ago, whatever it was— I’ve been gone forever, it seems like. No, not in Charlotte, in Bradford, England. They’re close to each other; there’s a little pond called the Atlantic Ocean that separates the two. Yeah, yeah, all right. So geography wasn’t my strong point. Um, in Bradford, there was a woman that I believe had been in a wheelchair for 10 years with fibromyalgia, and she was completely healed, completely set free. So I believe the Lord is doing that again tonight.
Um, who here has ever broken their jaw and has ongoing problems because of that? Who is that? Put your hand up high. I don’t want to miss. Right back here? All right, Jesus is doing a good healing work there as well. Um, there are inflamed, swollen gums and possible gum disease involved that I believe Jesus is healing tonight right there. Okay, um, there’s someone here who I think had a break in the right ankle that just didn’t heal correctly, so you’ve got weakness and pain in that right ankle. Who is that? Oh, we’ve seen—oh, two together, that’s awesome. It’s a broken ankle club right back here. Yeah, and I love that! All right, and if you’re not with those two, you can still get healed; you still have permission. All right, right, all right.
Um, yeah, the Lord’s healing that. There’s actually some—I can feel it—there’s like tendon or ligament damage. I don’t know the difference, so forgive me, but it’s right here on the top of the foot. There are some issues there with that pain. Is that you? Is that you? Yeah? Stand up, check it out. It should be all right. Check it out right now. Yeah, just move it around. Yeah, just move it around real good, check it out. Yeah, okay, tell me how it’s doing. Yeah, you good? All right, did you check it out? Is it good? Yeah? Is it good? Yeah, yeah, good! Come on! All right, beautiful. Yeah, that’s so cool. Thank you, Lord.
Ah, you have any—yeah, just grab a mic here. We got a mic somewhere. Oh, they’re up here with me. All right, any of you guys that have any words of knowledge? Yeah, while he was speaking, I was hearing, um, like a— I don’t know how to describe it; I’ll do the best I can—like your hip is, um, I don’t want to say deformed, like misaligned. Like maybe the socket where the leg comes into the socket is two different sizes. Yeah, does that make sense to anybody? Is that you back there? Yeah? All right, yeah, all right, good. So I can see the Lord just completely reforming your hip; it’s beautiful, beautiful. Can you feel it? I mean, does it affect you right now, or what? Okay, we have one here and then one way in the back there as well.
Okay, what’s that? Yeah, when you’re trying to sleep? Yeah, man, just sleep well tonight. Well, you could sleep while I talk tonight; we could check it out at the end of the message to see how you do. Many have fallen asleep when I’ve talked, so, um, and just along the right side, it’s still like a cracked femur. All right, still cracked. I see somebody nodding their head. Does that make sense? Just wave your hand if that’s you. Um, we want to—I hear voices; maybe it’s—I have issues. Oh, there’s overflow as well. Okay, anyone in overflow, just make sure you get in on this.
Yeah, all right, so anybody else got here? Okay, yep, go ahead. I believe God wants to heal pleurisy, so it’s like a—a water on the lung, and it’s hand in hand with that, just reoccurring bronchitis, where to the degree that you’ve actually cracked your ribs from reoccurring coughing. Does that make sense to anyone? Put your hand up if that’s you; we want to make sure you get healed. Maybe we can have somebody run interference for me in the overflow. Um, just—Joel, why don’t you go over? Somebody go over and just check it out.
Sure, so, um, any of those three things—so reoccurring bronchitis, pleurisy, which is like a lining on the lung of water or extra fluid—it’s impacting your breathing—and then any persistent coughing that has caused any ribs to crack. Right? Wasn’t but I’ve had issues for months, for reoccurring, for six months. All right, all right, tonight’s the night it ends. All right, all right? Yeah, all right, beautiful, all right.
Uh, there’s a number of folks that have issues with their voice, their vocal cords. Um, I don’t know if it’s nodules; I don’t know what it is, but there’s a number of folks with issues there. Sound like it got healed? Okay, so, all right, so the vocal cord— the voice issue—put your hand up quick. All right, wow, that’s a whole bunch. All right, we just had somebody— their tongue was healed; they weren’t able to taste food, which is absolutely the worst thing ever. And, uh, so the Lord’s going to restore taste. We just had that healed in London, I think it was; no ability to taste, and the Lord just healed and restored that. So who has an issue with that? Right there? Okay, all right.
So whoever prays for her, make sure you have a mint or something ready, I’m serious, because we want to check it out right away. Um, there’s also— or chocolate; chocolate would be better. Yeah, mints will do, mints will do. Yeah, all right. Uh, there’s also digestive issues, food allergies. Uh, there’s a lot of things we can pray for, but there are certain things that just stand out to me right now. So if you have any kind of food allergy—oh my goodness gracious. All right, so you notice tongue, taste, food allergy? We’re going after the big things right now, the important things.
