Bill Johnson - How to See Your Situation With Hope (In Everything Give Thanks)
As I have mentioned the last few times I have spoken, I have felt, at least for me, it’s a season of review. Last December 2019, I had an unusual experience with the Lord. I’ve had Him speak to me in the night, where He awakened me with His voice twice. What I don’t want to do is create a picture that I have these encounters every other month. In fifty years, you do the math; it’s not real common, but it happens. This particular time, instead of a voice coming to me, it exploded within me. I don’t know how to describe that, but it’s what happened. I was dead asleep, and I was awakened with a thought in my sleep, which I don’t typically do. I sleep and intentionally ignore anything important so that I can rest. But I was awakened with this thought: «A walled city without gates is not entirely safe.» Out of nowhere, that’s not even a thought I would have come up with, certainly not for that time of night. «A walled city without gates,» it startled me, and I was awakened. I laid there for, I’m going to guess it was anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours. I laid there wide awake, pondering what in the world just happened and what He was trying to say. «A walled city without gates is not entirely safe.»
Forty-eight years ago, when Benny and I were married, I remember soon after we got married, I had purposed to study two specific books in the Bible and give myself to studying those two books for an extended period. That means I will read a book, like Ephesians, one of them. I will read it every day for six months. I may read other things too, but I keep that constant in my diet, so to speak. The second book I had given myself to for at least six months was the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is about rebuilding the walls around the city of Jerusalem, and Ezra is about rebuilding the temple. Those two books together give us a profound picture of salvation, where the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and then begins to rebuild those parts of our life that have been broken down and destroyed. So, I am familiar with the language of walls and gates, but I certainly did not have that in my mind.
So, «A walled city without gates is not entirely safe.» I want you to go with me to Isaiah 60, and we’re going to take two portions of scripture. It’s not always wise to take a biblical theme from one book to another because sometimes they don’t translate well, but I believe what I’m going to share with you today will have several references, and it’s a constant theme throughout the Old and New Testament.
Another interesting experience I had with the Lord was in May, on a Thursday afternoon of 1979. I was in Weaverville, walking in the back of the sanctuary praying. It was my custom to just walk; I find that I don’t fall asleep when I walk and pray, so it’s great. I was walking in the back, and I remember I was reading out of Isaiah 60, which was just where I happened to be in my reading at that time, and the Lord began to speak to me. I had a real encounter with Him out of Isaiah 60; it was one of the two most profound encounters of my life. One was word-centered, the second was in the middle of the night, a divine encounter with the power of God. But this one was word-centered, and it has shaped my thinking and values ever since that Thursday afternoon in May of 1979. It was the first nineteen verses. What I want you to do is just take a phrase. I’m not going to teach out of this chapter; I just want to take you to a phrase, and this phrase is what I began to ponder.
You have to remember now, I’m laying in absolute pitch darkness with this phrase: «A walled city without gates is not entirely safe.» I’m trying to ponder the verses that I know about this subject to see if I can get some help understanding what the Lord is speaking to me. My mind went to this passage, which is in my repertoire: «Violence will no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders.» Here’s the part that came to mind: «But you will call your walls salvation and your gates praise.»
You will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise. Back to the thought, «A walled city without gates is not entirely safe.»
This is very significant, and I’ll tell you why. A walled city without gates is not entirely safe. Your wall shall be called salvation; that’s what God does for you. Your gates will be called praise; that’s what you give to Him. The strength of our life is based not only on what He’s done for us — it’s all based on what He’s done for us — but there’s a responsibility. This statement isn’t to breed paranoia or fear about not being saved; it’s a summons into responsibility. We have a role to play in our own safety. Many people face continuous ongoing spiritual battles because of their unconfessed compromise, and through their compromise, they welcome into their lives ongoing conflict that they’re not meant for, that they’re not designed for. It actually dislocates them like an arm out of a socket, dislocating them from their purpose and design. They are constantly aware of spiritual warfare, so they think that’s the nature of their life, but that’s not the nature of their life.
