Bill Johnson - The Priority of the Presence of God
Thank you! Wow, that’s a whole bunch of stuff going on; no wonder I’m tired. Um, I caught this little picture before the first service here at College View this morning. It’s kind of a strange picture, but I’m going to go with it. Again, anyone who suffers from migraine headaches, stand if you would. Migraines, yeah? I want all of you to just make this decree with me. I actually saw this little picture at the beginning of worship this morning. So, what I want you to do is just say this with me: «My history with migraines is erased today.» All right, let’s say it together: «My history with migraines is erased today, in Jesus' name.» Amen. Amen. Go ahead and be seated. Give us the report, and we’ve had so many extraordinary things happen through the years, and I just saw that picture, so I wanted to go with it.
If you want to take a nap while the kids are home, just say, «Wake me up in 30 minutes so we can clean the house.» Be sure to bring up politics at Thanksgiving dinner; it’s going to save you a lot of money for Christmas gifts. I got gas today for $1.39. Unfortunately, was that Taco Bell? The Message Bible says, «Mama, I’m hungry.» The Amplified says, «Mommy, I am hungry, famished, starving.» The King James Version says, «Henceforth, let it be known unto thee, birth giver, that my belly consists of emptiness.» And one more, this one is just a brain teaser, and I don’t get it. So, suppose you marry a widow who already has a grown-up daughter, and your father marries the widow’s grown-up daughter. Now the widow’s daughter becomes your mother since your mother’s mother is your wife; your wife is also your grandmother. As the husband of your grandmother, you become your own grandpa. I guess that’s accurate. I don’t know how that works, but I’ll let you figure that one out.
Open your Bibles to Psalms 27. I don’t know if I should apologize for that or maybe the Taco Bell one; I’m sure I owe an apology for something. One of the things that is part of my routine in life is that anytime I have a troubling situation—whether it be personal or corporate, national, or whatever it is—I always try to have my initial response be to run to Scripture and read until He talks to me. Literally, my hiding place, my place of safety, my place of refuge, my place of personal strengthening is in the Word. And it’s not a five-minute process; it’s where I try to anchor into what God is saying. I pray over it; I meditate on it. Literally, I wake up in the night quoting it, depending on the situation I’m in. So, I’ve done this for quite a few years. I actually had a pretty rough situation maybe 12 or 13 years ago, and I remember reading Psalms 25 through 35—so 11 Psalms—over and over again, and they seemed to feed me so much; they encouraged me so much. Whenever you find what the Lord is anointing, you find what He’s thinking, and you also become equipped with how to pray. We’re not idle observers of the will of God; we’re participants, co-laborers in seeing His heart manifest.
So anyway, I was reviewing these Psalms this last week; actually, the last, goodness, six to eight months, I’ve been going over them repeatedly, and I felt really touched by the Lord about something in the 27th Psalm. So, we’re going to look at that for a few minutes today. I was deeply moved, and in our senior leadership meeting this week, I shared with them what I was thinking and seeing as well. So, I’ll share that with you today.
David is the author of that particular Psalm, and I want you to picture David as, of course, the king of the most powerful nation on the planet at the time. We know him as an incredible warrior. If I understand correctly, Israel did not inherit all of the promised land they were supposed to under Joshua’s leadership or the following leaders. It wasn’t until David that they actually stepped fully into what God had promised them. This military strength that David had is not highly valued today; we hate war so much as a culture, as violence. But in that particular day, it was literally what made them as a nation. So here David is, a brilliant strategist, a brilliant warrior. He actually attracted guys to surround him—400 at first. They were just kind of the rejects of society; they didn’t fit anywhere, they had issues in their personal lives, etc. But they rallied around David. We don’t know what his training process was, but somehow these guys, who were the rejects of society, became this elite group of warriors. So much so that one particular soldier by himself could kill 800 enemy soldiers. We’re talking about a supernatural gift of military strength, and all of that was raised up under David.
So, David is a brilliant military strategist, but what made him a brilliant military strategist is that he knew how to hear from God. There was his gifting and God’s voice. God likes it that way. He can do it all Himself, but He has chosen to raise up people. David was one who was able to hear from the Lord what to do, when, and how. As a result, he became this amazing military leader for Israel. We know that Solomon built this Temple for the Lord, probably the most extravagant building ever built in all of time, but it was actually David’s resources that helped to build that building. It was David’s generosity, his gold, his gems—everything. David actually set aside for the building. Solomon was also very generous, but David is the one who paved the way for that building.