Um, I believe the Lord is going to heal. In fact, there’s somebody who has digestive issues, and it has caused other diseases, other problems in your organs. I don’t know what it is, but this one digestive issue has caused a domino effect. Does that make sense to you? Because I just heard that as we were talking. There are several. All right, all right. There’s also hearing loss. Anyone with hearing loss, put your hand up; we’ll go for that. Okay, anybody here with cancer? We always—right here, right here? Okay, anyone else? All right, cancer— fingers, fingers and toes.
Okay, so there’s—somebody has an issue under the tongue. Who’s that? Put a hand up real quick, right there. All right, and there’s a problem—is it broken? You’ve broken fingers? You have issues with your hands with your fingers? If that’s you, put a hand up quickly. All right, we’ve had many times where the Lord literally has reset bones in just a moment’s time. In fact, we had a guy right back here that was run over by a 14-ton truck, crushed his ankle years ago, and so it was put back together. But there was pain and very restricted movement. Somebody prayed for him; his ankle turned cool and then popped, and it was completely healed. So strange thing; wonderful thing, wonderful thing.
So, all right, so fingers and also toes. Did you say, Brian, the toes? Same, same thing? All right, so who had the frequent broken toes or issues with the toes? Put your hands up. Might as well get in on this. All right, everyone who raised your hand over any of these things? Stand—beautiful, not beautiful; you have the problem—beautiful, you’re about to get rid of the problem. All right, here’s what I need you to do: those of you that are sitting down, you are now the prayer team. And, uh, so I need, um, all of you that are standing, put a hand up. I want you to keep it up until someone comes to you. As soon as somebody comes to you, put your hand down.
So those of you that are seated, find someone—husbands or wives—you don’t have to pray for each other; I want you to have fresh meat. You’ve already prayed for each other. All right, but don’t start yet! We still have hands up, okay? Don’t start yet; we still have hands up. Okay, we’ve got some people right down here in front of me. We have a third one right back here. We have one right over here to my left. The Lord gave some of you two hands for a reason, so that you could take on two people. He’s the one who does the healing anyway, so it’s not you. All right, I think if we missed you, wave a hand; it means I’ll make sure to get somebody to.
All right, here’s what I need you to do: you’ve got to find out what the problem is. Those of you that are receiving healing prayer, keep it simple. They don’t need a description of the accident; they just need a target. All right. Those of you doing the praying, lay your hands on them and just pray your best prayer, but speak to the problem—command it.
Let me pray over you. All right, so Holy Spirit, we do welcome you. I ask that you come and glorify the name of Jesus through miracles, through signs, through wonders. Ears, open now in Jesus' name! We command ears to open; digestive system, be restored to God’s perfect design in Jesus' name! The obstruction in the voice right now—we just pray that healing oil of Jesus, the oil of Jesus, to flow down that throat, fully restoring everything that’s been compromised in the name of the Lord Jesus! We speak to the bones—broken bones, be reset now! The trauma to that jaw—there’s trauma involved in breaking that jaw. I just rebuke trauma right now in Jesus' name—release you from that—and declare the healing word of Jesus, the healing word of Jesus! Yeah, we speak to the hip joint—be fully recreated now in the name of the Lord. Fully restored now in Jesus' mighty name!
Okay, we got about 30 more seconds; thank you, Lord. Okay, go and end your prayer, but stay with the person. Don’t leave them; end your prayer and go say Amen, but stay with the person. Shh, okay, just give me your attention; you can stop your prayer now, please. Have them stop; thank you. You can pray past the miracle; I’m seeing you can pray past the miracle. Back up! All right, all of you that received prayer right now, just try to do something you couldn’t do. Um, if it was a muscle tendon issue, move around. If it was digestive, I don’t know, eat something, I guess! I don’t know! Come on! All right, in some way, try to do what you couldn’t do. If you had a growth, a tumor, try to feel it. If there’s hearing loss, have somebody whisper—in some way, examine yourself. Everyone who’s at least 80% better, would you wave both hands over your head like this right now? Just wave both hands over your head. Yeah, we bless you, Lord; we thank you! Thank you, Lord!
All right, SH, turn and pray one more time. Turn and pray again. If they’re 100% healed, you don’t have to pray because you might mess things up, but other than that, I want you to pray one more time and just bless them. Just release that presence, that power of God, to restore fully in Jesus' mighty name. Okay, you’ve got about 30 seconds. Thank you, Lord. Okay, go ahead and end your prayer. If you would now, I want to ask everyone to stand and just look in this direction here, if you would. We’ll be through with this in just a moment.
Now, it wouldn’t hurt for everyone to say this, but especially those who just received prayer. The reason we pray for the sick is that we want Jesus to get what He paid for. When we experience something, if we experience suffering, He takes it personally. Do you remember when He appeared before Saul when he was persecuting the church, and He said, «Why do you persecute Me?» He takes it personally when you are blessed; He takes it personally. He is blessed in your blessing.
So I want everybody in the room who was prayed for, especially, to just say this after me: «I receive the healing I receive that Jesus bought for me.» Now let’s make that confession together: «I receive the healing that Jesus bought for me.» That was good; it still is. All right, check yourselves out. Everyone who’s at least 80% better, I want you to wave your hands over your head like this. Just take a look around you, Church. Somebody give thanks. Bless you, Lord. Wonderful.
