Bill Johnson - When Your Opposition Nourishes You
So the Lord takes that which was thrown your way and He says, «Alright, I am going to put in the purpose of this giant the food that you will need for the next season.» Now change the way you think; change your perspective on reality. Why? Because if you don’t, you’ll just see the giant; you won’t see dinner. According to a news report, a certain private Catholic school recently faced a unique problem: a number of young ladies were starting to wear lipstick, which wasn’t the problem. However, they would press their lips against the mirror in the girls' bathroom, and it was a hassle to clean.
So, Sister Mary, the principal, talked to them about not doing that, but it just didn’t slow down. They continued to press their lips against the mirror, so she decided to have a meeting with all the young ladies in the girls' bathroom. They all crowded in there with the janitor, and she began to talk to them about how hard it was to clean those mirrors. To illustrate how difficult it was, she turned to the janitor and said, «Would you please demonstrate how hard it is to clean the lipstick off the mirror?» He took the long-handled squeegee, dipped it into the toilet, and he cleaned the mirror. They have never had another lipstick print on the mirror since then. That’s what you call an educator right there.
Jesus came to Earth commissioned by the Father. For clarity’s sake, Jesus Christ is the Eternal Son of God; He never stopped being God. He’s not an ascended being that somehow attained a certain position; He is the Eternal Son of God. The great mystery of Scripture is that He was 100% God while at the same time He became 100% man. If you can figure that out, please explain it to me. It’s the great challenge in conversation and teaching, but both realities are equally true. Jesus came to Earth having been commissioned from the Father.
1 John 3:8 tells us what the commission was; it says He came to destroy the works of the evil one. Yes, Planet Earth had been infected with the devil and the demonic horde that helped to bring about absolute chaos, loss, death, and destruction into the Earth. Jesus came to correct and destroy the devil’s works. The authority that He operated in was connected to His commission. Chris puts it best; he says you can’t be commissioned. Co- would be like co-laboring. You can’t be commissioned until you come into submission to the primary mission. Jesus came with the mission of the Father and exercised the authority of Heaven as a human being. A policeman has authority, but he doesn’t have authority to build a house without a permit. There are a number of political positions where maybe somebody has authority in economics or has authority in housing or whatever— they can’t step outside; they don’t have authority outside of their assignment, outside of their mission. You and I have authority.
Jesus, after His resurrection, stood before His 11 remaining disciples and through them, through all of humanity who would say yes to Jesus, He said, «All authority has been given to me; therefore, go into all the world, preach the gospel, disciple nations, and teach them what I taught you.» Part of what He taught them was Matthew 10: to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. That’s a part of the commission, yes. So it says, «Teach them what I taught you.» Then He closes with this statement: «For I will be with you always.» Jesus then commissioned His disciples.
Now in Luke 9:1 through Matthew 10:8, it says He gave power and authority to His disciples. Jesus came with authority. I don’t believe He came with power; He came with authority because He said yes to the mission. But He didn’t come with power; instead, we see John the Baptist baptizing in water, and he is preaching to the crowd. He said, «There is one coming after me; I’m not even worthy to tie His shoes. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.» And as he’s preaching, he looks up on the banks of the river and sees Jesus. Jesus didn’t have a sign overhead saying, «I am the Christ.» John looks at him. I like to describe it this way: every cell of John’s being came into realization and recognition that that is the Lamb of God. It wasn’t just a passing mental inspirational thought; it was a revelation that impacted the entirety of John’s being. He stopped and said, «Look! Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.» In other words, this is the moment I’ve been waiting for.
Here comes the scariest thing John ever experienced. I’m sure it happened in the moments that followed. Jesus walked up to him and said, «I want you to baptize me.» John knew that his baptism was a baptism of repentance; Jesus had nothing to repent for. He was baptized in what I would call an intercessory role. Intercession is basically to stand in the shoes of another and plead their case as though it were your own. If what’s happening in our nation right now doesn’t make you angry, you may be a part of the problem. Wait, hold on, because you’ve got to catch the next part or that part will get you in trouble and will eventually get me in trouble. If it doesn’t make you angry, you may be part of the problem, either through apathy or through thinking consistent with the evil that’s taking place.
