Bill Johnson - How to Renew Your Mind and Live with Hope for Every Situation
Welcome! It is so wonderful to have so many people in the room. I’d like for you to grab your Bibles; we’re going to read three portions of scripture this morning. What I want you to do is open to 2 Corinthians chapter 10—2 Corinthians, not Chronicles. Thank you! But if you go to Chronicles, that’s fine; it just won’t be the same as what I’m reading. So, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and then Proverbs chapter 21, and lastly, we’ll be in Nahum chapter 1. All right, let’s take a look at these verses. We’ll start with verse 3 of 2 Corinthians chapter 10: «For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.»
I want us to read verses 4 and 5 again, which we will do several times throughout the morning. Verse 4: «For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.» Now, I’d like for you to take a look at this passage in Proverbs 21, and then I’ll talk to you for a few minutes before we open to Nahum. Proverbs 21:22 says, «A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold.» A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold.
Proverbs 21 gives us tremendous insight as we think, pray, and plan toward seeing entire cities and family lines, first of all, then cities and nations, discipled to the Lord. Our ambition has always been, for as long as I can remember, to see not only the conversion of souls but also the conversion of culture itself—a lifestyle that accommodates the work of God in a given place. This particular passage in Proverbs gives us, I think, a wonderful insight to help us. It says, «A wise man,» so wisdom is involved here. A wise man is able to scale a city. In other words, there are walls that surround the city; wisdom enables a person to rise against an insurmountable object and pull down strongholds in which they trust. That gives us a second clue: strongholds are whatever people trust in other than God.
Yeah, it’s always been a trust issue. Everywhere you go throughout scripture, there is a target of the Lord. In fact, I made a statement this week to some of our team that I’ll make with you: take whatever you know about trust and amplify it by about a thousand, and that’s how much it’s on the heart of God. It is central to our relationship with God. The scripture says that without faith, it is impossible to please Him. It doesn’t say without worship; it doesn’t say without prayer; it doesn’t say without fasting; it doesn’t describe any of the other essential parts of our walk with the Lord. It doesn’t say without Bible reading, as critical as that is. It says without faith. Why? Because the element of trust is the focus of the Lord. Why? Because He is the most trustworthy individual in the universe, and it is a violation of creation to not trust the one who is worthy of trust. It is a debt that I owe Him. I am indebted to Him to reflect His faithfulness through my trust.
When you look at—there’s a great warning passage in Mark chapter 10 where the Lord says it is impossible for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The disciples are stunned by His statement because they considered themselves blessed. They wondered, «Then who can make it?» So Jesus adds a word to give definition to the statement He just made: «It is very hard for a man who trusts in riches to make it into the kingdom.» The issue is trust.
I’ve asked you the question before: there are different political groups and parties and movements in the earth that are trying to define how much money a person should make or should have. I’ll leave the subject alone because it makes me irate, but let me just give you a Kingdom answer instead of a bill answer, which is always better anyway. How much money is too much money? There is not an amount; it’s whatever amount replaces trust. Trust is always the issue. To the rich young ruler, he had to sell everything to follow Jesus, but Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were very wealthy; they did not have to because their heart issue was somewhere else. Jesus always deals with the heart because the heart is where trust comes from.
Trust, faith, does not come from the mind. It doesn’t say, «With the mind, man believes unto righteousness.» It says, «With the heart.» So God is always dealing with the heart because there must be the reunification of a people made in His image that reflect His faithfulness through trust. That complete cycle must be recreated in the earth, and so the Lord looks for those who believe, those who have faith, those who trust. Trust is the issue. So in Proverbs, we have this statement: «A wise man scales the city and pulls down strongholds in which they trust.»
You can look in any culture; you can go to any city in our nation or any nation, and in a short amount of time, you’d be able to study that city and find out what people trust in other than God. For some, it’s the abuse of alcohol or drugs; that’s where they trust. When they’re in trouble, when they begin to panic, when they become fearful, they reach for whatever it might be. It has taken the place of God in their lives. They may believe in the existence of God, but their lifestyle testifies they do not depend on God. It’s a trust issue.
