Bill Johnson - Living Aware of the Presence and Power of God
A funny story I heard a while back is about a highway patrol officer who pulls over three little old ladies in their car. They were going 35 miles per hour on the freeway, and he said, «Hey, you can’t go this slow!» The driver replied, «I was going the speed limit; the sign said 35.» He started to laugh and said, «No, that’s Highway 35. The speed limit is actually 70.» She responded, «Oh!» He then asked, «By the way, why do your passengers look so terrified?» She replied, «Oh, because we just got off Highway 105,» and that made a lot of sense.
I want you to open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 16. Last week, I had the chance to talk to you about prayer and some critical things for us. I postponed something that I’m going to try to begin to discuss today. For those who did our small group study on my book, «Way of Life,» you may have touched upon this subject in that book. I think one of the most important books of this era is by my dear friend Ed Sooso, called «Ecclesia» (E-K-K-L-S-I-A). It offers profound insights into Scripture and a compelling strategy for bringing transformation to this world. In some ways, I feel it’s the most important book of this particular period of time. He has stirred up some things; most of us have grown up in an environment where we knew that the church was not a building. We understood that church was much bigger and different than that. I grew up with my dad saying all the time that church isn’t a building, it’s not a denomination. It is actually the people of God who have gathered together in His name.
However, there are specific things that, if we have them in mind as we live our lives, can change everything. For example, the Great Commission says to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Did you know that the active verb in that verse is not «go»? It’s actually «to disciple.» The word actually means «as you go.» In other words, you’re going to be traveling here and there throughout life. As you go, do this. It’s already determined—you will travel on vacation to this city, you’ll be doing business here and there. Your life is one of going, so as you go, do this.
When you see the weight of authority and responsibility that God places upon the people of God, it can be sobering. I don’t know how it affects you, but when I realize, «Oh, this is my responsibility,» I suddenly become very sober-minded about the opportunity before me. I live with what I think is a heightened sense of responsibility, and I pray that over each of us—not the burdensome kind, but the challenging, invitational kind. God says, «This belongs to you; now go occupy it. Go take care of this.» That’s kind of the mandate we’ve been trying to live out for goodness over 20 years now. We keep trying again and learning another lesson from different staff members, each bringing another layer of truth upon another.
This is what’s on my heart today. I believe the Lord is—I’m going to use the word «forcing»; it may not be the kindest word, but work with me—he’s forcing us to learn about the strength of the church. I love the large gatherings; I do. I’ve ministered to groups of up to 60,000 or 70,000, and that’s fun! I love getting a thousand people crammed into this room and overflowing. But what’s happening right now is the Lord is forcing us to discover that the strength of the church is actually in the two or three gathered in His name. The strength of the large gathering is critical; it creates identity, which is huge. We belong to something that is bigger and more significant than our little world of influence. That is important.
There’s also a prophetic sense of direction given in the corporate setting that I never hear in smaller settings. I’m not saying it can’t happen; it’s just that there’s something about people coming together in large groups that brings a prevailing word over a group of people—a prophetic sense, if you will—of the mandate of the Lord upon us. I know for me, since I first started in ministry, I remember going to Weaverville in 1979. I had a little business card while I was on staff here with my dad for five years. When I went up there, I wrote a note on the back of my business card that I kept on my desk for almost all of the 17 years I was there. It said, «Whatever feeds me feeds them.» My responsibility was to be well-fed in the things of God and then give away whatever He gives me, but I had to process it through my lifestyle first, through my own experience, through my devotion to Christ. Let it filter through that and then offer it to the people I love, care for, and serve.
In Matthew chapter 16, we’ll read a bit from here and then jump over to chapter 18, and we’ll end up in John 15 just to keep you busy. Matthew 16:13: «When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, 'Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? '» So they said, «Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.» He said to them, «But who do you say that I am?» Simon Peter answered and said, «You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.» Jesus answered and said to him, «Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.»
Let me take verse 19 again. The New American Standard says this much better, and it’s a footnote in my Bible. It says, «Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven,» and «Whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.» It’s mirroring that reality here, and that is the overall theme of Jesus: «Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven; your kingdom come.» The backbone of the commission for every believer is learning how to partner with God to bring the reality of His reign, His dominion, into the specific areas of our human experience.