If this were a walled city, figuratively speaking, this sanctuary, you can have people outside throwing arrows and shooting spears at the walls, and we would never know it if we’re in here and we’re safe. There are things that happen in a walled city, so to speak. There are things that happen in the life of a person who has gotten their life healed, restored of the broken parts, where the places of strength that used to be weakness are now strength. There are times where we sit in the middle of intense conflict, and we are completely unaware that there’s conflict. It’s not denial; it’s just that there is a strength surrounding us that doesn’t force us to remain devil-conscious all the time.
So here’s this thought: «Your walls are called salvation; God saved me; that’s what He did for me.» The gates are called praise. Then my mind quickly went to another passage in Revelation. I think it’s chapter 20, but it could be in the last three chapters. You’ll find it; it’s talking about the heavenly Jerusalem, a walled city with gates, and it says, «Your gates will be made out of one solid pearl.» Now, if there ever was a weird metaphor in the Bible, it’s got to be that — a pearl is a gate. A pearl is a gate! So, we’ve got this gigantic pearl — twelve of them surround the city of Jerusalem. Those pearls are gates.
Now, you have to stop and think: all right, how are pearls formed? They’re formed out of irritation. Ah! So the gate of praise isn’t formed because I gave praise for a raise at work; it’s that in the middle of difficulty, I gave praise. Then you start pondering about the nature of this gate. First of all, we’re talking about safety. Now we’ve got this walled city; we’ve got these gates in place. They’re called gates of praise and are two things. Number one, they provide protection from the onslaught of the enemy; what he intends to use against us is now removed from his hands. The weapons of the enemy are destroyed through thankfulness; it actually removes the tool he was going to use to destroy us because now you’re playing with God’s tools.
Now, we’re playing with God’s instruments, that gate. Psalm 24: «Lift up your heads, oh ye gates, that the King of glory may enter in.» So, here’s a gate that the Lord can come in through while the enemy can’t. The same gate invites one and repels the other. Praise. Go with me to 1 Thessalonians 5, and we’ll spend the rest of our time in this chapter. That last statement I made about thanksgiving, I kind of butchered it and I’m going to butcher it just a little bit more, but I want to give it some context. If you understand this, I didn’t prepare to have these scriptures ready, so you can look them up on your own.
There’s this interesting dialogue that Paul has on two occasions about food and what we’re to eat. In one of those occasions, he says, «Hey, if your neighbor is sacrificing some animal to this demon god and you know they sacrificed that meat to the demon god and they know that you know, don’t eat the meat.» He says it’s not because it will harm you; it’s because it will violate their conscience. But then he goes on and says, «If they don’t know, then eat it.» Elsewhere, Paul says, «All foods that you receive with prayer and thankfulness are sanctified.»
Follow the logic here! So, here’s this big chunk of meat; my neighbor just offered it to some god, he does not know that I know, but I watched. Then he invited me over for dinner, and I saw these demon powers surround him as he offered this offering. I know the enemy wants to destroy me through this that I’m about to eat, and I receive it into my life, and I give thanks. My thankfulness just sanctified what was previously empowered by the enemy to bring destruction to my life. Did that make sense? Thankfulness sanctifies.
So, when you’re in the middle of a horrific situation, thankfulness in the middle of that — it’s not about chasing the devil around; it’s simply about turning our hearts towards the celebration of who God is in every situation. Yes, and it anchors our souls into that absolute victory that has been promised to each one of us. Thankfulness.
So, here we have this portion of scripture. I remember, in fact, just look at it. Verse 16: «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.» I remember reading that as a young pastor in Weaverville days, reading that verse like, «Man, I could spend the rest of my life, every day, the rest of my life on those three verses, and I would have my hands full. I would have a full-time job just learning those three simple statements.»
Say it with me: «Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything, give thanks.» Let’s say it together: «Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything, give thanks.» Say it again: «Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything, give thanks.»
I’m not sure that we see the effect of thankfulness on the human heart or thankfulness on the spiritual atmosphere or surroundings around our lives. There is a sanctifying, cleansing, and purifying work that takes place simply through thankfulness. Why? Number one, thankfulness is automatic — it’s a position of humility. Thankfulness is not us dictating something to God or to somebody else; it’s coming in low and honoring Him for what He has done. Thankfulness is connected to the acts of God, the works of God. It’s said of Israel and Moses that Israel was acquainted with the acts of God, but Moses was acquainted with His ways.