But if that anger takes you to accusation, complaining, and criticism, you’re playing on the devil’s playing field, and you will always lose on his playing field. That’s right. Righteous anger takes you to intercession where it’s not accusation but it’s praying as though it were your issue: «God, forgive us! We have sinned against you! We have exalted standards that You have forbidden. Your law, we have broken all Your laws! God, please heal us and forgive us as a nation.» When we embrace, when we take that righteous anger, if you will, and allow it to drive us into the presence to intercede on behalf of the nation or a leader, whatever it might be, then that anger, if you will— don’t be offended by that— God gets angry, and the Bible commands, «Be angry and sin not.» So what keeps us from sin in anger is that we identify with the people we would be most angry with, and we plead their case in mercy. Does that make any sense to you?
It’s not the message for today; it’s completely free. I won’t charge you for that, but I’ve been wanting to say that for a while. Alright, so Jesus stands in the place of all those who would repent of sin in the years to come. He stands in their place and is baptized in water. John said an interesting thing: «I need to be baptized by you.» What did John just announce about Jesus? «He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.» John was saying, «I need your baptism; you don’t need mine.» John was out of season; he was not in the season where he could be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire because that would not come until after the death of Christ. Of course, John’s death preceded that, which, interestingly, the Bible declares that John was the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets, but the least in the kingdom was greater than John. I would like to suggest that the Holy Spirit baptism gives you access to a reality in God that not even John the Baptist had access to.
Back to the script here. So Jesus gets baptized in water, and when He comes up out of the water, Mark’s gospel, Mark and Luke both—Mark 1 and Luke 3—says the heavens parted. The word used, and I forget which gospel— I believe it’s Luke’s gospel— the word used there for the parting of the clouds is actually a violent term. The same word for parting that is used twice in Matthew 27 describes something that happened in the natural realm after the death of Christ. When He died, it says that the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, from God’s end to man’s. That veil, they say, is 4 to 6 inches thick in fabric, and it was ripped from the top to the bottom. In the same verse, it says, «And the rocks around Jerusalem were torn in half.» So imagine some angel coming down ripping rocks in half. In other words, we’re talking about a violent act; we’re not talking about a gentle breeze separating clouds. The Bible describes the enemy as the prince of the power of the air. I would like to suggest that there’s a figurative thing going on here where when Jesus was baptized in water, there was a rending, a tearing of the heavens, and the Spirit of God came down through that opening, if you will, upon Jesus, in the form of a dove, and remained. He was baptized, if you will, in the Spirit at that point.
The very next chapter is the first time we see Jesus walking in power, so I’d like to suggest Jesus came with authority because He said yes to the mission, but He came with power because of the encounter. Your authority comes in your yes to the commission, but your power comes in the encounter. Jesus gave authority and power to His disciples while they walked with Him, but when He ascended to the right hand of the Father, He told His disciples in Luke 24, which is basically the same encounter or moment where Jesus gives His mission in Matthew 28, so it’s just two different chapters. 24 adds this one element: «Don’t leave Jerusalem until you are clothed with power.» Here’s your authority: «All authority has been given to me; now therefore go.» So here’s the commission. But then in Luke’s gospel, He adds this phrase: «Don’t leave Jerusalem until you are clothed with power.» Power comes in the encounter; authority comes in the commission.