Let’s go back through this particular portion of scripture. I’m going to read that verse again, but I’ll read it as I believe it should be written. Let’s go to verse 15. «Who do you say that I am?» Peter answered, «You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.» Jesus replied, «Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.» This wasn’t a slap or put down; Jesus was acknowledging that Peter had just heard well from the Father. He was pointing out, I used to do this with my kids. When they were playing on the floor and one treated the other with unusual kindness, I would say, «Hey, guys, stop! Eric, do you know what that was?» He would look at me like he was in trouble. And I would say, «Son, that was a fruit of the spirit—kindness.» That’s what Jesus is doing here. He’s stopping the procession and saying, «Peter, you just heard from the Father! That’s what it sounds like when you’re hearing from the Father.»
«Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven, and I say to you that you are Peter.» Peter is actually a word that means «rock,» but it’s a small rock. «And upon this rock,» that word is the massive rock, «I will build my church.» I personally do not believe that Peter was the rock upon which the church was founded. It was an illustration; the rock it was founded on is verse 16: «You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.» It’s the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God, that is what the church is built upon.
Think about this: the church is built upon revelation. The essence of your faith is that you heard God speak, and you responded. There is no salvation apart from hearing God speak. People say, «Well, I just don’t hear from God.» Well, you must have heard something because that’s how you got born again. It’s the only way you can get in—there’s an acknowledgment that God has spoken, that I am convicted of sin. He’s given me a gift to turn from this way of life and to follow after Him. It’s that invitation, If you will, or compelling exhortation by God that enables us to turn in faith to Him.
Every part of our life hinges upon that willingness and ability to hear from God. Every time we say, «I just don’t hear,» we’re shooting ourselves in the foot instead of acknowledging what we do hear. We point to what we don’t hear well; «I don’t hear as well as this person,» or «This person has open visions.» We must acknowledge that we do hear something because we’re alive. Man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. There is life continuously flowing in us and through us because we hear from God.
It would be much wiser for us to say, «I hear from God, but not as well as I want to; I’m improving. I’m on a journey to increase my capacity and ability to perceive when God is speaking.» It’s a whole other subject, but His first language is not English (or Spanish or whatever other language you speak). There’s a whole world of impressions, pictures, and things from another realm, which is His language. It’s how He teaches us how His world works.
Another subject, but you get the point. So here, this revelation of Jesus as the Messiah is the foundation for the church. Look at verse 18 again: «Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.» I never hear anyone say that the gates here are the gates of the church that kept us protected from the devil. But somehow, when I grew up, that’s how I saw the verse: that God is going to keep our gates strong and protect us from that big bad devil outside trying to break in and steal, kill, and plunder. That’s not it at all. It’s the gates of Hades that will not prevail. In other words, the demonic kingdom—and gates in Scripture refer to positions of authority—will not be able to withstand what?
This prevailing group of people! I just want to throw in something that is probably worthy of study at another time: please notice that it doesn’t say «gates of hell.» We often talk about hell as a place where the devil reigns or rules from or has influence from. Hell is his place of eternal punishment; it’s technically not «the gates of hell that will not prevail.» It’s this realm of darkness that cannot withstand a church that responds to the assignment and call that God has given us, and where we function as He has assigned us to function. In these verses, He gives us the beginning strategy, if you will, for bringing transformation to the world around us.
So here we have, «will not prevail against it.» Verse 19: «I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.» This is a very significant assignment that Jesus now gives to every single one of us as individuals. Now, let’s jump over to chapter 18. The subject in chapter 18 is actually correction for people who will not repent, and it’s actually given in that light. But there are principles in these verses that I would like for you to grasp because they go far beyond the immediate application.
He says in verse 18 again, «I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.» Again, I say to you, and here’s our verse: «If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.» Verse 20: «For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst.»
Here’s the deal: when the Lord said, «I will build my church,» He did not use a term that would have been very commonplace for the Jewish culture at that time—it was not a synagogue nor a temple. The word is «Ecclesia.» It’s very important; bear with me for a moment. Ecclesia is a group of two or three people who are citizens of a particular country or government. Whenever they gather together, they actually represent the government of that country they’re from. So if you have Roman citizens in Greece, and they get together and talk at lunch while working together at a bakery, they are representing the government of Rome.
This is the term used here; Jesus used a secular term. He was known for using secular concepts. I don’t think he was borrowing from the secular world; I think he was taking back what he inspired them to think and do in the first place. He did this by using the term «apostle,» which was a Greek and eventually a Roman term, just as he did with «Ecclesia.» These are secular terms that refer to a gathering of two or three people who have the authority to make governmental-type decisions.
When Jesus uses this term «Ecclesia,» He is using a secular term that everyone in that known world would be aware of because it was part of their culture. He says, «When two or three of you gather, I am there in the midst.» The presence of God is the mark of divine authority. The manifested presence of God upon a couple—a married couple, for example—gives them a governmental responsibility to represent Him. They bind here what is not free to rule there, and they loose here what is already loose there.