Okay, go ahead and be seated. We’re going to open the Word here in just a moment. I would love to hear what Jesus did. How come you were so excited back over here? What happened to you? I don’t know what I… Okay, well just wait a second. Let’s get a microphone over here. Yeah, help me out. Just go over there — yeah, I’m going to make you do the running. I love when other people have to do the work. What happened?
I don’t know how I hurt my hip, but I’m a runner, and it’s been aggravating and bothering me when I run. It wakes me up in pain at night, and when I sit and then go to stand up, it was just locked up and painful. Now I just have complete freedom! I can move it. It’s not… Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!
I would love to hear from maybe two other people just to give testimony. Everything that Jesus does is significant, but if you had the Lord do something pretty extraordinary in your body, I want you to let us know. Right back over here, we have one. Just come out to the aisle, hang onto the mic; that mic’s a million dollars right there.
So when you were talking about the hand and fingers, I broke my hand, and it affects me whenever I play the keys and stuff. I actually had calcification on my hands from the break, and it’s completely… That’s so good! Come on, wow! Is there one other person who would be willing to share? Just one… Go ahead, right here.
So my healing was for loss of hearing. You know, I’m 72, and it’s done! I was happy after I knew it happened, and I clapped my hands, and it hurt! That’s awesome! Thank you. All right, that’s beautiful.
Everyone that got healed tonight, just stand up. I want to see who you are. Look around the room. Is that beautiful? Thank you, Lord! Yeah, the guy with the cracked femur, he’s sitting next to the guy with… Yeah, that’s awesome. Just, where’s the mic? Just give the story, and then we’ll move on.
Brian, explain what happened here. The Lord is still healing somebody. I’m sorry, with that right hip, there’s still somebody who has an issue in the joint—not in the hip area specifically, the joint. Who’s that? If that’s you, stand up; just stand up, put your hand on it. Yeah, you right here too? Anyone? Just stand up and put your hand on it. Because I’m declaring to you, Jesus heals, restores. There’s also someone who has an injury to the Achilles tendon on the right leg. That Achilles tendon has been damaged; it’s torn or maybe it’s injured from years ago, never fully restored. All right, you well, just pretend I’m dyslexic and take it.
All right, um, there’s also somebody who has an injury—my goodness, this is now spreading. There’s significant pain in the tissue on the left knee, right under the kneecap, right in this area here. Is that you? All right, you have stitches there; that’s why it’s tender. Okay, all right, so put your hand on it. Yeah. Oh, so the right one got healed, and now you’re going for the left? That works! All right, all right. Now just give testimony, and you guys just stand there with your hand on the problem, and let’s just go for it!
Yeah, so I went and prayed and laid hands on the gentleman with the misaligned hip socket, and then this guy who’s sitting next to, or a couple chairs down from him said, «Yeah, I’m the one with the cracked femur,» and he’s got a steel plate in his leg. I asked him how that worked out, you know, and he said one leg’s longer than the other, and it makes his hip really sore. So we just came over here and sat. How is it now?
I don’t really have pain. I can’t test it, but my right leg was like a half-inch longer. So I put my hips up against the wall to check that, and he said my legs are even. So I couldn’t see a difference; he couldn’t see a difference. It’s been that way for like 15 years. Man, come on! That’s awesome, that’s beautiful! Thank you, Lord! All right, all of you standing, check yourselves right now. Just check yourselves out, all of you standing; just check yourselves. Do something. Just do something!
Yeah, all right. Is there any improvement for anyone who’s standing? Just wave your hand at me if there is. Way in the back over here, right down here; right over here. All right, anybody else? Right here, yep, right here’s another one; all right, it’s contagious! Another one over here, all right; thank you! Another one right here, all right! Who’s that Achilles? Who’s that Achilles on the right? Um, on the right leg? Yeah, is that you over here? How is it?
It’s the same; somebody lay hands on it because I want it to stop bothering me. I can feel it, actually. I feel it! All right, all right! Just all of you, just lay hands on whoever you’re standing close to and pray for that miracle to be completed there, and then we’re going to… we’ll move on. Yeah, just declare. We just release the presence, the power of the Lord Jesus over these bodies. We declare Jesus is the one who restores all. Thank you, Lord! He makes all things new.
So just confess that with me once again: «I receive the healing I receive that Jesus bought for me.» Let’s say it all together: «I receive the healing that Jesus bought for me.» Amen? Amen! You go ahead and be seated.
I just returned this week, late Thursday night from—I was actually gone for 16 days, which I don’t… I don’t go that long anymore. I used to, but I don’t like to be gone that long. But I went to Charlotte to be with Mahash and Bonnie Shabo, wonderful friends of ours, and then went to London and did the Hillsong gathering there in London—a little tiny home group of about 20,000 people that would be our Reinhardt Bonnke home group, you know?
So I just had such a wonderful time, and I’m so impressed with Hillsong—the integrity of the people, the strength of the ministry, their focus, their priority. They are really, in this season, amping up their risk and appetite for miracles and breakthrough.