You can study that city; it may be sports, recreational activity; it could be any number of things—it can be many things that are wonderful blessings and additions to our lives. But when that’s what I turn to and that’s what I trust, then it takes the place of my dependency on the Lord. So the Lord now is targeting this issue of strongholds. What is a stronghold? If you go back to medieval times and the walled cities or the castles, a stronghold is a hiding place for the demonic. It is a hiding place created in a person’s life through their thoughts.
2 Corinthians 10: «The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and thoughts raised up against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity.» Here’s the deal: thinking incorrectly not only empowers the enemy, it gives them a safe place to hide in our patterns of thought. Incorrect patterns of thought are dwelling places for the demonic. A bad thought is not a hiding place, but a lifestyle of bad thoughts creates a hiding place. A stronghold is a place where they are not recognized. If you could imagine a royal family hiding in a castle, you can’t see them behind the castle wall; they are safe and can go out when they choose. The demonic hides in the thought patterns and processes of people’s lives when they are anchored. Those thoughts reflect the anchor of the soul that trusts in something else other than God.
The weapons of our warfare are not human in origin; they are not skills; they are not talents; they are literally the weaponry of God Himself to deal with the hiding place of the enemy in the thought processes of a person’s life. What is it about those thoughts that gives the enemy a place to hide? These are things that are raised up against the knowledge of God, not the existence of God—the knowledge of God. The enemy knows he cannot get me to deny the existence of God. I’m too far in. I couldn’t fall for that one. That’s the devil wearing a red rubber suit, carrying a pitchfork; he’s really easy to spot; that one won’t work.
But what does work at times is when I find myself thinking about a problem without the hope of a redemptive solution. What idea am I thinking? I’m thinking something that wars against the knowledge of God. There’s not a problem that I face that He not only doesn’t have the answer for, He is prepared to release the solution, does that make sense? So anytime I entertain— or perhaps it’s a person— let me back up and say this: I’ve mentioned this a few times in this strange season we are in: fear will always attract whatever information is needed to legitimize its existence. Fear will always attract whatever information is needed to legitimize existence.
Here’s the crazy thing: so does jealousy and resentment. Jealousy and resentment also attract whatever information is necessary to legitimize, to validate the existence of jealousy and resentment. But also comes with it the ability or capacity—because we know so much spiritually, we give it a virtuous name. Wow! When you give a dysfunction a virtuous name you not only give it permission to remain, you give it permission to set roots until it begins to shape personality. This is where extreme tenderness to the Lord is vital. The farther you go with God, the more you are capable of giving a virtuous name to a problem because you know more. Knowledge puffs up. The Bible doesn’t say carnal knowledge; it just says knowledge puffs up.
So the answer isn’t to ignore learning, knowledge, understanding, wisdom—the requirement of the Lord for us is that what we learn takes us to the person because it’s in encountering the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t walk away strutting about all the great things we’re about to do with our lives. There’s something very significant that the Lord is wanting to work into the heart of the church right now, and I feel like there are so many things I was torn in so many directions for this morning. First of all, just overjoyed and happy we’d be together. I’m in a very good mood, even though maybe you think I need to read some more jokes—I’m not sure what the story is here, but I feel strongly that we are about to witness both the goodness and the kindness of the Lord and the severity of the Lord.
This whole first love issue of absolute sensitivity to the work of the Holy Spirit is so central in my life. It’s so central to who we are, and there’s the reminder that it’s the Lamb of God who sits on the throne for eternity. Why the Lamb? Why not the Lion? Because we will live with a continuous remembrance—not of our sin, but of our need for grace, our need for constant dependency on God. So throughout all eternity, 100 billion years from now, the Lamb will still be on the throne, and we will be celebrating the fact that we are saved, celebrating that we are new creations. We are absolutely new, and we continuously live in that overwhelming joy of having been redeemed.
Now, back to the subject at hand: the weapons of our warfare are not carnal; they are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. What are the strongholds? They’re the places of trust in us and in others, casting down arguments. I’m glad there’s none of that going on right now. Listen to me: once you get the victory of pulling down strongholds here, you’re positioned to pull in culture, but you have to do it here first. What you win here positions you to influence there because there is a demonic power behind so much—if I could say all the lies that war against the knowledge of God, there’s a demonic power. It’s the fiery darts of scripture.