In a kind of strange analogy, perhaps David was kind of like the Elon Musk of his day, in resources and ingenuity. He was a creative genius. Here’s this military leader, from the boy who kills Goliath to this military genius; he was also equally a genius in music. He was an inventor of musical instruments; that’s no small task! He actually created his own instruments. He wrote music that has lasted through the ages, recorded in Scripture. God celebrated his writing enough to say, «Hey, that’s got to be in the book,» and so it came into the final copy, made it through all the edits, and it’s here in this book we’re going to read one of them. They are life-changing lyrics out of a revelation of the heart and nature of God.
Come on! One of the greatest things ever accomplished is that. So here’s David, this military leader; he’s creative; he’s the wealthiest man on the planet; he’s got resources. The more resources you have—whether it’s people, money, title, position—all of these things increase your options. So if you’re poor and you have a problem, if you’re poor in favor, poor in title, poor in position, poor with money, you have very few options. But when you have unlimited resources, you now have a billion options that your neighbor doesn’t have, just simply because of your resources.
I make that point because of this: what happens sometimes when we’re powerful, when we increase in resource, increase in opportunity, we actually use our power to get rid of some of the things that God actually put in our lives to refine us. Not every door that God opens are you supposed to go through. Some are just there to see whether or not you will embrace the excellence of the kingdom—integrity over personal gain, personal benefit. Here’s David, and he’s got the billion options in life. There are some scholars that think this Psalm could have been written when Absalom raised up against his own father. Absalom was David’s son who tried to do a coup and get rid of David. When one king replaces another king, they usually kill that king. So can you imagine the betrayal, the heartache, of having your own son work to dethrone you and all that consternation, that conflict of soul?
So here’s David in this position, and he’s reduced his billion options down to only one important thing. I’m not sure how I can better paint the picture than to say this is what happened. He had a billion options. In verse four of Psalms 27, he says, «One thing I have desired of the Lord; that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His Temple.» When I talk like this, especially if I’m in school or some class where there’s interaction, almost always there will be a follow-up question of, «But practically, what should we do?» This is practical! You can’t get more practical than dwelling in the manifest presence of the glory of God. It doesn’t mean there are no other actions; it’s just they follow this. There’s something about taking all your options and reducing them to one thing and saying, «You know what? I will live and die on this mountain.»
One thing I have chosen is to dwell in the house of the Lord. He’s not talking about coming to church; he’s not talking about going into some facility. He’s talking about living in the presence of God, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. Why? Because I want to behold Him. If I can see Him, then everything else I see is put in place. If I don’t see Him, I’ll be suckered into the inferior; I will find things appealing that shouldn’t be appealing at all. The moment I’ve caught a glimpse of Him, once my heart has exploded with an awareness of His heart, His face, His nature towards me—everything else falls into place.
We are a people who emphasize the presence of the Lord constantly, and I believe it’s truly our value system. We live—in fact, I’m going to walk down, so if you could turn this mic off for a moment so I don’t kill people. There we go. All right, so we live with a value of the presence of the Lord. Now, at this very moment, I’m very aware that Chris is here; I recognize his presence. I value him being here, but there’s a difference between my awareness of his presence and my awareness of his face. There’s a difference. It’s a refined focus; it’s something more than consciousness of God. It’s locking into the One who has called me to Himself. That’s different.
What He says here, He says: «I want to dwell in this house of the Lord to behold Him.» Later in this particular Psalm—in fact, let’s look at it now—He says in verse 8, «You said, 'Seek my face.' My heart said to You, 'Your face, Lord, I will seek.'» I want you to see this particular Psalm in this way. Look at verse three: «Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; the war may rise against me; in this, I will be confident.» One thing I have desired of the Lord. What’s the point? The point is this one-thing decision is in the middle of intense conflict, in the middle of intense distraction. Moments like this are when we’re scrambling for options. Oh, if only I could do that; if only I could write a check for this; if only I could call this person; if only—oh, if only somebody would help me get this reconciliation to happen. Whatever—it’s a long list of things that need to be done. Yes! But this impresses me so much because the guy who has the unlimited resources to take care of his own son, should he need to relieve the pressure he experiences, chooses not to do that. He chooses not to get rid of King Saul, who’s chasing him around the countryside for 13 years.