Oh goodness, it’s hard to say how many because you can’t manage a meeting with 20,000 people and direct traffic at all. You just give words of knowledge, and we pray. But someone told me they estimated there were at least a thousand or so people healed during maybe just a 10-minute slot—literally a 10-minute slot—and some pretty extraordinary things took place, including metal in the back and all kinds of stuff that was completely healed. I went from there to Bradford, England, and was there in a leadership gathering of about 1,400 people. On the last night, we had this gal in a wheelchair who was up and beside herself with joy because of being so afflicted for so many years, and it was just completely gone! We had a guy there who broke his arm; he had a metal plate in his arm from kickboxing.
If you were at the Civic here, I think it was two years ago when Randy Clark prayed for a gal who had a metal plate that stuck out about an inch or so from her bone; this was the same thing with this guy. They prayed and prayed for him, and nothing happened, and finally, they felt they needed to ask him to forgive himself. When he forgave himself, it just dissolved! This thing that was sticking out this far— it literally just went away. Michael, my assistant is a medical doctor from Australia, and so he’s over there checking; he says, «I can’t find any metal anywhere!»
There was this gal who got hit with this virus that caused her to go blind enough to the point where she couldn’t read. She had been to the doctor the previous week, and there would be no further improvement at all. She could see shapes and color or light, but she couldn’t read anything at all. They prayed for her, and her eyes… she’s reading the fine print on Michael’s phone!
There’s a gal there with a hunched-over, large lump on her back, who walked with those crutches that hook up to you so you struggle to walk with. That big lump on her back completely disappeared! She stood upright, got rid of the crutches, and walked. It was just—so thrilled to see what’s happening in Europe! Come on, Jesus!
How many of you are from Europe? Man, this is Europe’s time! I’m telling you, this is what we’ve dreamt about for years, and it’s happening right now; it’s unfolding. So very encouraged! All right, we’ve already gone on for a while, but I still have a while to go. If you get through before I do, just go home.
Here’s what I want to do. I’m really torn because I started sensing some things during worship, but I…
Let’s go to the Book of Jonah. When in doubt, go to Jonah. Now, Jonah is what I talked about at the Cascade this morning, and I want to do that again. I’m going to try to abbreviate this; I want to respect the time. Still, I also want to hit a subject here pretty hard if I can, in shorter than normal… don’t be encouraged; that’s relative.
I want to read a passage to you out of 2 Chronicles 7:14. It is, at least in my estimation, the most famous verse on prayer, intercession, and the healing of the nation. «If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.»
Let me read it to you again; it’s 2 Chronicles 7:14 if you’re writing notes: «If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.»
I’ve never seen a time in my lifetime when there was a greater need for the healing of a nation, the healing of cities, the healing of the land. That verse has never been more in our face, and it’s important that we don’t become all-or-nothing. Sorry, sorry, it happens. Just strangle that thing.
All right, good evening, nice to see you. There are certain words from the Lord that are so inconvenient that they are easy to ignore or bypass. They are so demanding that they’re easy to downplay or relegate to a specific group of people other than ourselves. «If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from Heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I’ll heal their land.»
Please notice, it didn’t say if the sinners would stop sinning, I’ll heal the land. If those in authority who are making ungodly decisions that are infecting the mindset of the people would repent, then I’ll heal their land. He didn’t say that; He said, «If my people…» If my people, those who are called by my name!
The interesting thing about this particular mandate is we see it a number of times in Scripture. Nehemiah, for example. Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king. He was a most trusted individual, a man of great excellence and integrity. He would taste the king’s food. How many of you know if people want to kill you and you have somebody tasting the food ahead of you, it’s got to be someone you trust?
And so Nehemiah was that man. One day he came before the king, and he was downcast. You have to understand, in that particular era, kings controlled the environment around them. If anyone had a depressed look, they could be killed or at minimum removed from a position because they wanted nothing of that sort in their presence. Everything about their life was pleasure, gratification, longevity, and the blessing of their family line.
So when Nehemiah comes in one day and he’s downcast, the king says, «What’s the matter?» He knows it’s a critical moment, and he just mentions the people of God were in bad shape; Jerusalem was torn down, destroyed. He prays this prayer—it’s a beautiful prayer. Nehemiah asks the Lord to forgive, «Forgive us, for we have sinned.» Here’s the interesting thing: Nehemiah was a righteous man, but he prayed as though the sins of the people were his sins.
I hear a lot of people in ministry; they talk about them, and those, and «you all.» There’s this stuff that comes out like it’s «your problem» not «our problem,» and what happens in the humility of prayer is it doesn’t mean that that particular sin is my sin, but I so deeply identify in compassion with the people I’m praying for that I stand among them in prayer and say, «God forgive us for our sins; for we have sinned against you.» Intercessory prayer means basically to stand in the shoes of another and plead their case as though it were your case. We need that right now!
If my people… If my people don’t wait for somebody else… If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves and pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven; I will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Time doesn’t permit me to expand much on this healing of the land, but it means the Earth itself. It’s not just the spiritual atmosphere—obviously, that’s there—but if you search the Scripture, you’ll find that creation itself groans and travails waiting for the day when the people of God would actually find out who they are and come into that place of purity, strength, and power. There would be a healing of the land!
