Bill Johnson - How to Recognize and Steward God's Promises for You
Your future is defined by promises and the measure in which we say yes to the promises of God. It is in that measure we step into the fullness of our design. The promises of God guarantee a fight between the promise and fulfillment. Now backpedal: Israel, under Moses’s leadership, was looking at the promised land. They knew there was a vast inheritance for them. So he took twelve spies and sent them into the land to spy it out and bring back a report of what they were about to step into. They came back; ten of them said there are giants in the land, and we felt like grasshoppers in their sight; we can never win this battle. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, came back and said this is a done deal; this is a setup by God for our victory. They came back with great courage, but the ten persuaded the crowd to move in fear.
Now, nobody in the crowd said, «I choose fear.» They all said, «Let’s choose wisdom,» because fear masquerades as wisdom. The ten spies did not come back with lies; they came back with truth, just not the whole truth. They convinced people of something inferior to what God had said. What God has said over your life is what we must feed our hearts on. If we feed our heart on just the facts, we will react in fear and never recognize it. We will consider ourselves to be wise, and I’ll tell you this: if you move in fear, all of your friends will call you wise. You just won’t move many mountains. It takes courage to confront and face what God has put in front of us.
Here’s some of the dialogue we have from Joshua and Caleb as they prophesy. They bring the word of the Lord to a nation to not rebel against the Lord by failing to enter a promise. Let that phrase run through your mind for a minute: to not rebel against the Lord by failing to enter a promise. In verse 9, they say, «Do not rebel against the Lord nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. Their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.» Your giant looks different when you believe a promise. Yes, so good! Look at it again: do not rebel against the Lord nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread.
Go to Matthew 6:11: «Give us this day our daily bread.» You may say, well, that’s taken out of context. Okay, look at Psalm 23: «You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.» There are certain spiritual nutrients that you cannot get apart from defeating a giant. The meal you are hungry for is in the triumph over the giant you are facing. God has given every one of us an appetite to be strong spiritually, but we want strength for the battle, and He’s saying that His strength comes from the battle. They are bread. We’re not talking about a mental game where we imagine that there is no enemy.
I love the honesty of Joshua and Caleb, who openly talk about the giants; they are just not impressed by them. I have found that anytime I am impressed with the size of my problem, it’s because I have lost sight of the size of my God. I know that sounds cute, but it’s a reality. Anytime I become impressed with the size of a challenge, I have lost sight of the promise that weighs over my life. There’s a huge part of our Christian life that He absolutely does for us. He actually causes victory to happen. I didn’t do anything; all I did was show up, and He caused it to happen. He defended me here and promoted me there. Did I get that? But there are parts of our Christian walk where the nutrients we ache for are actually found in the giants we are facing.
It’s changing our perspective, not through mental gymnastics, but through changing perspective according to what God says. What did God say? Joshua and Caleb picked something up from the Lord that this land of giants is lunch. When we’re through with lunch, we’ll move on to dinner; this is our food. Psalm 23 fascinates me for many reasons, obviously, but it fascinates me because it says, «You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.» We’ve gone through this; I know you’ve studied it on your own, I’m sure.
Let’s just mentally walk through this strange setting: God has prepared a table of the richest, most glorious food you will ever eat in your life. I think God is a pretty good cook. So here is this table. The table is a place of nourishment; it is a place of interaction, fellowship, and connection. So here you are on the other side of Jesus, whose eyes are like burning fire but also with the tenderness of compassion and love you’ve ever seen in your life. His words give you courage to face anything you could possibly ever face. This interaction that we have with Him at this table defines our purpose, our reason for being, our destiny. It’s a life-giving encounter, and here it is in the presence of enemies.
I fear that many people sit at this table day after day, rebuking and binding and doing all these things, because they’re preoccupied with the enemy around the table, and they never benefit from the nutrients of the moment. They may come out victorious, saying, «Well, we took care of that problem, didn’t we?» and yet they lack the nutrients—the very thing that was to define their future—because they became preoccupied with the devil instead of with the Lord, who created a place of intimate fellowship in the middle of a problem.