He has the ability and the God-given opportunity to remove that problem; he does not do so. Instead, he refines his values down to this one thing—one thing, one thing I ask of the Lord: there’s one thing that I seek. I’ve reduced it to this: to dwell in the house of the Lord, to behold His beauty, and to inquire in His temple. I want the presence of God to shape what I see and then to shape how I pray.
At the end of the Psalm, in fact, why don’t you go with me to verse 13? We’ll read 13 and 14: «I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; be of good courage; He will strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.» Verse 13 is important for me. I would have lost heart. David is now, it’s like he’s confessing to us; he’s saying, «I know me. I would have been depressed; I’d have given up; I would have thrown in the towel unless I had this one thing going for me: I expected to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.» I anticipated, and I expected—this one thing kept me out of the ditch; this one thing kept me out of the hole; this one thing kept me out of this place where I’d be in this constant emotional mental battle that I wasn’t equipped to win; this one thing—it was my anticipation of seeing the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. What he saw in the temple was to affect what he saw in the land of the living. It was beholding Him that changes everything.
It is practical; that’s good. It is practical. When I wrote the book «Face to Face with God,» I had to look it up to see where I had written about this waiting on God, and I found two words. This one here—waiting on God in Psalms 27—is also used in Psalms 37. But there’s a second word, so I’m going to give you these two words to illustrate something. First of all, this particular word to wait on God in Psalms 27 can be translated to lie in wait or to set an ambush. Oftentimes we think of waiting on God completely differently than the Bible teaches—completely different! It is not a passive stillness; it is a posture of anticipation. It carries with it a certain expectancy. I believe by the nature of waiting on God, it is driven by hope, because hope is the joyful anticipation of good. So there’s this issue of hope that is the backbone of this kind of waiting. I’m not waiting, hoping that maybe, perhaps, God will show up. I am waiting in anticipation because it could happen at any moment, in any different way. It’s an expectation that is driving this waiting—to lie in wait, to set an ambush.
If you’re going to hunt deer, for taking pictures, of course, you probably won’t go to Wall Street hoping to see one. You probably won’t go to the middle of the ocean; you’ll go to where they are. And when you’re ambushing the Lord—now listen carefully to me. I get it; He’s everywhere. But there are some places where He is more. He says, «When you search for me with all your heart, I will be found of you.» He told His own disciples in John 14, «I will manifest Myself to you,» which means I will make Myself conspicuous. I’ll make sure that I jump in the middle of the road you’re walking down when you’re looking for Me. I’m going to make sure I’m the one you run into. So it’s not a violation of sovereignty; it’s actually cooperating with His predetermined plan. I will be found of you. People are criticized all the time for going to different places around the world where they hear God’s doing something extraordinary; that’s wisdom! That’s called waiting on God. Yes, it is! It’s called waiting on God. I’m going to cross town; I’m going to go across the country. I’ve gone all over the world just because I’ve heard what God is doing in different places. It’s just what you do. Some of you are here for that reason.
But the other word is so fascinating. In fact, let me just read it to you out of what I wrote. The Hebrew word for waiting patiently is used in the Bible 53 times; four times it is defined as waiting patiently or to wait. Waiting 49 times, it is defined as writhing in pain, as in childbirth, or whirling in the air, as in a dance. Forty-nine out of 53 times, it is writhing in pain. That’s waiting: writhing in pain as in childbirth or whirling in the dance. Strange words until you realize I was present for all three of my children’s births. Benny was also there. I will never forget when Leah was born. We were actually at a doctor’s office, but it was a house, and he wasn’t there; our midwife was there. There were a whole bunch of people in the back room, and Benny was there, and I was her coach, as I had been with the previous two. She was in the middle of a contraction, and I made the mistake of turning my attention somewhere else in the room. This death grip on my arm reminded me there’s only one person that means anything in the world to me at this moment: my wife. I repented so fast! I got right back and helped her with the breathing. Why? Because you’re writhing in pain. It’s honestly their intense focus that enables them to endure that horrible pain.
Intense focus—what about whirling in the dance? When you’re in the air, you want to know where you’re going to land, and it also requires intense focus. What is this waiting on the Lord? It’s that intense focus. When you refine what you’re willing to consider, you reduce your options down to that one thing, which is what David did: one thing I’ve desired of the Lord. When you make that decision, you refine your focus. The more you refine your focus, the more you can see.