I want you to look— we’re going to change gears a little bit— I want you to look at three very strange verses with me: Numbers 14, Matthew 6, and Psalms 23. Alright, very random, but hopefully, you’ll see at least that they complement each other. Numbers 14— interestingly, this is a fascinating subject. I know I’ve heard Chris and maybe some others touch on this just a little bit in recent months. The Lord rewards maturity with an increase of responsibility, yes. The promised land was not sitting on a beach sipping lemonade for the rest of their lives; the promised land was a place where they actually had to work. Yes, we were actually designed to work. In fact, the very thing happening in our country right now, where people don’t want to work, is actually working against divine purpose. It’s actually working against design. It’s like using a crescent wrench as a hammer. It’ll work; it just wasn’t designed for that. Now, if you’re unable to work for whatever reason, much blessing and grace to you. I believe we’re supposed to care for people who can’t work, but the point is we have a spirit that’s been loosed in the nation today where people are looking for opportunities to not work when actually the fulfillment of our design is found in work.
I feel better about that too; that one’s free as well. That’s alright. Let’s get back here. My assignment today is just to meddle and cause problems, so I’m looking for every opportunity. Israel was given a promised land, and your future is defined by promises in the measure in which we say yes to the promises of God. It is in that measure that we step into the fullness of our desires. The promises of God guarantee a fight between the promise and fulfillment. Now backpedal. Israel, under Moses’s leadership, was looking at the promised land. They knew there was a great, vast inheritance for them. So, he took 12 spies and sent them into the land to spy it out and to bring back a report of what they were about to step into. They came back. Ten of them said, «There are giants in the land; we are like grasshoppers in our sight. We can never win this battle.» Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, came back and said, «This is a done deal; this is a setup by God for our victory.» They came back with great courage, but the ten persuaded the crowd to move in fear.
Now, nobody in the crowd said, «I choose fear.» They all said, «Let’s choose wisdom.» Because fear masquerades as wisdom. The ten spies did not come back with lies; they came back with truth—just not the whole truth. They came back convincing people of something that was inferior to what God has said, and what God has said over your life is what we must feed our hearts on. If we feed our hearts simply on the facts, we will react in fear and never recognize it is fear. We will consider ourselves to be people that move in great wisdom, and I’ll tell you this: if you move in fear, all of your friends—if you live cautiously— your friends will call you wise; you just won’t move many mountains. It takes courage to confront and to face what God has put in front of us.
So here’s some of the dialogue we have from Joshua and Caleb as they literally prophesy. They bring the word of the Lord to a nation to not rebel against the Lord by failing to enter a promise. Let that phrase just run through your mind for a minute: «To not rebel against the Lord by failing to enter a promise.» Alright, verse 9: «Only do not rebel against the Lord. Nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.» Your giant looks different when you believe a promise. So good, look at it again: «Do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread.»
Go to Matthew 6, verse 11: «Give us this day our daily bread.» You say, «Well, that’s torn out of context.» Okay, Psalms 23: «You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.» There are certain spiritual nutrients that you cannot obtain apart from defeating a giant. The meal you are hungry for is in the triumph of the giant you are facing. God has given every one of us an appetite to be strong spiritually, but we want strength for the battle, and He’s saying, «My strength comes from the battle.» «They are our bread.»
We’re not talking about a mental game where we imagine that there is no enemy. I love the honesty of Joshua and Caleb, where they talk openly about the giants; they’re just not impressed by them. And I have found that anytime I am impressed with the size of my problem, it’s because I’ve lost sight of the size of my God. I know that sounds cute, but it’s a reality. Anytime I become impressed with the size of a challenge, I have lost sight of the size of the promise that weighs over my life. And there’s a huge part, some part of our Christian life, that He absolutely does for us—He acts for us; He causes this victory to happen; I didn’t do anything—all I did was show up, and He caused it to happen. He defended me here; He promoted me there; He did— I get that. But there are parts of our Christian walk where the new nutrients we ache for are actually found in the giants we are facing, and it’s changing our perspective—not in mental gymnastics, but changing perspective according to what God says.
What did God say? Joshua and Caleb picked something up; they picked something up from the Lord that this land of giants is lunch. Yes, and when we’re through with lunch, we’ll move on to dinner. This is our food. Yes, Psalms 23 fascinates me for a lot of reasons, obviously, but Psalms 23 fascinates me because he says, «You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.» We’ve gone through this; I know you’ve studied it on your own, I’m sure. But let’s just mentally walk through this very strange setting. God has prepared a table of the richest, most glorious food you will ever eat in your life. How do you think? God’s probably a pretty good cook. So here is this table; the table is a place of nourishment, the table is a place of interaction, of fellowship, of connection.