It is a God-given mandate and responsibility. It is the backbone of our assignment to disciple nations. This is a specific responsibility; it is not peripheral. This is not extra, like buying a car and wanting something added on, like a sunroof. This is the heart and soul of how you and I were designed. We were designed and assigned by God to be on this planet as citizens of another world. As citizens of that world, we are to look for the one or two others with whom we can meet and come into a place of agreement so that the manifested presence of God would settle upon our gathering, and then in that position, we make decisions that shape the course of history.
In John 15, I’ve been meditating on these verses for so long. I don’t know if you’re tired of hearing me talk about them, but John 15 provokes me. Have you ever read a portion of Scripture that blesses you so much, but you know you don’t fully get it? That’s how I approach the subject of abiding in Christ. I know I understand it to some extent, but I also know I’m in preschool regarding this journey.
Let’s just take one verse; the entire 15th chapter is worth reading, but we’ll focus on this one verse. Verse 7: «If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.» It goes on to say, «By this, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.» I believe the fruit in this context is answers to prayer. I owe God answers to prayer; the lack of answers to prayer is not on His end of the equation. The lack of answers to prayer is on my end of the equation, and it is connected to my ability and willingness to abide. The felt presence of God is the absolute key to continuous answers to prayer.
Living apart from that and doing our best to mimic God’s will or praying for things that we think ought to happen—it’s not that the prayers are wrong, nor what we requested is against His will—it’s just we’re missing the strength of abiding. When you have the manifested presence of God upon you, you, Jesus, and the Father come with a request; there is a level of influence we have been invited into.
«Abide in me; let my words abide in you.» What does that mean? It’s the acknowledged felt presence of God. It’s not just recognizing the Almighty God being here, but it’s engaging with Him. Abiding is an engaged participation with a person. There’s an encounter, an exchange, a fellowship, and an intimacy that’s otherworldly. In that connection, I am positioned to think differently, feel differently, and see differently.
If I’m sitting with another brother, a sister, or a family member, and in that context, the weight of the government of my world is upon my shoulders. For that reason, I can bind anything that’s bound there. We are much more prone to discern the reality of that world. We do okay with binding here what’s already bound there.
For example, we know that someone who is demonized—that doesn’t exist in heaven. Someone addicted to alcohol or drugs—that doesn’t exist there either. We know the devil’s work well; we know what it is to bind. If there’s death, loss, or destruction, we know that’s the devil’s fingerprints. We know this addiction has to end, so we pray for our cousin or whoever is struggling with addiction.
I remember one Sunday night we had a quick altar call; about 20 people came forward. We prayed a corporate prayer over them. Six months later, one individual came to me and said, «Do you remember when you had that invitation for prayer regarding addiction?» I said, «Yes.» He said, «Well, another person and I both have been addicted to heroin for over 20 years, and we were both instantly set free that night during a corporate prayer.»
Sometimes we impose degrees of difficulty in our minds that He doesn’t have in His. Healing an addiction is just as easy for God as bringing encouragement to a discouraged person. It’s all in His wheelhouse. We bind here and pray for that relative who is addicted to drugs. We bind what’s already bound there.
But our problem lies on the loosing side. We are supposed to loose here what is already loose there. Without heavenly encounters, experiences, and perception of heaven, we have no idea what we’re supposed to release to replace what we just bound. Binding means we’re removing something and replacing it. Jesus taught this in the Gospel of Luke when He said, «When a house is clean and swept, it has to be filled with something, or the enemy comes back seven times worse.»
Sometimes we face a perpetual problem because we bind but don’t replace. How do we know what to replace it with? To use a hunting analogy, if a flock of ducks goes by, a lot of hunters just shoot at the flock and miss. You have to pick one out; it’s not guesswork; it’s strategic. We must replace what we’ve bound. This requires an ongoing increase to understand how His world works and what our responsibility is.
We are not leisurely coasting downstream; we are aggressively going upstream against the tide because we represent another world. We continuously encounter things that He has nothing to do with—things that don’t exist in heaven. Sometimes we see a dear friend of ours succumb to something that doesn’t belong here. Occasionally, we see a well-meaning believer be a part of something, and they have no clue. Most of the time, I feel that my responsibility is just to go behind the scenes, pray, and break that thing because if they saw the spirit behind what they said yes to, they would never participate.
Typically, a debate doesn’t convince anyone. It’s better to see a demonic power behind something; love the person, but do the praying behind the scenes before God and bind. If you can see this with me, I don’t think it’s careless to join unique scriptures. Matthew 16 and Matthew 18 both carry the theme: whatever you bind here has already been bound there. But then there’s the loosing—the increased heavenly perception. Where does that come from?