Once we come to Christ, it doesn’t mean that everything that comes my way is designed by the Lord. I’m facing things right now; I know He had no hand in it. He gives life, and these things give death. He came to give life; the enemy came to kill, steal, and destroy. So if there’s death, loss, and destruction involved, guess what? That’s the devil’s fingerprints; it’s not from the Lord.
But here’s the guarantee: all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to His purpose. Something happens in this life in Christ where what comes my way that was unexpected becomes redefined. God says, «All right, I’m turning this into a meal. This thing that was set to destroy is dinner; this is breakfast; this is brunch.» I don’t know about you; I love brunch. The biblical word of hope is measured in a joy that is expressed before there’s anything to rejoice for. And it’s not wishful thinking; it’s not based on nothing. It’s based on the actual nature and character of God. It’s based on His prevailing word over your life, over my life—that we live conscious of the heart of God, the mind of God, the nature of God, and His devotion or commitment to us.
Because of that, I may not know what’s always happening, but I can always live with hope because I know that nothing I’m facing caught Him off guard. There are a lot of things I’m facing right now that caught me off guard; they caught me by surprise. But there’s nothing I’m facing that caught Him by surprise. Therefore, I can always return to that place of confidence, knowing that even though I didn’t know what to expect, my relationship with Him has kept me positioned to be a person of hope. So I can actually celebrate the answer before I know what the answer is going to look like, even before it comes. That really is the life of a believer. Our responsibility in life is to live with hope; that hope is actually contagious.
It is infectious. There’s a kind of phony faith that just denies reality, and I don’t like that. Because real faith doesn’t deny the existence of a problem; real faith denies the problem a place of influence. I don’t ignore the fact that I’ve received this doctor’s report, or that I have this bill due, or this relational conflict, or whatever I may face. I may not have answers for the things I’m facing, but I know that my Father does. When Jesus died, He took into full consideration everything I would ever face in life. He died in my place for my sin; He went to the absolute outer reaches of what love looked like. The implication of Scripture is that if He would do that, certainly, everything that is less than that is covered.
Does that make sense? I just paraphrased a great verse of Scripture; it didn’t work as well, but it’s because I couldn’t remember how to quote the other verse. Here’s my take on the verse: if He went that far, certainly, everything this side of that extreme act of love is covered by that same act of love. How will He not also freely give us all things?
In Isaiah 35, the first couple of verses start with verses of hope. Let me give you some prophetic language here. I did a study a long time ago, where I looked for every place I could find water in the Old Testament—mentions of rivers, streams, springs, rain, any kind of manifestation of water. I examined the prophecies where God would say He will bring streams in the desert, or rivers on the mountains. There are all these unusual terms, and while I believe there’s an application of these kinds of promises for nature itself, ultimately what God is looking at is the barrenness of a human heart. He’s giving a promise of a solution.
I lined up every verse I could find, and what I noticed was that no matter what Israel was facing—sometimes military threats, nations set against them, sometimes they were tasting of their own sins, and the fruit of their own choices for generations, or maybe facing disease—no matter the problem, when God brought a promise, it was always in the form of water. He would say, «They’re surrounded by enemy nations; it’s all right, I’m going to bring streams in the desert.» «Rivers won’t help us, God; we actually need to defeat our enemies.» But His terminology is what you and I need to line up with because if you do, you’ll understand the language of the prophets.
I won’t say it’s 100% of the time, but it’s pretty close; whenever water is mentioned in Scripture, it represents the Holy Spirit. So no matter the problem, God’s answer was, «I’m just going to release the Holy Spirit to you. I’m going to send you the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the early and latter rain. I’m going to give you streams in the desert.» We see this terminology throughout the Old Testament, and it’s basically a prophecy of God releasing His presence and power as the cure.