When a person has dealt well with their own thought life and won the battle, so to speak, in an area, you become positioned to recognize it in others, but not to point it out. You know, it’s not that—that’s a prayer job. God, there seems to be in my neighborhood—there seems to be this bind. For example, I remember in a house we moved into in Weaverville, soon as we moved in, a lady across the street came over and she said, «Just to let you know, everybody on your side of the street gets a divorce when they move in here.» Yeah, it’s good to be in your neighborhood. They just, it wasn’t that everybody, but it’s this house, that house, that house—they move into this neighborhood; they move into that side of the street—they get divorced. I said, «Well, it stops here!» It stops here. Whatever power has been behind that doesn’t have an ear here; it doesn’t have a voice here.
So when you have personal victory in an area, it positions you not to point or yell at people or accuse or do any of that stuff. It’s in prayer we say, «God, we ask right now that a spirit of revelation be released to counter that lie that our community or my neighborhood has actually believed.» There is a solution by leaving our spouse. What do you think? Why do you think praise is a weapon of warfare? Praise is a weapon of war. I know for me if there’s a struggle in health, I’m going to exalt Him for being the healer. What’s happening? The battle is first here, and once I engage in praise with declaring who He is, the knowledge of God—casting down thoughts and ideas raised up against the knowledge of God. I deal with it first here, and then I become positioned to bring about transformation in the location where I live. I declare His greatness.
There’s presence and power exercised against the lies that have been raised up against the knowledge of God. The battle you win here positions you to win the same battle out here. This passage in Nahum is a personal favorite. Nahum 1:7 says, «The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.» Look at it again: «The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.» I want you to take mental note once again that stronghold—this time it’s a stronghold of the revelation of the goodness of God. Another place in scripture says that the name of the Lord is a hiding place; it’s a tower of strength; it’s where we hide ourselves.
So if you can picture it this way, a people who truly understand the heartfelt understanding of the goodness of God automatically have a hiding place, a stronghold in which they dwell, and it’s evidenced by what we trust in. When problems come up, it’s very easy to think of an individual or a repeated problem with hopelessness and blame it on the lack of character in the individual, which basically is declaring, «Father, this one is out of your reach.» What happens when I do that? When I do that, I create a stronghold of thinking that removes me from being a part of a redemptive solution because I have categorized that individual.
In that particular place, I have fallen into a trap believing things are unredeemable. Nobody would ever say that, because we know that God can do anything, but it’s not about your theology; it’s your lifestyle. It’s not your theology. Every believer says God can do anything, and then they’ve got a problem, and they don’t believe He’ll fix it. The theology is right; the lifestyle is wrong. The lifestyle is fueled by thought life, so the thought life is not just focused on finding the lie and removing it because He says, «Take every thought to the obedience of Christ.» A thought pattern is not transformed until I am seeing a situation through the eyes of Jesus, thinking the redemptive solutions that He is thinking. Until then, I’m still in that place of need; I’m not in the place of bringing change.
The Lord is good; He is a stronghold; He knows those who trust Him. Do you ever wish you could read the Bible for the first time again? I love the simplicity of faith of a brand-new believer. I got this Bible this last week that was the Bible Smith Wigglesworth carried with him—his little pocket Bible. He wrote in the back of this Bible, «Never compare this book with other books; comparisons are dangerous. Never think or say that this book contains the word of God. It is the word of God. It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in value, infinite in scope, regenerative in power, infallible in authority, universal in interest, personal in application, inspired in totality. Read it through; write it down; pray it in; work it out, and pass it on; it is the word of God.» This is what he wrote in the back of his Bible.
It’s not complicated: if He said it, it’s true; if He didn’t, it probably isn’t. It’s not complicated. If I have more input from social media than I do the word of God, my discouragement is self-inflicted. It’s a calculated decision. I find myself thinking of this person—they will never change. At what point do I stop the lie? Because I’m building a hiding place for the demonic that will actually help fulfill the very lie I’ve come to believe. I would never say it, but my approach to a problem oftentimes reflects that it’s a stronghold. The Lord is preparing us in this season to be able to address the impossible.
