Bill Johnson - Hearing God's Voice, Faith, and Entitlement
All right, hello, hello! I probably have it on; I have this habit of leaving it on my back and then wondering why there’s no sound. Cheap mic, of course—if my mouth were on the back of my head, then it would work, but that would be kind of gross, huh? Oh well, I saw this little saying a while back; it said something like, «It’s an injustice for those who recognize coffee as a medicinal element to have to stand in line behind people who consider it a recreational activity.» That just sounded like a discerning word to me. I like this one: «This morning I drank water because it’s healthy"—warmed up and poured over coffee grounds in a mug. This is coffee! «A yawn is a silent scream for coffee.» That made sense, right? I like that.
Well, I just got back on Friday from what seemed like a world tour in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and China. I don’t want to take up the time to talk about it now—maybe another time—but there are just wonderful things happening all over the world. I appreciate the video we just watched. I love seeing people who are just not impressed with the devil. That’s what I like to see: people who are not impressed with the stories of how dark it is and who just take the gospel into these places and watch Jesus do what only He can do. It’s so encouraging that the video shouts that message to us.
I spent some time in communist China and it was wonderful to see what our brothers and sisters are doing there, the favor given to them, and the changes happening. My goodness, I was so encouraged in Japan to see not only Pentecostals and charismatics come out to a packed event, but also key evangelical leaders. There’s a hunger and a recognition for the kingdom. It’s not about what side of the river you live on; it’s about the fact that we’re all one nation paying attention to what Jesus is doing. Anyway, it was a great trip.
Take your Bibles and open to the Book of James, chapter one. I’m going to externally process with you about this thing called faith. Here’s what I’ve noticed: faith unchecked becomes entitlement. If you could picture any work that God does in our lives as a plant, Jesus illustrated this profoundly in John 15. He said that every branch that bears fruit He prunes. The concept is that pruning follows growth. Growth is a response of grace to the person who has obeyed, so pruning is never punishment; it’s always positioning us for greater increase, greater manifestation of purpose, and greater demonstration of who God is in us and through us. God is much more concerned about what He’s building in us than what He builds through us.
This work of grace that God is doing in us always needs refinement; it always needs pruning so that it doesn’t lead us to entitlement. What happens is the definition of hope, for example—excuse me—hope is literally translated as joyful anticipation of good. That’s what the biblical word hope means. Anytime you find people growing in hope, what happens is you start to get breakthrough. Hope becomes the birthplace of faith, and you find breakthroughs happening. We start seeing what God has promised us in Scripture, and if we’re not careful, we move from faith into entitlement because we start thinking that we actually have a role in bringing about our own destiny instead of it being the working of God’s grace.
Hopefully, this makes sense by the time we get to the end. The salvation for us, the thing that keeps us in check and healthy, is being poor in spirit. Poor in spirit is the key to maintaining health as we become blessed. Very few people throughout history can manage a life of increase and blessing. What happens is when people move into blessing, they end up sabotaging their own maturity because they can’t handle the increase. Why? Because increase leads to entitlement, and the only thing that keeps us safe in progressing from glory to glory, as Bishop Garlington tells us, is that we go from glory to glory, but it’s hell in the hallway.
The whole word that the Lord has for us is not to turn us into introspective people. How many of you have ever gone inward and come out encouraged? Yeah, that never happens—never has in the history of man. Nobody comes out saying, «The world is waiting for me.» You don’t have these encounters, like the Apostle Paul when Jesus knocks him off his donkey, and he gets this revelation of his purpose in life. He doesn’t strut around saying, «Wait till you read the books I’m about to write.» Something else happens in that encounter: you discover that everything is by grace. Everything is by grace.
Here’s the deal: a hundred million years from now, it will still be by grace, not by your performance. See, revival doesn’t happen because we make something happen; revival happens because we step into the momentum of something God has already declared. He declared, «I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.» It’s the momentum of His voice, and what happens is anytime in church history people step into the momentum of what He has said, then things happen. To have the idea that we bring things about is really an exaggeration. He won’t do it without us, but we can’t do it without Him. It’s entirely grace.
There will never be a time in all of our existence, throughout eternity, where things happen because of us. It will always be because of grace. It’s that profound. In fact, in Ephesians 2, it says in the ages to come, we will see the surpassing riches and greatness of His grace. It will take the ages to come to unravel what we’ve only scratched the surface of. The only thing that can keep us in that tension, where we continuously advance in the things of God, is to remain poor in spirit. Poor in spirit is not self-criticism—that’s just foolish because you’re partnering with the devil; he’s the accuser. So being poor in spirit is maintaining the perspective that He gives us credit for what He does through us.