There are responsibilities that we have in life, but this increase of presence is really the big cry of the human heart. Isaiah 35, verse one: The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them; the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly. I just love the word «abundantly»! It will rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellence of our God.
This is a barren area that is visited by God until the blooms are blossoming with abundance. Ultimately, they finally see the glory of God, which in this passage is defined as the excellence of God. Are you tracking with me? So here they are in this place, and suddenly, they’ve got this wellspring of joy rising up in them because they have so connected with God’s promise and purpose over their lives. There is abundance; they are flourishing; there’s life where there’s always been death, and now this joy is stirring up.
They are seeing Him, and the ultimate is to see the glory of God, which is the excellence of God Himself. We have this as the backdrop for the rest of the chapter. Now, verse three: «Strengthen the weak hands; make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, 'Be strong; do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.'»
Look at those two verses again: strengthen the weak hands; make firm the feeble knees. Here’s a command: we are commissioned to do something. We have the backdrop of God changing circumstances, where He shows up in an extraordinary way, and then He says, «Here’s your job: strengthen the weak hands; make firm the feeble knees; say to those who are fearful-hearted, 'Be strong; do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; with the recompense of God, He will come and save you.'»
This is interesting because, through a life immersed in hope, we can step up to the person who is not hopeful, the person who is faltering, the person who is at a place of personal weakness. We have all been in places of weakness and in places of strength. Right now, we are given the backdrop. Listen, you are immersed in the purposes of God; you have a reason to live with hope every day of your life! To the measure you are without hope, to that measure you are under the influence of a lie.
No one who truly believes what God has said is without hope. There is nothing we will ever face that caught Him by surprise, nor was it something not already included in His solution. One of the strangest things in Scripture to me is where it talks about Jesus being crucified before the foundations of the earth. Picture this: before the world was made, God, the Father, and the Son already made a decision: «We’re going to create a world; we’re going to create people in our image. They will sin,» so there was already the commitment in the heart of Jesus: «I will die in their place.»
What does that mean? Before there was a problem, there was a solution. That’s amazing! When you and I hit something that’s brand new to us, it’s not new to Him. Before there was a problem, there was already a solution. So He gives us the commission. He says, «Find those that are in a place of weakness; strengthen their hands. They are not able to work as they’re supposed to. Strengthen their knees.» What does that look like?
I remember years ago, a friend of mine who was fresh out of the military talked about how they would have to run great distances. Sometimes one of their troops would lose all strength and collapse. So they would run over because they’re all graded as a group. One person would take the backpack and put it on top of their own backpack. Two other soldiers would take the soldier by the arms, and they would carry him the rest of the race. He didn’t have the strength to finish the race on his own, so two others who had strength would carry him until they finished.
Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe it’s the fact that we stand with one another and hold each other up until our knees strengthen, until we’re at a place where we can carry out the very thing that God called us to. But it doesn’t stop there with just physical service, a touch, or an embrace holding somebody up; it moves into a prophetic realm.
I don’t see this passage as someone waiting to get a word from God so they can prophesy to their friend. Instead, I think this is an automatic decree that we owe one another because we know the nature of God and the overriding promise of God for any situation in our lives. What is it? Say to the one who is fearful, «Don’t be afraid! God is going to vindicate you! He will restore everything that has been lost.»
Why is that important? It’s not just empty encouragement. How many of you know what I mean by empty encouragement? It’s someone who’s trying hard but doesn’t hit the mark and doesn’t fix anything. This is actually the release of the grace of God into an individual’s life that helps to bring them into the very answer they ache for.
Look at it again. I’m strengthening hands and knees. Now I’m saying, «Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid! God is going to vindicate you.» There’s nothing that we are facing that He hasn’t already provided a solution for. He will fully restore everything to you. They may not have the ability to face that thing on their own, but it’s alright, because we’ve got their arms, and we’re standing there, bringing that kind of encouragement.