We find in Scripture where creation often echoes the work of the Spirit of God among His people. It mirrors, um, it says in Psalms 87—or no, 67—it talks about the people of God coming into a place of blessing and the Earth then responds and yields its produce.
If you’ve ever seen any of the videos—they’re probably on YouTube now—about Alanga, Guatemala, a city that was a horrible agricultural region that couldn’t grow anything, was deeply steeped in sin, and alcoholism was rampant, with great poverty and horrible, horrible statistics for that part of the world. And then a revival hit! They turned in repentance to the Lord; they cried out to God for forgiveness. He so healed them as a people that alcoholism just about disappeared, poverty was broken, and their land is now so healed that they will have multiple crops a year!
I’ve seen the videos and the pictures. Universities, agricultural centers will send students down to study what happened. The point is, it’s healing of the land! We need the land healed!
It’s not about—please hear me—it’s not about getting wealthy. That’s always included in blessing. But if that’s the focus, ah, it always turns around to bite us. It’s the fact that we become productive. It’s the fact that all of creation begins to cooperate in the purposes of God to fulfill the reason why we are on the planet. We are on the planet to thrive; we are on the planet to represent Jesus well; we are on the planet to glorify Him and spread His love to as many people as we possibly can in our lifetime.
If you’re a musician, you are designed by God to represent Him in the sound that you release into the Earth. If you’re a business leader, you were created by God to do things in business that would actually increase and improve the welfare of the community that you live in. Godly business is not «I prosper; everybody else suffers.» It’s that my ideas help everyone to prosper, and I prosper in the meantime. It’s the healthy approach to life.
It’s not just that we make do until Jesus returns; He’s actually designed life to work. Paul described it as «reigning in life.» In Romans 5, verse 17, I think. Reigning in life!
So all of that out of this one verse about prayer: «If my people don’t wait for the politician to repent, if my people don’t wait for the educator to change, if my people don’t wait for the celebrity to change their mantra, their verbiage, their stuff that they speak…» wait for them to change…
If my people would humble themselves! And when we take on that political and/or religious spirit, there’s a lot of accusation. And I tell you right now, this is the easiest time in my lifetime to start hurling accusations. And let’s be honest; they’re well-deserved. That’s why it’s easy to point the finger and say, «Look what they’ve done.» Save that for the voting booth; it doesn’t belong in prayer.
It doesn’t belong in prayer; you’re not the accuser. And if you do accuse, Scripture says you do not criticize the servant of another. So when I have somebody who opposes me in ministry, it’s easy to pick on what they’re doing wrong, but they’re not my servant; they’re His. And I don’t have the right to use this out of which sweet water is to flow— not salty, poison water to turn and to attack.
In humility, we pray. It means we don’t stand with accusation. I remember seeing somebody say they were going to pray for a particular political leader and they said, «All right, I’ll pray for this,» and they just used all these horrible names to describe them. I thought, «Man, please don’t ever pray for me! I don’t need anyone else standing before God accusing me! You know, let the devil handle that one. You leave me alone!»
I believe there are right and wrong issues that face our nation right now; they’re black and white—so don’t misinterpret my next statement. Black and white issues—but in many ways, the enemy doesn’t mind what position you take on an issue as long as you’ll leave the character of Christ to defend it.
Oftentimes, the enemy does not mind what position you and I take on a given issue if we will leave the character of Christ to defend it. Right now, we need a visitation from God! Amen? I mean, there isn’t a leader that can fix what we’re facing; changes for sure—I’m all for voting in righteous leadership, people who fear God. I’m all over that! But we need something between elections—elections are not our salvation.
We need something between the elections that just says, «We need a visitation from God,» and it comes from a people that will get low, pray authentically!
All right, are you in Jonah, or did you get tired and quit? Jonah is just a great story, and I don’t know about you; I love the Old Testament so much. One of these days I’m going to have the courage to do a series just out of the Book of Judges just because it’s so weird! You know, where they take that person, they cut this lady up into 12 pieces, put her on donkeys, and send her all over Israel? That’s a great story. I mean, that’s just too weird to ignore! You can’t skip over that when you’re reading the Bible.
You’ve got to look at that and go, «There’s got to be something here; He wouldn’t have put it in the book if there weren’t something significant!» Here’s another one—I’m not going to warn you ahead of time. When we do this, I want to surprise you— someday we’ll get to that.
I love the Old Testament, and Jonah is just one of those stories. Most of you are familiar with the story; he’s called by the Lord to go to Nineveh. Nineveh was a city—God calls it a great city. I think it’s four times; it’s at least three times in the book of Jonah, God called Nineveh a great city, but it was a great city that He was going to have to judge and destroy.
Now a lot of people, especially right now for some reason, we get so far away from biblical culture that we get offended by the concept of judgment! Just understand, He’s still the judge. Just be glad the blood of Jesus covers you! He didn’t quit being the judge; He’s not Santa sitting on a cloud granting all our wishes. He’s a righteous and holy God who has set His heart on transforming us to where we look exactly like Jesus!