It’s maintaining the perspective that everything that’s done in and through us is done as a gift of God’s grace. All right, so I lay hands on somebody, I have this great gift of faith, and a miracle happens—their blind eyes open. Where did the faith come from? It came from Him—a gift from Him. I get to partner with Him; it’s a privilege and an honor of being a redeemed one, but it didn’t originate with me. It’s not a part of my purpose and plan; I’ve adopted His, so it is now mine. But nothing originated with me; it all originated with Him. As a result of that, staying mindful of our potential sinfulness, I don’t think breeds proper humility, but staying mindful of our need for continuous grace keeps us poor in spirit.
Here’s one of the things that baffles me throughout Scripture—and we’ll read a story in a moment—is how often God gives His best to the least deserving. You would think something as grand as the resurrection of Jesus would first appear to the faithful eleven remaining. That’s not what happened. His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene, the one out of whom He cast seven demons.
Here’s the deal: when Jesus was born of a virgin, the first one to touch Him was the Virgin Mary. When Jesus was resurrected from the dead, which biblically is also called a birth—the firstborn from the dead—the first one to touch Him was Mary Magdalene. The first one to touch Him after His natural birth was the Virgin Mary. What was happening in this season was the fulfillment of the law. Under the law, you were affected by the evil around you, and so everything had to remain clean. If you touched a leper, you became unclean.
That was the entire season. Jesus comes along, and the first one to hold or touch Him, if you will, is the Virgin Mary. But after His resurrection, which is a birth, the first one to touch Him is Mary Magdalene, out of whom seven demons were cast. Why? Because the message has shifted from contamination by whatever touches you to the power of righteousness that now touches you to change you.
So the illustration I use often: In the Old Testament, you touch a leper, and you become unclean. Jesus now touches a leper, and the leper becomes clean. There’s a reversal in the effect of things. In fact, we’re going to read a story in a moment where it says the woman at the well—Jesus says, «He who comes to Me and drinks, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.» In fact, He says, «The drink will become a fountain.»
Just follow this with me: what you touch changes the nature of who you are. A drink becomes a river. In the Old Testament, you were contaminated by anything dark or evil. In the New Testament, you’re transformed by anything righteous that touches you.
All right, let’s do James 1, verse 2: «My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.» That patience has its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Let’s read it again: «My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.»
Count it all joy! How can he say «count it all joy»? Because he’s describing the outcome—lacking nothing! We pray for so many things for God to fill our lives with this anointing, this breakthrough, this favor, and this open door. He’s saying, «That’s exactly what I’m doing!» That’s why you can get excited when you’re facing a problem, because it’s the shortcut to lacking nothing. It’s the only way you can be trusted with lacking nothing.
I don’t believe that the Lord orchestrates negative problems to shape my life, but He planted us by nature into a world that we were to redefine. That’s why He put Adam and Eve in a garden where the devil already existed on the planet. Because their assignment was to infiltrate the system until there was a transformation of the entire planet—delegated ones representing God, extending His government. We still have that mandate and the responsibility to take this yieldedness that we enjoy to the Holy Spirit Himself, to God Himself.
This yieldedness that we enjoy is to extend the boundaries of His kingdom until this world is shaped and looks like that one. There are no problems there; there are not to be problems here. But God uses them for our benefit. I don’t believe He orchestrates them, but He uses them. He’s able to maneuver and position us so that we end up going through that trial and come out at the end, being qualified to lack nothing.
Discipline is never punishment; it’s the reward for being fruitful. Discipline is not punishment. Now, honestly, this requires a shift in perspective because here’s what happens: you get breakthrough, you get this answer to prayer, you get this answer to prayer, and then you pray, and nothing happens. Why hasn’t God answered me? Why has He been deaf to me? Why is He ignoring my prayer? What’s happening?
Entitlement is creeping into the heart that thinks it has a right to anything outside of grace. What happens is the Lord allows the delay in the breakthrough to refine our hearts so that we remember to remain poor in spirit. Why? What happens? What do you receive if you’re merciful? What does it say? «Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.» All right, what do you get when you’re poor in spirit? The whole kingdom! Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What’s the point? Poor in spirit is access to every breakthrough.
Poor in spirit is what enables us to experience breakthrough without it leading us to entitlement. Without being poor in spirit, I will adopt an entitlement mentality about why I think certain things are owed to me. «I prayed, I fasted, I did this, I confessed, I did everything I know to do; there’s still not a breakthrough! I’ve looked; there’s no sin in my life! I’ve got my relationships right; it’s just not right!»