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. Now listen to me carefully: Israel has a problem. They experience the blessing, the bounty of the Lord, incredible breakthroughs, water out of a rock, a pillar of fire by night, a cloud by day, manna on the ground. All these extraordinary miracles sustained them and kept them alive, but they repeatedly fell back into a lifestyle of complaining. It actually cost them their inheritance; it cost them the promised land because of their continuous complaining.
Why did they complain? Because they had unfulfilled promises. Everything they complained about was a legitimate problem, right? They came to a place where they hadn’t had any food for a while, and they complained because they had no food. «Moses, what did you bring us out here to die? We could have died in Egypt; at least we ate there!» Their complaining was the concern as a parent for your children being able to eat. Is that a legitimate concern? Yes, it is.
The problem is what we do with the challenges we face. We all face challenges, but when I allow a challenge to give me permission to complain—rarely do we complain about God; we much rather complain about His people—that’s the subtle way to complain against God. They complained against Moses, and God said to Moses, «They’re not complaining against you; they’re complaining against Me.» Perhaps it’s the system, the government, or this or that, but the problem is we feel justified in speaking words that are not life.
I’ve asked you the question before: if God inhabits my praise, who inhabits my complaints? Words are habitations; they will house something. Amen? I think it comes down to the fact that it’s a fight we are in every day of our lives: a fight to sustain the lordship of Jesus over every part of our lives, and that’s the fight. To embrace a lifestyle of complaining when I feel pain, discomfort, or fear is a lordship issue.
Most of the time, we actually don’t have a financial issue; we have a lordship issue. It’s the same for all of us. We wake up every day with the opportunity to yield ourselves to the lordship of Jesus or to shape our own spiritually-shaped values from Scripture that keep us in charge of our Christian routine. I know you don’t need this, but there are people out there who need to hear this—you know them too!
I didn’t get very far, did I? I stopped there because look at this verse again: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. The Lord is speaking to them: «I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to Myself.» What more does a group of people need to hear? Does that minister life to you? If the Lord speaks that to you, «I brought you on eagle’s wings, and I brought you to Me,» does that bring encouragement to you? It didn’t last long; they needed to hear again and again and again.
I’m embarrassed to say, «Me too.» It encourages me; it edifies me; it strengthens me for a little while, and then for some reason I forget, «Oh yeah, that Eagle’s Wings word—that was a good word. I should have written that down. I should have perhaps memorized it. I should have developed a prayer life reaction to the word of the Lord that I could sustain long past the immediate moment of inspiration.»
Yes, because it was a defining word for the rest of their lives. Would it make sense to say we often hear life-changing words that have a very short shelf life? Life-changing words have the potential to define the rest of our days, but because the place they have here, they’re not entertained enough.
I say this as an invitation because I know what I’m facing right now, and I’m pretty much just trying to talk to you and not to myself. That’s what I’m trying to do; I’m trying to put it all on you. I know what I’ve done in recent days; I keep going back to learning the same lesson over and over again. Here, the Lord brings a word that is life-altering, and it’s why Jesus said, «If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, let what I say over you—'I bore you on eagle’s wings to bring you to Myself'—let what I said to you stay in your heart forever. Because once you’ve made that connection with what I say over your life, I trust you to ask for anything, and I’ll do it.»
This is the covenant He makes with us: We receive a life-altering word so that we can release a life-altering movement. A life-altering word! We have a financial crisis; what do we want? Finances! What do we need to hear from God? Everything is connected to us hearing from God, right? Everything about our lives is connected to God speaking everything. God said, «Let there be light,» and there was! Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word He speaks, and faith is created.
Everything about our life is connected to hearing from God. You may say, «Well, I don’t hear from God.» He talks loud enough to be heard! I have a son who doesn’t hear well; he was born with 90% hearing loss in both ears. So we raised our voices. I’m not a better father than He is; He doesn’t whisper to the hard of hearing and then punish them for not listening.