There’s an interesting graduation in perception and experience in those two areas. Many people experience the works of God, but they don’t know anything about His nature or His person, and all the revelation or experiences of the works of God are invitations to discover who He is. Moses prayed this prayer in Exodus; he says, «Let me know Your ways that I might know You.» In other words, «God, I want to see what You’re like because I want to follow that invitation into relationship.»
We’re not gathering information for a test; we’re not gathering information to pass a quiz. That’s right — we’re seeing glimpses of what He’s like so we can take each glimpse as an invitation or open-door opportunity to come into a relationship. When He revealed Himself to Abraham as the provider, Jehovah Jireh, it wasn’t to make him more well-rounded in his theological approach to God’s resources; He was revealing Himself as the one who was about to provide for him.
Instead of him sacrificing Isaac, there was a ram caught in the thicket. The point was, God, the provider just revealed Himself. That provision was to be experienced. Thanksgiving will take you places nothing else can. It will take you places in God.
So, here He says, «Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.» As I was lying there, again, I’m making reference to something I’ve shared with you before, but I was laying there in this middle-of-the-night thing; my head is spinning with these verses and thoughts. I wanted to make sure I got what He was trying to say. He was giving me insight, but it was a warning too: «A walled city without gates is not entirely safe.» In other words, I have a role to play. We have a role to play over the safety of our own households, our house of faith as a church family.
As I laid there, I started meditating on this particular passage: «Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.» If you don’t meditate on the word, then you’re actually restricting your own capacity for learning because He actually wants to speak to you. It’s true. He wants to speak through your thought processes. He wants to become a part of your thought processes so that as you ponder what He has said in His word, you’ll have an idea that you know you didn’t come up with, but it will feel like you did.
All right, that’s a good point, Bill. I know exactly what you mean, and I just keep working at it. All right. «Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.» So, as I’m laying there, I start having this sense that the key then to emotional health is rejoicing always.
The key to emotional health. Here’s the strange thing about— in fact, let me give reference to thanksgiving because it’ll be more visual. I’m not a great golfer; it’s been years since I’ve gone. I have some funny stories about my golfing expertise, but anyway, I use this as an analogy: the ball’s here; you’ve got a backswing; you meet the ball; it goes on. This is yesterday; this is today. The momentum shows you where you’re going tomorrow. I don’t know if that made sense. You’ve got your backswing; you meet the ball. Your club doesn’t go that way; it goes that way.
There’s a momentum created when you are thankful: «God, You provided for me when I didn’t deserve it. I made dumb decisions; financially, You covered me anyway. You provided. You healed my body. Here, God, You used a doctor.» There I was in crisis; here I expected You to show up in a certain way; You didn’t, but You never left me, and You walked me through that into triumph. You go through all these things.
What happened is you’re reviewing your yesterday and God’s faithfulness, and you automatically pick up a sense of where you’re going. Does that make sense? You automatically pick up a sense of this is my tomorrow. Why? Because before there’s a problem, He creates a solution. One of the most astonishing things in scripture to me is where it says, «Jesus was crucified before the foundations of the world.» Jesus was crucified before the foundations of the world! So, before there was all this created, including humans, He was crucified. The point is, before there was sin, there was a Savior; before there was a problem, there was a solution.
So what is it that you could come up with in your life that He didn’t already have a solution for? The reason for thankfulness is really quite astonishing. Thankfulness helps to create hope. You know what hope is? Hope — the best definition I’ve seen of biblical hope — not of the cultural word hope — the best definition that I know of is the joyful anticipation of good. Joyful; it’s excited now for what’s about to happen. What that means, then, is that hope actually gives us the opportunity to enjoy the emotional benefit of a miracle before the miracle happens.
We actually have the opportunity to explore the emotion of victory before the victory actually happens. Amen? We actually get to feed from the emotion of victory; hope gives us access to that, and it’s thanksgiving that creates that momentum.
So, here we have this issue: rejoicing is the key to emotional health, and rejoicing in any situation, every situation is so good. I believe strongly that these kinds of expressions require a physical response. It requires a physical response. He didn’t say, «Shout for joy, all you extroverts, and all you introverts, just think happy thoughts, I’m good, I’m good, just feel warm and fuzzy about me, I’m fine; I’ll work with that.» He didn’t say that. He said, «Shout for joy!» Period.