I believe there are unique experiences with the Lord. I’m reading a book right now about heaven that is simply mind-boggling. I love seeing glimpses of how He thinks and how His world works because every glimpse of His ways equips me to release His influence on earth. Many people think His influence will only come when He returns with a military invasion. Who knows what that will look like? All I know is that I have the assignment now.
He didn’t give us authority to keep us busy until He returned; He gave us authority to make a difference in the world we live in. Most of the time, this isn’t dealt with face-to-face with an individual. I’m not saying we should avoid conversations; I’m just saying that often, the powers that be are demonic realities surrounding an issue. That’s where we go to battle. That’s where we get on our knees and make prophetic decrees. We are not fighting against people.
Every one of us has had a bad idea at some point in time and probably partnered with the enemy, not with God. Every single one of us, and most of us more than once or twice. Someone was merciful to us, so let’s show the same mercy. The enemy is not people; there are powers behind realms of thought and specific geographical areas. I don’t want to get weird and spooky, but I’m telling you that certain places are dark because there is an individual who has partnered with the demonic realm at such a level that it has to be broken over that person’s life.
You can see this with the man of the Gadarenes. Jesus brought deliverance to a man with so many demons that his demons were possessed. He was set free, clothed, and in his right mind, but the city was afraid. As long as the guy was writhing and breaking chains and running around naked, everyone was fine. But somehow, when he got freed, the people became concerned. It must be that cult or church down the road.
The crowd got frightened because there was a power that operated outside of their experience. People around you don’t mind a God who looks like them; they will try to make God fit their image instead of giving an account to a God who is so much greater.
The responsibility when Jesus brings deliverance to this man is that the city gets afraid, and they chase Jesus and His disciples out of the area. Later, when Jesus returns to that area, every person from every village came to hear Him speak. What happened? One credible witness, one person upon whom the Kingdom had come—a living illustration of what that world looks like—had sanity, engagement with people, and was different.
When that leaven entered the lump of dough, which represented a rejected Christ, when Jesus came back, they all wanted to hear what He had to say. Because something was bound and something was loosed, David made this statement: «Daily I set the Lord before me.» It’s a strange statement because you can’t literally grab hold of God and put Him where you want. I believe what he is saying is since you can’t imagine a place where He isn’t, you might as well imagine Him with you. Is He everywhere? Yes, that means He’s here.
What is abiding in Christ? It’s acknowledging the presence of God, who is with you to a point of engagement, relationship awareness. Something significant happens in that heartfelt connection with the presence of God—the Spirit of God is with me and will never leave me. In that heartfelt connection, I become more aware of what He wants; I become more conscious of His mood. I don’t mean He’s moody in a temperamental way, but rather I’m more conscious of how He feels about a given subject or person.
We talked before; I remember a few years ago looking through a magazine that had many different conferences listed. It was horrible because at the end, I realized I had skimmed over every conference because I looked at the speakers with almost disregard. I thought that kind of complacency of heart towards a fellow brother in the Lord is not healthy. So, I actually went back to the beginning of the magazine and slowly turned the pages until I came to a conference.
I looked at each speaker for a while until I could feel the pleasure of the Lord for that individual. When I felt it, I would turn the page and go to the next one, feeling the pleasure of the Lord until something changed in my perception. I found that I was—can I say careless? I’m embarrassed to even say it. I was careless in my attitude towards those not part of our stream.
It wasn’t a conscious thing; I didn’t realize it until I felt embarrassed and ashamed as I was looking at these speakers. I knew enough to not think critically, but my response to not being critical was just to ignore, and that’s not Kingdom. The opposite of love is not hate; it’s complacency. Finding that pleasure, being able to feel God’s heart for any issue—whether it’s a politician or someone opposing your views—is so essential.
Take just that extra moment to realize here is someone made in the image of God. I have the responsibility to treat them as one made in the image of God. Policy issues are one thing; they cannot taint my approach or the value of prayer for an individual. The religious spirit and the political spirit both vie to capture our emotional state.
They both seek to influence our perception of people and groups to obscure that value. If I find a person repulsive or wish to have nothing to do with them, I’ve cut off my ability to demonstrate the love of Christ. He didn’t say, «Bill, you’re assigned to a few, you can be mad at the rest.» No, you can’t love this person and hate everyone else. The fact is that whoever He puts before me, I must honor and celebrate.
We have this responsibility that Jesus said: the Ecclesia—the two or three people who work down at such and such grocery store—when they take their lunch break together, and they come together in Jesus' name, they have this predetermined idea. They will partner for the invasion of God’s blessing and presence upon this business.