The capacity to hear is largely created by the desire to hear. It’s not a skill set; it’s a hunger, a realization of need, a place of dependency: «God, I am in a place right now where if You don’t speak to me, I’ll die! I have no other options; I’m in the wilderness; there’s no place to get bread. Either You provide for us, or we die here!»
It’s that lifestyle of abandonment and trust that has this deep affection and adoration and attachment to the voice of God. I’ve said it many times, but this is the only book you’ll ever read where the author always shows up when you read it, and He makes it alive! It’s alive. Even things you don’t understand are alive. You may question, «What does that mean?» Guess what? Nutrients just entered your soul!
He can deposit a word in you today that you don’t understand and bring it to the surface in a year and provide the miracle, but it was important that the seed get deposited today. We need to expose ourselves to what He’s saying.
He said, «He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.»
Back to Psalm 78. That was Joshua 24:31 if you’re interested. Verse 7: «That they may set their hope in God and not forget the works of God.» Now go down to verse 9 that says, «The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant of God; they refused to walk in His law; they forgot His works and His wonders which He had shown them.»
Here’s the picture: we’ve got some children of Israel who are trained for battle; they’ve got all the equipment, but when they came and began to approach a war, they became fearful and ran away from battle. Now, keep in mind that the Lord only leads into battles you are equipped to win.
I personally believe that everybody in this room has the biggest problem you’re facing right now because God has already put the tools in your life within the last twelve months. But anxiety and fear makes us unconscious of the tools that have already been imparted to us. That’s why fighting for and from peace is so vital for us.
So what do the Scripture say? The children of Ephraim were armed; they were ready for battle, but they turned back in the day of battle because they didn’t keep the law of God. It says they forgot the works of God.
If you read this verse backward—no, not like a country western song—but if you start from the last verse and work up, you actually get the how and why they turned back in a day of battle. It says they forgot His wonders and His works; because of that, they refused to walk in His law. Because of that, they turned back in the day of battle.
When you lose the awe of God, you lose the courage for radical obedience. When you lose the courage for radical obedience, you don’t have confidence in conflict. When we forget the wonders, we lose the awe; we lose the wonder of God.
I watch it all the time, and I don’t mean this in a—it’s just an observation. This is how we do life. I watch it all the time: people are wowed by the awe and the wonder, and then they become accustomed to the wonder. Whenever you become accustomed to the wonder, you’re much more inclined to critique the people around you.
That was free; I’m not going to charge you for that at all; it’s totally true. When you lose the wonder, you’re much more inclined to critique your environment. Critiquing brings criticism. When I lose the awe of God, I’m more likely to critique my surroundings and be more easily offended by what doesn’t go my way.
Now of course, I would never put it that way; I’m offended by what doesn’t go the way God wants. If I can hide my offense in the will of God, then it justifies it. At least 90% of all offenses are very logical; that’s why they’ve been given permission to stay, because there’s reasoning developed outside of the wonder.
So when I lose the wonder, I lose the courage for radical obedience. When I lose the courage for radical obedience, I become faint-hearted in conflict. I’m sure this makes sense to you: a person living in compromise is much more nervous about getting into spiritual battle and conflict.
Oh goodness, verses 22 down to 31 just talk about God’s dealing with them, how He delivered them and disciplined them. In verse 32, it says, «In spite of this, they still sinned and did not believe in His wondrous works.» Here’s one that really bothers me—actually, I’m sorry, I missed a couple of verses.
Let me move on—go down to verse 40: «How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert.» And here’s the verse that really bothers me: «Yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.»
Work with me here: they tempted God. How? They limited Him. They tempted God because they put a cap on what He was either capable or willing to do. They tempted God because they lost sight of the decree: «Nothing is impossible with God.» The Scripture says, «God is not mocked; whatever a man sows, he will reap.»
It is mockery to think you could obey God and not have a reward. It is tempting God to put a cap or limit on what He would be willing to do, through and for you. All of this I’m describing is impossible for us to create in ourselves, but it’s the natural byproduct of staying in awe.