Mike Bickle said it best: «God’s judgment always comes against whatever interferes with love.» If you have a cancerous growth on your hand, you want the doctor to judge it. You want him to not pacify it, not to consult it, not to comfort it; you want him to cut it off. So God’s judgment is always aimed at that stuff that destroys life for the rest of humanity.
Thankfully, we are in this wonderful season of grace, but we better take advantage of it because He is looking where He can extend mercy and forgiveness. Back to Jonah: He tells Jonah to go to Nineveh, and He tells them to announce that judgment is coming. Jonah doesn’t want to, so he gets in a boat, and they face this horrible storm.
All the guys on the boat realize Jonah’s the problem, so they throw him overboard. A big fish comes up and eats him—he sits in the belly of a… I want you to know, we need to have some Hollywood producer guy go after this story; this is just too good! He’s swallowed by a big fish and spends three days in the belly of this big fish reviewing his life, and he repents—which is a great idea if you find yourself in the belly of a fish!
If it takes you three days to repent, you’ve got issues! You’ve got issues! The fish pukes him up on the shore, so imagine you’re sitting there with your family having a picnic on the beach. This big fish comes up and pukes out this prophet who’s got seaweed all over him; his skin is bleached from stomach acids from the fish, and he’s standing there with a message. How many of you think you might want to listen to him?
It’s just a weird story! So he goes a day’s journey into Nineveh, and he preaches, and there’s this mass of repentance. Two of the greatest revivals in my estimation in the Bible: one is Nineveh, the other is Ephesus in the New Testament—extraordinary turnaround of entire cities!
But the Jonah story, I actually don’t want to talk to you a lot about Jonah; it’s a fascinating read. I want to talk to you about Nineveh. God called Nineveh a great city, and yet it was steeped in darkness. Here’s something about sinfulness. Do you understand the devil cannot create; he can only distort, right?
Give me that paper down there, just that paper that’s laying there—whatever that is, I don’t know what it is, but it is now mine! Thank you! All right! God created marriage—perfect harmony between husband and wife! There’s the sexual part of marriage, there’s the emotional connection, there’s the partnership, there’s the dreaming together, there’s all this stuff. The devil can’t create this but what he can do is distort it.
He can distort what exists, and he says, «All right, sex can be enjoyed with other people besides your spouse.» He didn’t create it; he just distorted what God designed. Are you with me? All right, so when we find sin-filled cities in the world—and well, let me just mention a few just to illustrate. I’m not casting stones—San Francisco, New Orleans, Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro… we can go on and on. It’s not necessary; you get the point.
Oftentimes, Christians will look at these cities with a spirit of accusation because of their sinfulness instead of realizing they are only displaying in darkness their potential in light. God saw greatness, but they were locked in this cycle of sin. The depth of that sin only represented the height of glory that He had purposed and called them to.
San Francisco is a wonderful, beautiful city, but it is steeped in sin. Why? Because of the toleration of immoral things. What’s the gift? It’s a gift of extraordinary mercy. But it just got perverted, got distorted. Is this making sense? So God calls it a great city, but it has to be judged because the sin is actually going to destroy all the people around it.
So the word comes, and they repent. We have to stop looking at the darkness of an individual, a family line, a city, a nation, and instead look at what God sees in that city that would make Him say Nineveh is a great city! It’s a great city!
There are two or three things I want to point out, and then we’ll wrap this up. I want you to look at verse 3 of chapter 1. Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fare, went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of God.
Look at verse 10. The men who were exceedingly afraid told him, «Why have you done this?» They have now figured out Jonah’s the problem. The men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord. Here’s a theme throughout Jonah’s life.
Let me talk to you about the presence of God. First of all, Colossians 1 says, «In Him, all things consist.» Another way to say it is, «In Him, all things are held together.» This stage, every molecule, is held in place by the actual presence of God. If His presence were to be completely removed from something, it would completely disintegrate because He is the glue, if you will, that holds everything in its place.
Pantheists have it wrong because they think the tree is God. The part that is correct—and please don’t misinterpret me on this one—the part that is correct is that the presence of God does hold that tree together, but the tree itself is not God! Right? So if I’m an unbeliever, and the presence of God actually holds my being together, then we’d have to say when I’m born again and the Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence in me, makes my body His temple, then there’s an increased dimension or measure of His presence.
Are you following me? He holds me together, but I turn my life over to Jesus; He is my Lord, my Savior. All of a sudden, the Spirit of God comes and takes up residence in me. Now as a person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, when I get together with two or three of you, He says, «I will be there in the midst.» But He’s already here! He’s in me; He’s already in you!
So when we come together, and He says, «I’m there in the midst,» He’s trying to let us know there is yet another dimension of presence that I’m going to gift you with. Do you understand? There are measures, layers, dimensions of presence. It’s easy to become ignorant of the more that’s available.
All right, so He’s in me; I receive Christ, takes up residence in me. We meet together, He’s there in the midst, and then He says when we give Him praise, He establishes His throne upon the praises of His people.