We’ve said this for 20 years, so this is nothing new, but I feel like He’s heightening our awareness of something today. He’s enabling us to be aware of where we have fallen for the lie—where I have entertained the enemy’s ideas in my personal castle. I have this sense that through this strangest season of my life, the Lord has been training us for something we’re unaware of. I would assume all of us are not in the same boat, but certainly similar. I’ve never seen so much swirling in thought—in ideas, in arguments—just in the air as in recent days. I feel like the Lord is allowing us to be exposed to the chaos so that we have no mistake in recognizing peace.
The peace of God is the complete absence of chaos; that is the definition. By nature, the peace of God is the complete absence of chaos. He has allowed us, if you will, to be exposed to some of the craziest things ever, not so that we walk through life being victims. If you experience sorrow, maybe a friend has fallen into some deception. I got news this week about a dear friend who is getting divorced, and I never would have expected it—never, never, ever would have expected it. I don’t know what happened, but when you have pain like that, if you just feel sad and do nothing with it, you’re wasting your time. God gave you an ability to feel so that it would take you to Him.
I don’t know how to pray for this situation, but I do know the Lord has had His way, and so I pray the mercy of God to come upon this couple—the mercy of God to touch each individual heart. God, I don’t know what’s happened or where this has gone. This is where you pray in tongues a lot; He always gets it right. I may pray this prayer, «Oh God, give me a Ferrari with 700 horsepower,» and then I pray in tongues. The Holy Spirit says, «Man, don’t give him that car; he’ll kill himself!» That’s what I’m praying in tongues. I’m praying; I don’t even know; He just cancels out my prayer.
I’m praying in tongues. That’s how this works for me. I don’t know how it works for you, but He always refines my prayer. He says, «No, he’ll kill himself if he has that car; don’t do that.» But if you feel grief, or you feel pain, or you feel troubled, if it doesn’t take you to Him in prayer, you’re wasting your sensitivities. It’s a gifting. It’s like eyesight. If you see something coming at you that’s going to hit you, and you don’t duck your head, then you’re wasting your eyesight. We perceive because He’s positioned us to make a difference or react accordingly.
All right, let’s read this passage one last time in 2 Corinthians chapter 10:4: «The weapons of our warfare are not carnal; they are mighty in God for the purpose of pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God to the point where we learn to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.»
It’s an interesting picture there, that last phrase—bringing every thought captive. When I see «bringing every thought captive,» I think of like a soldier who is warring against us. All right, so let’s take that thought for a minute. Let’s just say we’re in an army, and we have a soldier. I take him captive, but he becomes so captive that he becomes a soldier for us. It’s not putting him in restriction where he doesn’t function; it’s seeing that thought process so transformed that it now works for us—taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
What is that? It’s the mind of Christ. Taking this deceptive thought about your neighbor, take it captive until it starts reflecting the mind of Christ about your neighbor. Hostages—taking our thoughts hostage until they are transformed in nature, and they actually reflect the fact that there is nothing impossible. He has a redemptive solution for every situation, and He will cause every situation that pertains to my life to work for good, which means for His glory and for my strength.
I like the phrase «casting down.» That reminds me of Wigglesworth. My grandfather told me he said not everybody liked Wigglesworth because his faith was so abrasive. You know, active faith offends inactive faith. Faith in action offends faith as a concept. Faith that is active in the moment offends faith that’s waiting for something to happen someday. Wigglesworth would say, «Don’t treat the devil kindly.» So when he would rebuke a demon, that demon knew he was rebuked. Some people suggest a demon leave as though they are making a suggestion.
Casting down: take that vile thing that just isolated that person into a non-redemptive position in their life. Take that vile thought that just declared over your economics that there is no solution—you’ve actually tried everything and there is no solution—take that vile thought and cast it at the feet of Jesus, who is Himself Jehovah Jireh. Take that thought that says your marriage cannot be healed or restored. Take that thought captive because it is born in the pit of hell. You take it captive and cast it down and bring into subjection all these things that you’re thinking, seeing, and feeling, and tell what you’re seeing, thinking, and feeling reflects His heart and His nature.