What’s happening? It’s entitlement. Until entitlement dies, blessing will kill me. Once He takes me through that knot hole where entitlement is left on the other side of the door and I make it through that, what happens is I’m positioned for Him to give me what He wanted to give me all along. That’s the very thing I prayed for. He doesn’t withhold out of punishment; He withholds because He doesn’t want the increase to kill me.
Count it all joy—do the math! If looking at a problem, a difficulty, or a challenge to our faith doesn’t release joy, then I don’t see it correctly. If I look at a problem, a challenge, to my faith, and it honestly does not release joy, then I don’t see it right. I don’t see it through the lenses of divine purpose. What’s the intention for the problem on the other side? I lack nothing.
Let’s be silly for a moment. Let’s say all of our goal is to save $10,000. So, we restrict lifestyle, we do this, we do that, we save, we go through self-imposed restrictions. Why? Because we see the end result we want—we want to end up with $10,000. Okay, silly illustration, but follow me. Self-imposed restrictions—why? Well, we’re counting it all joy; it’s a privilege for us because we can see it’s increasing, it’s mounting. We’re soon going to have the money that we’re trying to save.
All right, and the things of the spirit are exactly the same. We’ve cried out for the anointing where every cancer case is healed. So, what happens? You pray for your friend, and they die of cancer. Is that punishment for you? No. Is it scolding you? No. It’s part of the trial to get us positioned for the anointing, for the lifestyle that can hold the anointing that we’ve asked for. He’s grooming us—He’s grooming us from outside of entitlement into true faith that stays authentic and doesn’t cross-pollinate with entitlement.
All right, count it all joy—do the math! If you look at your problem and start adding it up, and the answer isn’t joy, we have to redo the math. You’ve got the wrong numbers in there.
All right, John chapter 4. Wives, if you see your husband not rejoicing when facing a difficulty, just tell him to do the math. Husbands, if you see your wife not rejoicing when facing a problem, I’m not giving you any advice whatsoever. I’m not stupid! You’re on your own; that’s all I can say—you’re on your own.
I saw this; this has nothing to do with anything except I thought it was so funny. I saw a sign that said, «I’d take a bullet for you—not in the head, but maybe in the leg or something.» Oh, I think that’s funny.
All right, that’s John 4—John 4, John 4, John 4. All right, verse 7 of John 4: «A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, 'Give me a drink.' His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, 'How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? ' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, „Give me a drink,“ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.' Verse 13: 'Jesus answered her and said, „Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst; but the water that I give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.“ Verses 16-21: 'Go, call your husband.' The woman answered and said, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said, 'You’ve well said, 'I have no husband, ' for you’ve had five, and the one you’re living with now isn’t your husband. You told me the truth.' She said, 'I perceive you are a prophet.'»
Yeah, verse 21: «Jesus said, 'Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews. The hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him.'» Jump down to verse 39: «Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all that I ever did.' But when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; He stayed two more days, and many more believed because of His word.»
All right, here’s one of those situations where an undeserving person gets the best. I personally believe what Jesus gives here in John 4 about worship is the greatest revelation in the Bible on the subject of worship. The Father seeks for worshippers, not worship—as those who worship. Worship in spirit and in truth—in truth means nothing hidden, while in spirit means it’s an engagement with the Spirit of God who enables us to become true, authentic worshippers. It’s the clearest revelation—I believe the greatest in the Bible.
Why would the greatest revelation in the Bible be given to a Samaritan woman? First of all, I remind you: Jesus had given instruction to His disciples to not take their ministry to the Gentiles or to the Samaritans. The reason is this message by Jesus during His ministry was to be given to the Jews first, and in their rejection, it would be taken to the Gentiles. The Father gave that to Jesus, and Jesus passed it on to His disciples. That’s why in this story, the disciples are shocked that Jesus has an ongoing conversation with this Samaritan woman. Number one, she’s a Samaritan; number two, he’s a man speaking with a woman. In this culture at this time, that was not acceptable.
So Jesus, in this opportunity, senses what the Father is doing outside of the original plan. It’s important for us to catch this little detour: the Scripture tells us Jesus told us, «I only do what I see My Father do.» Do you remember when He ministered to the Syrophoenician woman? The woman who said, «Please heal my daughter,» and Jesus said, «I can’t give the children’s bread to dogs»? That’s a highly offensive statement. But Jesus doesn’t mind highlighting hurdles that are between us and a miracle. Unless we get over a fence, we can’t enter into the realm of the kingdom and obtain the miracle we’ve asked for. It’s not punishment; it’s reality—it’s glory to glory, hell in the hallway.