So here’s a group of people that are together in His name; He’s already there, and yet when we move into that time of worship, there’s a manifest presence of God that increases. I’m saying all of that because it says here that Jonah was fleeing from the presence of God.
In one sense, you can’t get away from Him because He’s everywhere, but that’s not what this is pointing to. It’s not trying to make a theological statement that God doesn’t exist in some places; He’s trying to let us know a secret: there is a measure of presence that you can only discover when you’re doing what you were assigned to do.
Wow! Bill, he was fleeing from that. If you can distance yourself from that, you don’t have the conviction, the torment, the pain of the result of your own disobedience. Wow! We were born for certain assignments.
I don’t mean that rigidly—you know, you’re working at Macy’s and you should be working at Penny’s, I’m not doing that. But I’m just saying we were born with design; a designer designed us with purpose. It says of David— King David— that in the time when kings go to war, he was at home on his rooftop. He saw a nude woman bathing, and that’s where he fell into adultery and eventually murder.
When you’re not standing in the assignment you were designed for, you’ll end up facing temptations you don’t have grace for. The safest place to be is in the middle of the assignment God gave you. You say, «Well, it’s so scary.» No, it’s scarier outside! It’s way scarier outside!
And so Jonah here is actually fleeing from the presence of the Lord because when you’re doing what you were designed for, it’s almost like you’re wired to tap into this presence of God, this glory of God in ways that you can’t by doing anything else. Right?
When you’re doing what you were born to do, you suddenly have access—exposure, I don’t know the right language. You suddenly are in a place to discover Him in ways you couldn’t anywhere else. Wow!
I had a physical challenge here a few years ago, and I remember reading… I would read the 23rd Psalm probably almost every day, if not every day, for months—among other things. But I would go through that Psalm over and over and over again, and I remember when that whole season was over, I didn’t come out with heavy revelation. I came out with an awareness of something I was hoping to have great truths, you know?
It wasn’t that. It was that He said, «Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I’ll fear no evil because You’re with me.» I came to this realization: there are measures of presence that you can’t find anywhere but in the valley of the shadow of death.
You’ve got to capture your moments. We don’t always control our moments; seldom do we control our moments. Here’s another one: He prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Table—intimate fellowship. It’s nourishment; it’s strength; it’s communion, partnership, friendship, belonging.
And it’s in the middle of enemies! And there are some of you that are so preoccupied with the enemies that are against you that you haven’t yet discovered He’s sitting right across the table for the deepest, richest fellowship you’ve ever known in your life!
Come on! The way I like to put it is every time you say, «I love you» to Jesus, God broadcasts it over the devil’s intercom!
All right, let’s wrap this up. Let me take you to one more point that I think is worthwhile. It’s in chapter 3, so Jonah chapter 3, guys. All right, everybody still alive before you were saved? You were just leaving the house to go out.
So this is an early night here; sorry to remind you of that. Yeah, we had years ago a couple of our elders who would tell people the only reason we bring our watch to church is to see if the date changed.
Chapter 3:5—so the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
He caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, «Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water—even the animals!» Man, this is awesome! This is like this guy got serious!
«Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily to God!» Look carefully here: cry mightily to God! Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand!
Interesting comparison. That word mightily there—different translations—I forget which one I was looking at this morning. The word mighty here actually means «violently.» So he says, «Cry in a violent manner to God, and let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence of his own hands.»
Wow! Let’s just say you’ve got a very shy, timid, brand-new mother. She’s got this beautiful little baby. She’s very shy, very sensitive, and she’s got her pride and joy down at the shopping mall. She’s got her stroller and she looks in the window, and some man runs over, takes the stroller, and starts running off with the child.
How many of you think she would still be shy? No! She turns into a mother bear! She is ready to rip somebody to pieces if she can get a hold of that man because something got released in her! She is no longer measuring her response according to the values of people or society or culture or anything. No! Nobody is going to define that response!
That response is going to be the most honest response she has maybe ever had in her entire life! There’ll be a scream, she will run, and she will do everything she possibly can to apprehend and get that child back! Am I right?
Okay, this word «mightily» in prayer—it’s that kind of response to God that is not measured according to culture. It is the most honest prayer you’ve ever prayed in your life!
So here we have something unusual happening in verse 5: it says the people of Nineveh believed, and they proclaimed a fast. In verse 6 it says, «Then word came to the king.» This is a phenomenon throughout Israel’s history! When they had a righteous king, they behaved righteously. When they had an idolatrous evil king, they became an idolatrous people. They almost always followed their leaders!
In this move of God it started with the people, and it created such a tidal wave, such an eruption of intercession in this city that was about to face the judgment of God that it finally rippled all the way to the top of their culture and society and the King himself heard of it! And when he heard of it, there was such a release of power over this man that he fell instantly into conviction!
He began to move with the intercessions of his own people, and they then brought about transformation. When Jonah walked through Nineveh and announced judgment was coming, he did not say if you don’t repent, judgment is coming—there was no option of repentance. All there was was a pronouncement of judgment.
Right? It was the people who saw they realized maybe this God who gave them a warning is also merciful! They weren’t offended at the word of judgment; they were brought to humility and responded to that fact that He’s a merciful God! He’s a caring Father! He’s a forgiving God!