It’s not complicated; it just means I’ve got to have more input from what He said instead of from everything else that’s around me. Why don’t you stand? We’re going to pray and wrap this up. I believe the Lord put this on my heart for today. I believe He directed my heart. I’ll be honest with you; I had something else I was wanting to do just this morning. Eric and I walked over to the offices. I went into my office, and boom, it became completely clear—off what I had prepared my heart to do. I could feel the heart of the Lord for the mental health of the body of Christ.
It is for you, but it is also through you, and it’s through you unto a culture that you will not convince through debate. In some cases, it’s going to be your engagement in prayer that pulls out the rug from that spirit of deception that is influencing your neighbor the way it has influenced them. They see no solution because they’ve locked into a covenantal agreement with the powers of darkness, but your prayers—not manipulation, not pointing the finger, not arguing or debating—but you, going before God, saying, «God, I really care for this neighbor, and they are trapped; they don’t see it.»
I know I can’t convince them, but I know that You can. We begin to pull down the strongholds of thought that they think healing of a marriage is impossible. I know God, that’s a lie. So I pull that thought down in the name of Jesus right now, that has been raised up in their thinking as a god, and it is not a god; it is an inferior thought. We take that lie, and we confront you in the name of Jesus— that lying devil that has brought hopelessness to my friend who believes it’s impossible for them to ever have an economic solution. It’s a lie from hell.
It’s a lie from hell. I pulled that thought down, and in its place, I release the revelation of Jehovah Jireh, the God who always provides, the God who is always more than enough. You bind and you loose; you bind and you loose. You bind here what’s bound there; you loose here what’s loose there. If it’s not in the mind of Christ, it’s not worth releasing. I’ve got to stop saying the stuff that He isn’t thinking. I’m so tired of my own opinion. I’m serious; it bores me to tears. I must have the mind of Christ. I must have the word of the Lord.
I have to—when He speaks, I live; when I think without Him, I die. I’m about to start over, so I’m telling you better, better war! I’m just joking. All right, we’re going to pray, and I want you to put your hands in front of you as an act of faith to receive because I do believe that Jesus has brought this to the forefront today because it is in His heart to release a grace to deal with the lies that have been raised up in our lives.
Father of truth, You who cannot lie, You who cannot deceive, You who are faithful and true, so completely trustworthy; You are perfectly trustworthy. We owe You absolute trust. Together we look to You right now, and I’m asking that You would give us as a gift a grace, a heightened awareness of the things we’ve entertained, the times we’ve welcomed the enemy of our soul into our homes and have made them comfortable with our thinking. Today we expel those lies, and I pray that over these next 7 to 10 days, there would be such a heightened awareness of what is true, a heightened awareness of what is filled with hope, a heightened awareness of what is on Your heart for this hour.
Help us to never again waste a painful moment; let them always bring us to You, always bring us to You. I ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to rest upon this body of people, those who are watching online. I bless this company of believers; I bless you in the name of Jesus, and I pray for a wisdom to scale the walls of the city and to bring down strongholds the people have placed trust in other than the name of the Lord—that this company of people would be known by their neighbors that they just trust God; they simply trust Him. When push comes to shove, they just trust God. It makes no sense; they just trust God.
Let that be the living reality of this body of believers. In fact, I pray for the city of Redding, that Redding would rise to a place of absolute trust, that this city would love You well, that this city would absolutely trust You. I pray this in Jesus' name. Now, I know that there’s a chance there could be somebody here in the room and many who are watching online at Bethel TV that do not have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to invite anybody in the room that has never made a personal commitment to receive Jesus into your life, where you understand what forgiveness of sin is, and you are actually transformed literally from the inside out; it’s a conversion experience—not by our works, but by His.
But we turn our life to Him—that’s what invites the invasion of God. If there’s anybody in this room that would say, «That’s me; I don’t want to leave the building until I know I’ve been born again, until I know I’ve been forgiven by God,» okay? I would assume that it’s a house filled with believers, but it’s not worth taking the risk. I just pray for you that God would give such prosperity of soul that your emotional life, your mental life, would be so overflowing with the mind of Christ that literally the mind of Christ would be contagious through your words, that somehow you would speak a word and people would change their thinking simply because of what you said. May the mind of Christ settle upon this city. In Jesus' name, amen.