So He says to the Syrophoenician woman, «I can’t give the children’s bread to dogs; I can’t give what belongs to the Jews to those who are not Jews.» Why? That period doesn’t end until the death and resurrection. All right, are you alive?
So what does He do? The woman says, «Well, even the children’s bread— even the dogs get the crumbs from the table.» Jesus recognizes in her faith, knowing He has a responsibility to only do what the Father’s doing. He sees faith in her, and He instinctively knows that faith can only come from the Father. So this faith in her is the work of the Father; that’s how He knows what the Father’s doing. Sometimes, we know what the Father’s doing because He directs us, but sometimes it’s because we observe where He’s working. Sometimes He doesn’t give it directly to us; sometimes we actually have to follow what He’s doing.
Right, and so in this case, He’s talking to this Samaritan woman, and He gives her this unqualified lady the greatest revelation on worship. She runs and tells her city, the whole city shows up and begs Him to stay two more days. This is such a profound moment because this is something He had no plans on doing, because He was forbidden to minister among the Samaritans. But when He saw grace operating there, even though it was out of season, He changed the season.
This, to me, reveals the profound nature of hunger. Hunger is able to pull into our day something that was reserved for another day. It’s able to pull into our season something that may have been originally appointed for a different season. God’s clock is affected by passion and hunger. Those who give up and say, «Well, evil is just consuming,» guess what? Evil consumes. Whenever those who were put in the position to hold up the righteous flag and to set a standard say, «You know, darkness will not advance any farther than this,» and we put that stake in the ground—we say we’re taking territory—those who hold that responsibility give up, and in the absence of righteous advancement, the enemy will always advance his purposes. But it’s never the purpose and will of God.
We were born into a war because the nature of our life is to have a warrior-like effect on our surroundings. I read this psalm to start the service today, Psalms 9 in the Passion, which says something to this effect: when God shows up, I worship, and as I worship, the enemy flees. I always get this picture of just enjoying the peace of God, the presence of God. He goes out thrashing on the devil and comes back and calls me a brave warrior. I’m thinking, «Well, when was I in a fight? I was just loving on You, Jesus!» And that’s the whole point—it is war in the kingdom.
So here we’ve got this challenge before us. The challenge is: when we’re facing—well, let me take this week; it’s fresh on my mind with what my daughter Leah just went through and my mom. The first thing I do in a crisis like this—the absolute first thing I do is look to the Word. I’ve got to find a word from God. I’ve got to have a word! So much of what happens or doesn’t happen happens because of what we’ve done with this.
So much of what happens or doesn’t happen happens because of what we’ve done with what He says. He formed the worlds with His voice, with His Word. Faith itself is created through His voice. His Word is what summons us to life; everything about our life in God is connected to His voice. And when I’m facing a situation that’s challenging or inviting—it doesn’t matter—the first thing I do is open the Bible. I’ll go to a familiar passage; I don’t want to quote it. I want to see it because I want to see it. I want to say it because I want to hear it, and I want to believe it. And I grab hold of that verse, and I begin to pray from there.
I’ve got to war according to the promises given to me. I’ve got to hear His voice again. I’ve got to know what He’s saying in this situation, because what can happen is, if I don’t hear from Him, I can assume I know what He wants. I can even show you Scripture. I know what He wants to do. This is what He wants to do because I can show you a verse! It’s just better if you hear Him say it. I get into trouble when I assume I know what He wants to do. It happens to me all the time. I wish it didn’t.
I go into a situation thinking I know exactly what He wants to do, and I can give you the chapter; I can give you the verse—this is what He wants on earth as it is in heaven. And I don’t bother asking Him for His voice in that situation. I start praying all the right stuff. What am I doing? I’ve moved into entitlement out of faith into entitlement. These things are supposed to happen because I now know the formula, and while I would never say that in the middle of it, at the end I look back and I go, «Ah, I did it again—I made the assumption!»
Because I know this about God—what He wants to do, that I know what He wants to do! No! I’ve got to go first and hear the voice. Once I’ve heard the voice, now I’m invited on a journey. I can no longer stay where I am; I’m invited into a journey of going through the trial—going through that difficulty—so that I end up lacking nothing. I want to get to the other side of this challenge because right on the other side is the kingdom. Jesus said, «Unless you go through tribulation, unless you face trial and walk through that trial, you can’t enter the kingdom.»