There’s something about the expression that changes our capacity to experience what God is doing and what He’s about to do. There’s something that is transformed in us through the physical outward obedience. Sometimes it’s kneeling; sometimes it’s laying on your face; sometimes it’s raising hands; sometimes it’s a dance. Sometimes — goodness, I’ll never forget the first time I danced before the Lord. I was alone in a house, and I was worshiping, and I felt like the Lord said to dance. I was so embarrassed; I was as embarrassed as could be. I made sure all the curtains were closed because I knew that all the news networks were there wanting to film this great event about to happen! I did. I actually went and made sure all the curtains were closed. Everything. I’m the only one in the house; the lights are very dim; you could hardly see. I went, and I have to admit, I actually felt kind of good inside, so I did it again, and again, and again. Eventually, you don’t care what anybody thinks, but at that time, it mattered to me. There had to be some sort of a physical response.
I like what Wigglesworth says, «My body doesn’t tell me how it’s feeling; I tell my body how it’s feeling.» There are times where they’re not monumental things, they’re not God commanding us to do some impossible thing. Sometimes it’s as simple as raising your hand. Yeah, sometimes it’s lifting your voice; sometimes it’s giving what’s in your pocket to that person in need. They’re just simple acts; none of them are a huge noble task, but they all require some sort of external obedience, and rejoicing is just like that.
I think rejoicing takes great faith. I think it’s easier to hang your head and sing a song about God’s worth than to celebrate His worth because you actually have to have some sense of confidence that you are accepted to rejoice. And He says, «Rejoice always!» The second part of that experience: «Rejoice always; the second was in everything, give thanks.»
I felt strongly that the key to mental health was giving thanks in everything. I remember hearing a talk show with a psychiatrist or psychologist, I forget who now, being interviewed. They made some statement; I won’t get it exactly right, but it’s basically this: 90% of all mental illness is the result of trying to avoid pain. Ninety percent of all mental illness is the result of trying to avoid pain. Somehow facing the difficulty with thankfulness, it’s not denial; it’s not pretending something doesn’t exist; it’s owning up to this.
It’s Joseph with his brothers who sold him into slavery. He says, «You did this to destroy me; however, God looked ahead and put me here.» It’s like I’m owning up to the challenge of the moment, but I am liberated and free in this moment. Being able to be free in that moment, with thanksgiving and rejoicing, is the nature of the Christian life. I tell you, we’ve got to get it now because, I mean, it’s crazy out there. It’s crazy! They don’t know what bathroom to use! This is getting—oh, don’t get me started.
But here’s the issue: if I move in offense, I will then fight the challenge with their tools, which puts us on a level playing field. Whenever you fight the devil on his field, you lose! It’s moving into the grace gifts of God where I refuse to live in offense, but I also refuse to live irresponsibly. I recognize flesh and blood is not my enemy; this person believes a lie, but me yelling at him is not going to change him from believing a lie. Me accusing or doing whatever—it doesn’t fix anything. It just helps the person to feel better for a moment. Yeah, until God convicts. Are you getting what I’m trying to say?
Moving into a place of bringing about change requires a couple of things, and I think the safeguard here is profound in bringing transformation. It’s rejoicing always and in everything giving thanks. Those two things, emotional, mental health — if there’s anything that the world is crying out for right now, it seems to be dissolving quicker than Shasta Lake evaporating—it’s this sanity of life, this mental health, emotional health. Yet you have the inside track!
I don’t mean that you’re better than others; I don’t mean in any way that you’re more favored by God. It’s the taste of the favor of God because it will be useful in bringing others into that same blessing, useful in bringing others into that same sound mind and heart. «Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything, give thanks.»
It’s key to emotional health, there’s rejoicing always, and in everything give thanks is key for mental health. The last one is to pray without ceasing. I believe that command to pray without ceasing is the key to heart health — how important is that? Jesus dealt with the heart in many different ways. He says adulteries, jealousies, all these things come from the heart. He brings us as a word of correction; then He also says, «Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.»
He deals with both ends of the spectrum. The point is, the heart is a big thing! It’s that seat of emotion; it’s the affection; it’s the place of affection. It’s a place of values that are established from the heart where what we do with our lives is determined. In Proverbs 4:23, it says, «Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life.»