So here you are on the other side of Jesus, whose eyes are like burning with fire but also with a tenderness of compassion and love you’ve ever seen in your life. His words give you courage to face anything that you could possibly ever face. This interaction with you that we have with Him at this table, so to speak, defines our purpose, our reason for being, our destiny. It’s a life-giving encounter, and here it is in the presence of enemies.
I fear that many people sit at this table day after day after day, rebuking and binding and doing all these things, because they’re preoccupied with the enemy that’s around the table, and they never benefit from the nutrients of the moment. They may come out victorious. They may come out saying, «Well, we took care of that problem, didn’t we?» And yet they’re lacking in the nutrients, or lacking in the very thing that was meant to define their future because they became preoccupied with the devil instead of with the Lord who created a place of intimate fellowship in the middle of a problem.
Once we come to Christ, it doesn’t mean that everything that comes my way is designed by the Lord. I’m facing things right now I know He had no hand in because He gives life, and these things bring death. Yes, He came to give life; the enemy came to kill, steal, and destroy. So if there’s death, loss, and destruction involved, guess what? That’s the devil’s fingerprints; it’s not from the Lord. But here’s the guarantee—all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to His purpose. Something happens in this life in Christ where this unexpected thing that comes my way is redefined. God says, «Alright, I’m turning this into a meal. This thing that was meant to destroy, this is dinner; this is breakfast; this is brunch.»
I don’t know about you, but I love brunch. I love brunch, but they only have them on Sundays, and I’m here all day, all day. So when I’m on vacation, I look for brunch because brunch is where bacon goes to die. What bacon? I know I’m not supposed to eat bacon, but I eat bacon. So the Lord takes that which was thrown your way, and He says, «Alright, I am going to put in the purpose of this giant, I’m going to put in its makeup the food that you’ll need for the next season.» Now repent, which means what? Change the way you think; change your perspective on reality. Why? Because if you don’t, you’ll just see the giant; you won’t see dinner.
I want you to turn with me to Joshua chapter 1, and we’re going to read a portion of Scripture. I think I could say honestly that if I could take the three most important portions of Scripture in the Bible for me in the last 50 years, this would be one of the top three. For me, it’s like a refrigerator; I go to it when I’m hungry; there’s always something in this refrigerator to eat. Joshua chapter 1 feeds my soul. I remind you that Joshua is one of the two that went into the land of promises and came out with a good report. Tragically, Israel could not enter to take the promised land, and every person in the nation died with the exception of Joshua and Caleb because promises give you a reason to live. Promises insulate you from what destroys others; it does not destroy you. Why? Because you have a reason for being alive, and God protected it and honored their faithfulness, honored their faith.
Verse 5: «No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not leave you nor forsake you.» Stop right there. Let’s change this for just a moment. Instead of Moses, let’s put Jesus in there, and let’s read this to you because that actually is the reality of the New Testament: «No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life, for as I was with Jesus, so I will be with you; I will not leave you nor forsake you.» Do you know that that is absolutely true? Do you know that the promises given to the Son, Jesus, have been given to you? Do you know that Jesus said, «All things the Father has are Mine; I give them to you»? All things— the entire realm of sonship that was upon Jesus, He passed on to you and to me; it’s called grace. None of us could ever earn that; we could never jump through enough hoops to get that. It was a gift; it was a gift of God.
Verse 6: «Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.» Do you understand your obedience positions you to redistribute the inheritance of God to many others? All those under your influence come into promotion and blessing because of your yes. If you don’t see that, you’re not thinking right. Hello, Bethel TV online community, bless you. If you don’t see that, you’re not thinking right. So I wanted to welcome you into this joyful experience that we’re having here.