All right, verse 41: «Yes, again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.» Verse 42: «This is how they did it: they did not remember His power the day when He redeemed them from the enemy. When He worked His signs in Egypt, His wonders in the fields of Zoan.»
So how did they limit God? They forgot their own history. What moved them into a place to put a cap on what they could expect from God? What moved them into a place where they understood how far God would go to do something for them and how far He wouldn’t go? They forgot their own personal history of His supernatural interventions.
Do you understand how great the miracle of your salvation is? The greatest miracle you’ve ever seen is your conversion. In fact, I’ll drink to that one! They tempted God when? When they forgot the works of God. Anytime the Lord’s given you a promise, it’s only because He’s gone into your tomorrow. He brings you a promise that you’ll need to get to where He sees you.
He equips you with promise because that enables you to go from where you are to where He sees you. The Kingdom lifestyle is the picture of the promised land. The land of promise has everything to do with who we are. Whenever that cap comes, we start actually cutting off our own future. The moment I stop dreaming, I start dying.
Isaiah 42 is a personally favorite passage; I’ve taught on it many times, though I think it’s been a long time. It was just in my heart this week, and I wanted to share it with you.
So, Isaiah 42:10: «Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea, all that is in it, you coastlands and inhabitants of them, let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing; let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord and His praise to the coastlands.»
Now here’s God’s response: «The Lord will go forth like a mighty man; He will stir up His zeal like a man of war; He shall cry out; yes, shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies.»
I think it’s probably obvious why I love this portion so much. Here’s this incredible moment in time where the people of God are exhorted to sing loudly to the Lord, and the result is God Himself stirs Himself up as a man of war to go forth and do exploits on our behalf.
How do you know God and the devil are not at war with each other? The devil doesn’t stand a chance. That’s not a war; that’s not a contest. God is God, period. The devil and powers of darkness were defeated through a man, Jesus, the Son of God, who became a man and defeated him on our behalf because we missed our chance.
That is the truth! Jesus came, the Son of Man, and brought an end to the power of death, disease, torment, etc. The powers of darkness. Back to the subject: here’s this great passage of Scripture that says, «Sing a new song to the Lord,» and then He responds in a military fashion and brings about victory on our behalf.
I have always been fascinated with this thought that you and I could sit here in the middle of this room and enjoy the peace of God, just enjoy His presence. Whatever I brought in is no longer with me. The issues, the baggage, whatever; I’m just here in His presence. I just love Him so much, and I give Him praise and thanks.
And all while I’m just enjoying His presence, He’s knocking the devil around for a while on my behalf. When it’s all over, He comes back and calls me a mighty man of war. I go, «When was I in war?» «Oh, that praise thing you did,» He says. «I translated it for you, and I just kicked the devil around for a while on your behalf.»
I love that picture! It may not do anything for you, but it does a lot for me. Warfare makes me nervous; it makes me uncomfortable. Warfare could easily become the reason for people’s praise. It cannot be that way.
The reason we give God honor is His worth; that is the reason. The entire basis of praise is who He is. Here’s this phrase: «Sing to the Lord a new song.» I Love new songs! I love the songs that our teams write for us and the songs we learn around the world. But when it says, «a new song,» it’s not about sitting down, writing a nice song, and then singing it.
It’s more a spontaneous response to the Lord. In the book of Ephesians, there is a verse where Paul talks about singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. He uses this phrase: «psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.» Psalms are Scripture songs; hymns are songs we write. They don’t have to be 100 years old to qualify as a hymn. There are songs that we write; they may be written today.
You know, John and Charles Wesley, the great Methodist leaders—John was the preacher, and Charles was the hymn writer. The whole basis for their writing hymns was to teach theology so that the people would sing truth and become grounded in it.
I met with some of our worship team years ago, and I remember telling them, «What do you want the church to look like in ten years? Write songs about it now, and we’ll sing our way into it.» There’s something that happens when we capture the heart of God, the theme of God, in a song.