Waiting—waiting on the Lord. In recent days—by recent days, I mean the last year plus—I’ve been awakened in the night a number of more times than I’d like to count, you know. And I generally do one of three things. I will usually either take one of the Scriptures—anything the Lord brings to mind, but specifically that section of Scriptures, Psalms 25 through 35. I’ll take some of those verses and just begin to quote them. I oftentimes will just turn my heart towards the Holy Spirit, who is with me, and in that place of adoration, in that place of affection, His presence begins to manifest. Something I started doing maybe a year ago, in the middle of the night, I just started quoting what we refer to as the Lord’s Prayer—the disciples' prayer, the prayer that He taught us to pray. I’m not even sure why. I mean, I think it’s always a good prayer. I don’t think He taught it for us to memorize and pray, but it creates biblical prayer boundaries for me in my thinking. I will lay there in the middle of the night and just start praying, «Our Father.» Sometimes I’ll pause on each phrase and kind of expand, «God, You’re our Father; You’re not just my Father. I pray this for my whole household. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed, revered, celebrated is Your name. Your kingdom come; Your will be done.» It’s Your heart. It was always Your plan to let Your world influence this one, and I’m in agreement with You saying, «God, that Your will be done here in my home, in my body, in my family, in my city, in this church; Your will be done just like it is in heaven.»
«Give us this day our daily bread; let us not lack in anything; let the abundance of Your kingdom be seen and measurable in everything we say, everything we do. Yes, give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts. God, we need forgiveness constantly, and we determine to forgive others, so forgive us as we forgive others. Lead us not into temptation; God, You know where we’re weak; You would never want to make us stumble. But You also know the things that are appealing to me; this shouldn’t be. So protect me from situations where I would have undue pressure on my decision-making. Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from the evil one; because it’s Your kingdom, it’s Your power, and it’s Your glory forever. Amen.»
In the middle of the night, what happens more times than not is I go back to sleep somewhere between «Our Father» and «Yours is the kingdom.» But the point is, we were created to be a house of God; we were designed, we’re actually designed to host and to carry the presence of the Spirit of God. So when David prays this prayer, «God, one thing I’ve desired,» he’s actually defining the fact that this is what we were born for. Yes, there are many things we get to do; there are decisions we get to create; we get to build; we get to do all these things, but it all comes out of this one place—this one place of habitation, this one place of abiding, this one place of connection with the Holy Spirit.
And so Father, that’s what I pray. I pray that for every individual in the room, every household. I feel like there are about to be anointings released over households—it will not be just individuals that have encounters and breakthroughs, but there will be a sense of presence that rests over households. Some of you will actually have neighbors come to you because they see something—a glow, something happening over and around your home. They will walk into your house, as we’ve seen happen, walk into your house and have oppression leave their bodies, have different torments leave their minds, because there’s something of God that is about to mark the house of God—this place, yes, but your house as well, yes, yes, yes! And your place of business, the places—all the places that the sole of your foot treads that has been given to you. That we would be a people who carry the mark of presence in every part of society, every part of our city, every part of our culture. I pray this over you; I declare this over you, over me—that our households would be known for the manifest presence of the glory of God. I ask this in Jesus' name.
Thank you. Thank you. It’s important that I ask this one question before I turn it over. If there’s anyone here who has never been what the Bible calls «born again,» you’ve never become a disciple, a follower of Jesus; you don’t know what it is to be forgiven of sin; you don’t know what it is to be completely free of all the torment and issues that you’ve faced throughout your life—you don’t know what that is, but you want to—then I want you, just where you are, to put your hand up. By doing so, you’re saying, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know I have found peace with God—until I know what it is to be forgiven of sin.» If that’s you, put a hand up high and wave it at me so I can see you. Anyway, right over here? Yeah, wonderful, wonderful! Thank you, wonderful! Anyone else? Real quick? All right! I want to ask all of you to stand if you would. Hold your places. I’m going to ask for this one—if there’s anybody that I missed, come right over here. We have a team of people that I just want to be able to talk with you and pray with you. So if you have a friend that raised their hand, walk them down; just encourage them. Come on down for prayer. I would like to have the ministry team come to the front real quickly right now, and then Tom, come and help us out, would you?