Verse 7: «Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you.» I realize we’re not under the law of Moses, but we are under the law of love, and in the law of love, we find the capacity to obey everything Jesus said to do: «Do not turn from it to the right hand or the left that you may prosper wherever you go.» This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate in it day and night. Stop right there. If you want to impact what you think about, change what you talk about. «This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success.» You will make your way prosperous.
Many believers are waiting for the Lord to make their way prosperous. Can you imagine a farmer planting ten acres of corn and being angry because he didn’t harvest a hundred? That was really good, Bill; if I were you, I would try it again; it was worth trying again. You can’t harvest what you don’t plant. God has given His word to us to use, not in manipulation for self-glory, prosperity, and success. Unfortunately, we usually define those words by society around us. It’s the mansion on the hill; it’s five cars, whatever. We translate prosperity and success in those terms, where biblically, it’s so much richer than that. It may include the nice house and the nice car; it’s never the point. The point is, in here I am alive, abundantly alive. My relationships are healthy; I complete who they are; they complete who I am. Our family life is creating a sense of destiny and purpose; there is a momentum in the generations because of our yes. My friendships— I have people around me that would take a bullet for me, and I would take a bullet for them. I like that little joke I saw a while back that says, «I would take a bullet for you; not in the head, but maybe like in the leg or something.» I thought that was funny.
I’m sorry; poor sense of humor. Alright, success and prosperity involve possessions but are never the focus; it’s the abundance of the heart. What would it be like to be prosperous in your mind? I can tell you what it is. It’s creative thinking, creative thinking. We need a whole generation of creative thinkers. God has a solution for every problem on the planet. He would love it if the people that become so preoccupied with the fear of failure would actually start asking the question, «God, how can we solve this problem?»
Verse 9: «Have I not commanded you? Be strong.» I don’t know; I’m picking up this idea that maybe we should be strong. «Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.» That last phrase is critical. Years ago, I did a study where I tried to find every place where the Lord said He would be with somebody. We see it with Moses; the Lord says, «I’m going to be with you.» We see it with Gideon; he’s facing a crazy, insurmountable task with this army; he’s got 300 soldiers— the Lord says, «I will be with you.» We see it all through the Scriptures; we see it with the prophets and with different ones who were put in these positions. The Lord says, «I will be with you.»
We see it in the Great Commission, Matthew 28:19 and 20: «Go into all the world, and I will be with you always.» The point is every time I could find that God revealed that He was with an individual or with a group of people, it was always connected to their impossible assignment. He revealed His presence because He told them to do something they could not do. Let’s rephrase that. We sing the song, «I love Your presence,» and we do; we love the presence of the Lord. But the manifestation of the presence of God is the guarantee you’ve been assigned to the impossible. He could comfort us in many ways, but it’s more than just His presence to comfort me; it is to equip and enable me to confront things that Jesus would confront if He were in these shoes. He says, «Be strong and courageous.»
Do you understand that He would never command me to be strong if it wasn’t within reach? In other words, if my will— if I could not will my way into it, then it would be a cruel command. He didn’t say, «Feel courageous.» He didn’t say, «Hover till you feel strong.» He said, «Just be it. Be strong.» Yes. Now, if God is commanding me to do something that is the product of ten years of obedience, then it’s a cruel command. See, I’m in trouble right now; I’ve got a problem right now, and He comes to us with a command: «Be strong and don’t fear; be courageous; do not be dismayed.» Why? Because I’m with you. For me, the implication is if I am overwhelmed by the size of my problem, I have lost sight of the presence of God and His promise that prevails over my life.
That’s what helped the ten spies to not lie, but to emphasize the size of the giants, the size of the problem. It wasn’t a lie; they just described that problem without the prevailing word of God over their lives and without the abiding, manifested presence that was visibly seen among them every day of their lives in the wilderness. The visible manifestation of the glory of God was the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. It was there day after day after day after day, but they didn’t remember that when they got into the promised land and saw giants. They saw big people instead of a big God.