When it talks about psalms, that comes from Scripture; hymns are something we write; spiritual songs are the spontaneous. We don’t sing them to be recorded; we don’t sing them to impress others. It’s a song that’s for the audience of One. It’s honest, raw; it doesn’t have to rhyme.
You don’t even have to carry a tune; it’s beautiful. God likes the way you sing; your neighbor may not, but God likes the way you sing, and that’s all that matters. It’s for the audience of One. That spontaneous song is an important part of our life as believers.
Here’s the spontaneous song. You drive down the street, and you just spontaneously sing out of whatever season you’re in. Maybe it’s a crisis you’re facing; perhaps you’ve received a doctor’s report that’s really a bad one. You don’t sing the report; you sing the answer to the report. You sing praises to God in the middle of it.
Years ago, Dick Mills, a dear friend of ours, told us this story: he was being harassed by the devil in one of those extreme seasons in his life. He went into a room, got two chairs, and had the chairs face each other. Dick sat in one chair and said, «Satan, sit down; I’m going to praise God, and you’re going to watch.»
I love that! In the middle of whatever is going on, he determined to take what the enemy meant for evil and use it to exalt God in His greatness. There’s not one problem I face in life or could ever face that He has not already purchased the answer for.
I don’t come to God begging for breakthrough as though He needed to do something; He already took care of something. All I’m doing is aligning my heart to receive what He’s already purchased and put in my account.
Daniel set himself to fast; this particular fast is called a Daniel Fast—a vegetable-only fast—turning away from sweets, wine, and meat and those sorts of things. He set himself to fast and seek the Lord because he had been reading in the book of Jeremiah.
He read where God said Israel was going into captivity, Jerusalem was going to be held captive in the Babylonian system for seventy years, and at the end of that seventy years, they would be released. So Daniel’s reading this, puts the numbers together, and realizes he’s in the 70th year.
He doesn’t retreat and say, «Well, it’s going to happen; let’s just get ready and get happy.» He realizes the people of God have not yet deeply repented for what was the reason for their captivity in the first place. They hadn’t taken care of the issues of the heart.
So he began to cry out to God, to fast and pray. I love this story because he didn’t become careless. So many people become careless regarding promises, just assuming everything is going to happen as the Lord said without their involvement.
It is true there are occasional words that the Lord speaks and releases that He will manage completely, like you couldn’t mess it up if you tried. This is a done deal. But at least for me, I have noticed that the majority, by far—at least 70 or 80%, if not 90%—of the words spoken over my life actually require my involvement for fulfillment.
Larry Randolph told us years ago, «The Lord will fulfill every word He said over you, but He’s not obligated to fulfill your potential.» Some of the words are contingent upon us reaching our potential, that place of assignment that God has opened to us.
Here’s this profound story where Daniel prays for three weeks, and he gives us the only place in Scripture—I can think of—where he gives us a detailed picture of the unseen world. While he’s praying, the messenger angel, who I assume is Gabriel (even though it doesn’t say), is sent to Daniel on the day that he started fasting and praying.
In other words, God answered Daniel’s prayer the first day he prayed, but the messenger angel was held up in conflict by the Prince of Persia. The term «Prince» here is used for principalities.
Then the messenger angel says, «Michael came and delivered me from the Prince of Persia, and I was able to bring you the answer.» Michael is one of the three archangels: Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Lucifer, of course, was kicked out of heaven with a third of the angels. So there are two remaining: Michael and Gabriel.
Assuming it’s Gabriel, he says Michael came because he’s the warring angel, and he delivered Gabriel from this conflict. Sometimes we are an arm’s reach away from the breakthrough we’ve been praying for, but because we fail to persist in prayer, we don’t fuel the heavenlies with the reinforcement needed to bring the solution and answer that was actually released to us the moment we started praying.
This picture gives us insight into an unseen realm; if you don’t see that, you can tire, you can become weary of well-doing, and miss out on the breakthrough God actually promised and intended for us in the first place.