You have a family, you have a job, you’ve got your own personal health, you’ve got all these things going on. We all have a million plates spinning on sticks, and all these issues of life—watching over this one thing. It’s like having one idiot gauge on your dashboard; you just watch this one thing, and it helps keep everything else functioning right. This one gauge makes sure the gas is right, your oil pressure is right, and everything is correct.
Watching this one thing—the significance of this one command in Proverbs 4:23: «Watch over your heart with all diligence.» I’ve told you before, our discipline was based on heart and attitude. If we could correct something when it was an attitude form, we could prevent bad conduct. It’s the same with us. I’ve invited my wife on many occasions: «Honey, all I want to do is please Jesus; that’s all I want to do. If you see I’m careless with my speech or my attitudes or anything, I’m not just giving you permission; I’m inviting you; please point it out to me. I’m determined to recognize and to repent of anything that happens, but I invite you. Please point it out to me, because I don’t want that in my life.»
«Watch over your heart with all diligence; put extra effort into this one thing.» Why? Because it affects every area of your life. Here is what I believe to be the command of the Lord that keeps us in a place of great strength regarding our heart. You know what? Do we want the adulteries and envies and jealousies from the heart or the pure in heart who see God? This is obviously what we want!
So, He says, «Pray without ceasing.» In other words, view prayer as your ongoing primary occupation. If you’re an evangelist, you can only evangelize so much during the day. If you pray for the sick, you can only pray for the sick so much. If you’re a school teacher, you’re only in the classroom so long. But pray without ceasing!
I have found that when I create momentum throughout my day, I actually wake up in the night praying. One of the things that’s important for us to recognize is we don’t know what we’re doing with prayer. Anyone on this side agree with me? We don’t really know what we’re doing; that’s why the Bible says we don’t know how to pray as we ought. That’s the Bible! So, it’s best to put your bet with the Bible.
The Bible says you don’t know what you’re doing, but here’s the cool thing: in Romans chapter 8, it says the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. A few verses later, it says Jesus intercedes for us. My uncle pointed this out to me a bunch of years ago: the Holy Spirit intercedes for me, Jesus is interceding for me, and right in the middle of those two verses is the statement, «All things work together for good.» I wonder why all things work together for good?
I’ve got the Holy Spirit; I’ve got the Son of God; they are both pleading my case before the Father. I may not know what I’m doing, but the Holy Spirit who lives in me knows exactly what He’s doing. Many people pray enough to ease their conscience, but not enough to change circumstances — not enough to make a difference. Prayer is the full-time responsibility of the believer!
It’s not just that time in the morning when you get on your knees, and you’ve got your Bible open. Those are wonderful, but it’s more than that. It’s the fact that I’ll drive down the road, and I’ll see a car go by that reminds me of a friend I went to school with; I just take that as a sign to pray for them. It’s just automatic.
I’ll remember a conflict, a conversation I had that was very challenging for me. That’ll come to mind, and as soon as it does, I’ll say, «I lay down my right to be offended at that,» and I pray for my friend that God would so touch his life or whatever it might be. The point is, we have a full-time occupation of interacting with God!
Now here’s the deal: I would like in the next couple of minutes to somehow paint a picture of what I believe is the heart of the Father. I believe that the Father wants the Earth to be filled with the fruitfulness in answer to your prayers. In other words, you were designed to meet with the Creator of life—to meet with Him and to make petitions and requests, to make decrees and proclamations, and as a result, see the course of history changed with the answers of God sprinkled all over the Earth.
There is to be fruitfulness; I don’t think it’s yet come to our heart and mind how much God looks for fruitfulness. He looks for increase; He looks for increase in the simplest things. You know the talents; they used the talents, and the miners they used—one who used the miners got ten more; the guy who didn’t use it buried it. The landowner says, «Why didn’t you put it in the bank? At least you would have earned interest.»
In other words, «I’m looking for increase.» God’s not going to give you insights for prayer to increase your knowledge; the insights for prayer are to make you more fruitful. God’s not going to give us insights for prayer so we can write a book about prayer; it’s to make us fruitful, that the Earth would be filled with the fruitfulness of the answers to prayer of the saints. That this situation was impossible, and Jesus changed it. This family was so destroyed they could never recover, but the mercy of God came, and they’ve been healed. This business was past being lost, and God raised it up again. Home after home, situation after situation — why? Because somebody who loves the Father is willing to pray until He shows how to pray.