I’ve told you in recent weeks that most of us, our miracle or breakthrough begins the moment we stop being impressed by the size of our problem. That’s right. Many people define themselves by the size of the problem. «Oh, it’s been rough.» And I don’t mean we shouldn’t share and pray with each other; I get that. So I know this could be misapplied, but it’s worth the risk. If I get some of you to apply it, it will be good. Your giant is your next meal. Yes. «Give us this day our daily bread.» God, create the table in such a way that I am so overwhelmed by who’s at the table and what you put there for me to eat that I never again become impressed with the enemy who is watching.
One of my most favorite verses of all is in Acts 10:38, and I, just about any time I see a digital clock that says 10:38, I pause in my heart and acknowledge the reality of Acts 10:38— one of the most important Scriptures for my life. It’s where He says, «God was with Jesus, and He anointed Him to heal every disease and to destroy all the powers of hell that He ran into because God was with Him.» It says Jesus went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Listen to this phrase: «For God was with Him.» The very fact that the presence of God was manifested with Him emphasizes the role He had. He had the presence of God with Him. Yes. Why? Because He’s looking for a generation that will say an equal yes and look at the giant and say, «You are my dinner! You are my dinner!»
Well, I don’t want to make the devil mad. He’s already mad. You are my dinner. Watch—just stand. Just pretend with me that the biggest giant you’re facing is standing right in front of you. Maybe you don’t have any; you can borrow your neighbor’s giant. Just wow! I want you to say this with me: «You are my bread. You are my bread. You are my bread.» Now say it like you actually believe it: «You are my bread.»
Father, I’m asking for that supernatural gift of courage, the supernatural gift of perception, where we see things as You see them, not as the enemy wants us to see them. Yes, that we actually see the meal that is the reward of this next victory. We long, we hunger to see the enemies of our lives bend their knee to the name of Jesus through our lips. We want to see the impossibilities of life bow to the authority of Jesus that He’s imparted to us. We pray for this, God. I pray for everybody in this room that there would be an unusual ability to interpret giant dinner. To be able to interpret the enemy surrounds me—there must be a meal somewhere; there must be a meal somewhere.
Holy Spirit, we look to ask that You would literally rest upon every person in this room in such a profound way that we never— this is hard to even imagine— but we never again become impressed with the size of a problem. Let us see through the eyes of Jesus now. That any movement around, give me just a moment here—the most important moment of this day is this one. I know with the crowd this size, quite possibly online or in the room, there are people here that do not have a personal relationship with Jesus. You’ve never surrendered your life to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus. The Bible calls it being born again. It’s where we receive Him, and there’s a transformation that takes place from the inside out: forgiveness of sin, brought into His family. That is available to everybody in this room. All those watching online—if you’re online, put it in the chat box. We’ve got staff on there that are ready to talk to you and to pray with you. Just say, «I’m receiving Jesus.»
If there’s anybody in the room that would just say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building till I know I’m right with God, I’m at a place of peace with God, I’m forgiven of sin, I’m part of His family.» If that’s you, then just put a hand up right where you are. Just do it real quickly; put your hand up for that reason. Right back here, I see one. Alright, wonderful. Anybody else? Put your hand up quickly. Right back over here is another one. Yeah, beautiful. Anybody else? Wave your hand at me if I missed you. Yeah, I see this one here and that one there. Is there anybody else? Alright, beautiful. You guys help.
Okay, what I want to ask is there are at least two that put their hands up. Do me and yourself a favor: just walk up here real quickly because I have friends that I know and trust. I want to talk and pray with you, so just come on down real quick. If your friend raised their hand, walk down with them; just come on down. Yeah, bless them; come on down. Bless the Lord. These guys here are going to talk with you. Praise! Come on. Bless you. Come on. Yeah, go ahead; you guys just take them to the side and pray and talk with them. Extend your hand towards them and just pray, «God, give them more than they ever thought was possible.» Just let them be filled with the Holy Spirit even right now that all the torment, the stuff that’s been on their lives would be broken off. Just pray that right now; pray that over them. Just pray out loud; pray for them right now to encounter the Lord.