And it wasn’t even in the sermon they heard. It wasn’t even in the message that brought them to a place of transformation; they just heard judgment was coming, and they instantly hit the dirt, so to speak. They began to confess their sins, and their cry was so honest and so raw that it rippled up the chain of command until the king himself was apprehended with a word of conviction!
Something was stirring in my heart this morning. I want to end with this: we know that Jesus—we quote this verse a lot—Jesus only said what He heard His Father say and only did what He saw His Father do. I’ve read through history; I’ve read some of the sermons that the great revivalists preached.
I’ve seen, um, on some of the—what century is this? 21? So 20th century! I’ve been traveling; I thought it was time travel for a moment, but it wasn’t—I’m here. Have even seen video or recordings of some of the great revivalists in their messages. Now please don’t be offended by this, but what they said wasn’t that profound, no!
Some, obviously, were! The books I’ve read, some that I… I mean, it’s amazing! But it’s not what I expected; it’s like, «Oh, we learn that when I was 18!» The point isn’t to cast a shadow of doubt on their insight; it’s to make me hungry that you can say the simplest thing under the power of God and it changes a life!
Because these guys would stand—Wesley would stand in a field and would preach what he said, I’m sure, was profound and perfect for the day. But what I want you to hear is his voice was released, driven by the voice of the Lord; there’s record of the voice itself actually carrying over great pieces of land, where people would hear miles away this gospel being preached with such power that it would echo through the canyons and through the trees!
And the whole point is the ache in our heart that when we say truth, God himself would put His hand on it and would cause it to go far beyond what our intelligence has earned!
That if you could say, «I was like 19 years old. I’m sitting in a house. We had a place in Reading called the Salt House; it was just a dropping center for people on drugs and all that stuff. It was just crazy town. It seemed like every demonized person you know in California would come through that house.
You know, we had a guy who tried to push the piano out the front window one day, and I mean just weird stuff! So trust me, weird stuff! So I’m sitting there one day, and this guy who comes in was intellectual, and he was extremely demonized. He loved to debate because he was intelligent enough to pretty much whoop me really good with any debate on any subject.
And I sat there. He came in, sat down. I got a bunch of us sitting in a room, and I felt the Spirit of God come upon me. I just became aware of God, and I said to him—now remember this guy: you just make any comment, and he’s got an argument, and he’s going to win.
I looked at him and said, „Jesus really loves you.“ Simple! Simple! It was the first time in my life— in our interaction through this season—the first time I’d ever seen him silent! See, the simplest phrase came with the breath of God, and it forced him to think!
Wow! It felt so good on my end that I repeated it, and then he had an argument because the second time I said it, I said it— I will never forget that as long as I live! It was like a slow-motion film!
Bill, when you did this, My hand was on it! When you did the exact same thing 30 seconds later, trying to get the same result, I wasn’t doing it that time! It caused me to hunger!
I really, I really am not impressed with any of my ideas. All I really want is yours, and I want to speak when you speak, and I want to be silent when you’re silent. I want to take bold action when it’s important, and I want to stand still when it’s important.
All I want to know is Your heart, Your presence, Your countenance, Your voice. All I want to do is represent You well!
So why don’t you stand? We’ll wrap this up. All right, you made it through the strangest teaching on Jonah you’ve heard in your life, but we survived it! We survived it!
John Wesley would be in the fields; thousands and thousands of people would show up. People in the back would be trying to see him; they’d climb trees to get a better view. He was known as a preacher with such power that people would just fall over. They warned the people in the trees, „Don’t climb the trees; don’t climb the trees.“
And the people would ignore it! They’d climb the tree anyway, and then the power of God would be released, and they’d fall out of the trees! They really would! They’d fall out of trees!
And people would say, „Well, why did God knock them out of the trees?“ He didn’t knock them out of the trees; He just showed up! They couldn’t hang on! I mean, let’s get hungry!
Yeah! Let’s humble ourselves and pray, and let’s get hungry! Because some of you are going to stand in the courts of kings, and you’re not going to have a profound word, but you’ll have a word, He’s breathing; He’s breathing up. And when you say it, it’ll pierce the hearts, and it’ll change the hearts of kings!
That’s good! That’s good! Change the heart of a leader. So here’s all I know to do: you humble yourself and pray, and you cry out, „God, I want to represent You well.“
I don’t pray this in fear; I pray this in passion! I want to represent You well! I want to say what You’re saying. I don’t want to add to it; I want to be silent when You’re silent.
And then you get in a public place, and you trust Him to direct you!
If it worked well, you gave Him all the praise; if it didn’t work well, get back into the quiet place. „God, I really want to represent You well.“
So Father, I pray this prayer over us. As a body of believers, friends that have gathered from all over for this great week, I’m asking: heighten our ability to hear! Give us the courage to do what You’re doing, say what You’re saying, and the courage to be silent even though we have great ideas. Help us to know the movements of Your presence, the movements of Your heart, because we truly want to establish the Kingdom in the earth, that You’d be glorified!
I pray this in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen! Amen!