The question isn’t about ownership; it’s about being God’s representatives in that place. The government of God is resting upon the two or three, but not just the government—the Governor. The one who runs the government is with us as we gather. If we had heightened awareness of purpose and the reality of presence, we would live, think, and pray differently.
Our decrees would be much more intentional. Our pronouncements, our prophetic words, would be much more anchored in faith that sees a possible outcome. Paul in Romans 12 talks about people who would prophesy «according to their faith.» Faith should guide the prophetic. By faith, I see what isn’t naturally visible; I am perceiving something that isn’t yet present but is about to be because I’m about to speak it.
You take the Ecclesia; you take the two or three—maybe it’s a husband and wife in our homes. I encourage you; Ed has a Facebook page. It’s not about his ministry; it’s simply called Ecclesia Everywhere, and there will eventually be a website. You just sign up and say, «My house is an Ecclesia; my place of business is an Ecclesia.» Let them know that thousands upon thousands of us—hopefully over a million—are scattered all over this nation saying, «We’re tired of allowing the enemy to have his way. We are here representing another world. God, Himself, the Governor of that world, is here present with me.»
He says that if we connect our hearts to Him and let His words fill our souls until we think what He thinks, want what He wants, and dream what He dreams as His abiding presence influences our conscious and unconscious mind, we can ask anything. Remember, as a majority—gathered in His name—the gates of Hades, known for killing, stealing, and destroying, hold no contest.
We often become overwhelmed and impressed by the success of the powers of darkness, not realizing that all it takes is two or three. Think of all the movements destroying our world, thousands and sometimes millions of people. But just two or three together with God changes everything.
When God is present, anything can happen to shift the focus or direction of an entire nation’s flow of life. We’ve known about or talked about some of these things for years. So today, what I want to do is offer an altar call—not one where you come forward, but one where you acknowledge: my house is an altar. My wife and I, our kids, we are an Ecclesia. We have made a covenant before God that we will learn to recognize His presence and flow from that. My dream is to dream what He dreams; my passion is to think what He thinks.
Do you remember that passage in Romans 8 that says, «All things work together for good»? Yes? If you don’t, read your Bible: «All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.» That’s a great passage. Right before that, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us; right after that, Jesus intercedes for us. That’s why all things work together for good; learning what they are praying is key to our ongoing, continuous breakthroughs in prayer.
It’s supposed to be that the will of God invades earth because we pray. So, don’t just stand there. I know there are people participating with us online. I love the fact that many join us who are not a part of the Bethel family. We’re just glad you’re here. We have people all over the world who consider themselves part of the Bethel tribe, the Bethel family. We’re honored to join with you in any way we can.
There are many who, for whatever reason, may have stumbled across us on YouTube or Bethel TV, and you are acutely aware of your need for God. I believe that the Lord Jesus Himself set the stage for you to step into life today, just requiring simple faith—the measure of faith that everyone has been given according to Scripture. That faith would be placed in Jesus Christ as Lord and absolute Savior.
We have pastors online ready to talk and pray with anyone who simply writes in the chat box, «I want to know Jesus; I want to be forgiven of sin; I want to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus.» You were born for something much more significant than what you have known up to this point. I remember many years ago when one of our dear friends in Weaverville, Buck Steele—a great man with an unusual grace upon his life—prophetically stated that someone from a particular city in our county, Trinity County, would be saved and become key to reaching many people in that city.
He prophesied this while at our office when we received a call from the sheriff’s department about a man in the cell who had just tried to kill himself. Buck, never one to resist a chance to lead someone to Christ, went down to pray for him. He found out this man was from the city Buck had just prophesied about, and he was chosen for such a time. Suddenly, a man who attempted to kill himself realized he had purpose.
He had a reason for being alive. He could have a relationship with God and be used to impact an entire city. When you find purpose, you don’t want to end your life; you want to start living your life, and that’s exactly what anyone watching right now and everyone in this room needs to do. It’s engaging with Divine Purpose; there is nothing greater than that.
I encourage you to reach out in the chat box, ask for help, because there are people who would love and care for you. Father, I ask that there would be an impartation—a realization of Your presence. Second, that in discovering Your manifest presence upon us, we would come to know more and more Your thoughts, Your heart, Your mood, and how You feel about different things. May this partnership with the Almighty God and the two or three gathered in His name see an outpouring of Your will upon the earth in ways we never thought possible. Incorporate us into Your last days plan to demonstrate the presence, power, and government of God into every aspect of society. I pray this in Jesus' wonderful and mighty name. Amen.