I think the fruitfulness that God wants for us from prayer is on the other side of us laying down our offense about so many things not being answered! Amen? Prayer is an engagement with a person where we are changed; that’s the whole point. If I take an hour to pray and I don’t leave that hour changed in some way, then I wasn’t praying; I was complaining. It’s an engagement with a person. Why?
Because I learn to think like Him. How many of you know you can pray the same prayer a thousand times and have nothing happen? You pray a thousand and one, and a breakthrough takes place. It’s that moment where Jesus says, «Throw the net to the other side. Do it again!» I know you did it all night, but do it one more time. Sometimes it’s that one more time of doing the right thing, but this time, you’re doing it in His presence. This time, we did it at the command of the Lord; this time His hand was on my hand, making what we were doing effective and powerful.
That’s prayer! It’s the invitation of God to come into the place where we actually make a difference in the course of history because we pray. So here it is: «Rejoice always; pray and don’t stop; in everything give thanks!» Emotional, mental health, and the pure in heart will see God.
I want you to stand; we’re going to pray together. I keep coming back to the subject of prayer. Honestly, I feel like I keep coming back to it in the last six to eight months because I need it. I keep getting glimpses of God’s heart, and you can’t not pray when you see His heart. He’s the one who said, «Abide in Me, let My words abide in you, you can ask whatever you want, and it’ll be done for you.» Four times in three chapters, He gives this invitation to world-changing involvement with God through answers to prayer that change everything—a partnership!
Something happened here not quite 25 years ago, though we’ve been seeing a wonderful outpouring for 25 years. Something happened, maybe 23 years ago, where there was a corporate anointing that came upon the house for healing, and we have seen thousands and thousands healed, and we’ll see a lot more. But I feel like this could be that hour where He’s now releasing a corporate anointing for prayer where we find ourselves—you may feel like, «Well, I really don’t know what I’m doing.» Good, because if you did, you’d mess it up!
There’s something about praying in the Holy Spirit; there’s something about praying — sometimes, I get before the Lord and I have nothing! I’ll pray in tongues; I pray in my prayer language. That’s an important part, but He still wants something said from my understanding. I can just take a potshot; I can find a verse, quote this and quote that, but there are times where He wants me to see something I’ve never seen before so I can decree something I’ve never decreed before.
I feel like there’s this school of prayer that God is releasing over us as a church family right now. I pray that you wake up because of dreams! I pray that you’re troubled by dreams; I pray you’re excited by dreams! I pray the voice of the Lord awakens you. I’ve had it happen twice where the voice of the Lord just startled me awake.
I pray that happens for you! I pray that you can’t get away from the great privilege of filling the Earth with fruitfulness in your answers to prayer. Father, I pray for that. Multiply the effectiveness of our online family as well, God! Release the grace for the miracle anointing in prayer. All we want is what You’ve commanded us: «Kingdom of God, come! Will of God, be done on Earth as it is in heaven.» That is our cry, and I pray that you awaken in the heart and life of every single person in this room the significant role of affecting history simply by praying what You pray, declaring what You declare, believing what You believe.
I pray all of this in Jesus' name. Now, if you could hold your place for just a quick moment, I know anytime there are this many people in the room, the odds are very high that there are people here who don’t know Jesus. You don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus; you don’t know what it is to be forgiven; you don’t know what it is to be born again, as the Bible would say. It doesn’t matter to me whether you’re in the building or watching online; there’s a way for you to respond right now.
I want to say for everyone in the building, if there’s anyone here in that position right now that says, «I don’t want to leave the building until I know that I’m at peace with God and that I know what it is to be brought into a family where I truly become a disciple of this one named Jesus,» if that’s in your heart, say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know this for certain.» I want you to put a hand up where you are because we’re going to pray and believe for that great, great miracle for you. Put it up high so I can see. Is there anyone at all?
For those who are online, I know we have had so many people come to Christ online. Just write in the box; we have pastors online with you who will talk and pray with you. Put in the chat room, the chat box, that you want to receive Jesus, and people will pray with you.
All right, how about you do this? Who’s coming up? Chris, come on up and help me lift up one good shout of thanks and praise to the Lord!