So the point is: picture a veil, a curtain, and that curtain is offense or that curtain is difficulty. It may be as intense as persecution, or it may be as simple as slander. It may be any one of those kinds of things, those oppositions that we face in life. And we face these things. If you turn and get offended, you turn; you move into entitlement, and you don’t get the breakthrough. But when you go through that, by what God has said, and you go through that word—through that trial—you come into a place that’s called the kingdom. And that’s where you’ve left the part of you that is inclined to move in entitlement. You leap on the other side, and now you’re standing in a place where you can legally be entrusted with lacking nothing.
Did that make sense? I hope so! Rewind it if it didn’t. It made sense up here.
So you come into this place: now what do I do? I’ve got this word. I’ve got this at least conviction of what God wants to do in this trial, this problem, this challenge, whatever is in front of me. Now, what do I do? I’ve got to find out what He wants me to do. Because on one hand, He has this word that says, «Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which I will accomplish for you today.» Some of our breakthroughs have to be brought to us as children receiving an inheritance. It’s not dependent on what we do. Other breakthroughs are entirely dependent on what we do.
Here—oh, minute 35! Awesome! All right. «Unless you receive the kingdom as a child, you will not enter it.» What is this? It’s the position of inheritance. Your breakthrough, your increase, comes as a gift brought to you. What is this one? Matthew 11: «The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.» So here we have two ways to advance in the kingdom, and you can’t do them both at the same time. You get whiplash; you hurt yourself; you lose body parts.
So this one is the violent act of faith. Faith is violent in the kingdom, so this one requires obedience to what He says to do. «Strike the rock,» you know, «speak to the water,» «throw the salt in the water,"—all these different things throughout Scripture—"Take the tree branch, throw it in the water; it heals the waters.» There’s a prophetic act that releases the breakthrough. This one is the violent response of faith.
This one is: «I am resting in who He said I am, and He’s going to bring me the breakthrough as an act of me receiving inheritance.» So both of these realms are access to breakthrough. But here’s my problem: I want to do whatever I did last, because it worked, right? I fasted for three days; I did this; I stood up and I declared on the mountain; I went to the boundaries of the city; I stood there and I prophesied God’s intent; I stood here, this violent act of faith, and in three hours, we got the breakthrough. Let’s do that again! «The key is fasting for three days, then shouting"—that’s the key to all breakthroughs from this point on!
Bless God! And then there’s the time He just says, «Stand still.» This one’s on me! This one—if I give it to you through your warfare, you’ll move into entitlement. But if I give it to you as a son that didn’t work for it, it’s entirely by grace; it will keep you connected to being poor in spirit, which will enable me to entrust you with everything you need.
All right, that’s close enough! Let’s stand. By the way, Randy Clark’s going to be here this week. Do not miss this, please! Anytime we have a gift like this brought to our city, I want to make sure that we take full advantage of the anointing he’s bringing. You know what I’d like to see? A massive, massive healing revival released!
Exodus 14—the Lord, excuse me, Moses stood before Israel and said, «Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today.» The very next verse, God speaks to Moses: «Why are you crying out to Me?» So what does that tell us? After he prophesied, he prophesied, «Stand still,» and he’s going, «Oh God, oh God, oh God!» And God says, «Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.»
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but there’s little difference between standing still and going forward. Sometimes you stand to get your breakthrough; sometimes you go forward. Come on! And the only way to know is by knowing the voice!
I don’t know any other way to do this than to go over this word, prayerfully meditate it, quote it, pray it, sing it—get in my heart and mind a picture of the absolute best that God has for me, and that is lacking nothing. That’s why I can add it all up and say, «All right, this works for me.» I believe that the Lord brings people like Randy here this week not only for us to see breakthrough in our city—Jesus, we need breakthrough in our city, we need breakthrough in our city—but breakthrough in us. The Lord wants to impart more.
So I just pray that we come together this week and see the more. Father, release the grace for the more, the grace for increase, and help us to have the wisdom to be able to do the math. Do the math and get happy ahead of time! Yeah! Isaiah says, «Shout for joy, barren one—you who have borne no child, cry aloud, you who have not travailed, because the sons of the desolate woman will become more numerous than the sons of the married woman.» It’s getting happy ahead of time that prepares us for dramatic increase.
I pray that all across this city—we’ll see one more thing—get ready to disciple people! I feel like a massive harvest is starting, and we’ve got to be ready. Don’t send them to a class or classes. We work hard to make sure we take care of people, but the answer isn’t a class. The answer is you loving someone into the kingdom. So let’s have the ministry team come to the front real quick, and if you would hold your places, it really does help us. Ben will tell you what to do—ministry team, come on down!