Bill Johnson - Why It's Important to Praise God in Difficult Times
Good morning, teacher! It’s good to see you. We had such a wonderful conference this week, the Open Heavens Conference. How many of you were a part of it? Yes, we had such a great time; we just got wrecked, and it was worth it. It was great fun. I will drink you under the table, that’s what I whisper to my coffee as I hide from morning people. That’s so dumb. This one’s even worse: Jesus can walk on water; I can walk on cucumbers. Cucumbers are 96% water; therefore, I am 96% like Jesus. That’s really dope. That’s really dope. That’s so bad; it’s funny. Alright, last one: If you see me talking to myself, please go away. I’m self-employed, and I’m having a staff meeting.
Open your Bibles, if you would, please, to Isaiah chapter 60, a very familiar portion of Scripture for us. I’ve taught on it so many times, but I’m going there today because I had a very strange night and an unusual experience with the Lord in the middle of the night. Excuse me; I have some water here. You can’t know the brand; this is Bethel brand sparkling water. There we go.
I had a very unusual experience around 1:00 AM this morning. I had this phrase going through my mind, and then what seemed to be like a hundred different Scriptures. I mean, it was a whirlwind of mental activity, which is not good for me in the middle of the night. I can hurt myself doing that. However, I believe it was a God moment, a divine moment. I had so many Scriptures going through my mind, concepts, ideas; things that I felt He was impressing on my heart and showing me. Thankfully, it only lasted about an hour, and I was able to go back to sleep until it was time to get up.
This is the phrase I heard, and then we’re going to unpack it. I’m going to walk you through this little journey. I heard this phrase; it’s kind of strange: «Walled cities without gates are not completely safe.» Say it with me: «Walled cities without gates are not completely safe.» We’ll get to that in a moment.
Isaiah 60 has been such a monumental portion of Scripture for me. I had what I refer to as one of the two most significant encounters I’ve had with the Lord in my life. This one was on a Thursday afternoon in May of 1979. It has affected every day since then because it changed how I thought. It was an encounter with the Lord where He showed me His heart in this chapter, and it wrecked me.
In verse one, He says, «Arise, shine, for your light has come; the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.» This tells me that this chapter, at least this portion of the chapter, is for the church—it’s for the church age. The reason we know that is that it says, «Arise, take responsibility, get up, shine.» Why? Because your light has come. In John chapter 1, it says Jesus is the light that enlightens every person that comes into the world. Jesus is the light that enlightens every person.
The reason I believe this is for the church age right now is that there is not another light coming. Jesus is the light that came. So, that means His coming automatically ignites in me a responsibility to carry out the mandate in this chapter: «Arise, shine; your light has come; the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.» It goes on, «For behold, darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.»
It’s a wonderful promise that, in times of difficulty, the grace of God often exceeds the difficulty and the light shines where sin abounds. Grace does much more abound, yes. So, we know that the Lord will sometimes move on the scene when things look the worst, and He reverses the effects of it. God is then glorified; it’s not darkness and light coexisting; rather, one is openly defeated.
We have that part of this chapter. Verse three is a favorite of mine. The New American Standard says, «Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.» The reason that moves me so deeply is that this has only happened one time in history that I know of—it was during Solomon’s reign as king. He was so famous, if you can use that term; he had such an incredible reputation for divine wisdom that people would pay any price to leave where they were, to sit at his feet and to learn wisdom.
As Bobby Connor would say, «It’s not about somebody; it’s about His body.» This is about to happen, where the nations will literally feed on the solutions of God for the turmoil and difficulties and challenges of life. They will come, not to an individual, but to the people of God who walk in this kind of wisdom. So this really moves me.
But when you get down to verse 18, it was the last part that I remember reading where I really got wrecked on that Thursday afternoon in 1979. The last part of verse 18 says, «You will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.» You will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise. Salvation is His part; praise is mine.
There’s a co-laboring here in this metaphoric wall and gates that God is describing. There is a role that God has; He saves me—I cannot save myself. But my response is a response of praise. He says your walls will be called salvation, your gates praise. Interestingly, if you follow this theme in Isaiah 60, by the time you get to chapter 62, which is only about 15 or 20 verses later, He says, «And your wall, that wall of salvation, will be like a torch that is burning.»
I love Bible descriptions because they challenge me. Here we are, working with walls that have now become fire. I’m reminded of what the Lord said in Zechariah: «I will be a wall of fire around you.» The wall of fire around us is our salvation. It’s a beautiful picture, but there’s still a personal responsibility and a personal mandate—that is, the gates of praise.
When you get to Revelation chapter 21, you guys still breathing? Everybody still alive? Alright, hopefully, this will make sense here soon. When you get to Revelation 21, verse 21, it says, «The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and each individual gate was of one pearl; and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.» This is a very strange city; it’s a very strange wall where you have streets that are gold but transparent. You have a wall of fire—the wall of salvation—and you have gates that are made out of pearls.
I don’t know how big that gate is—like the size of a building or something. So very strange. But there’s a profound and important picture here for us to catch. Pearls are developed through irritation. Gates of praise are built by responding to difficulty and glorifying God.
Anybody can give Him praise when you get a raise at work, and we should, we must! Anyone can give Him praise when our favorite team wins the NBA Championship or the World Series or whatever. All of us know how to celebrate in those moments. The challenge comes when I face a challenge to my faith—a loss I didn’t foresee or understand. I don’t know why it happened or how it happened. I didn’t do anything wrong, yet this crisis or tragedy hits.
In those moments, to apprehend our moment and to give Him praise in the middle of those—that’s where the gate is built. I must tell you, it’s hard for me to communicate well what I sensed in the middle of the night last night because I don’t want to cause alarm. It wasn’t a warning in a sense of, «Oh no, be careful; what’s happening?» It wasn’t that. My wife sent me a text earlier today to help me with language for something: «Because of what’s coming, we have to make sure we’ve got this area taken care of.»
This m-gate must not have saltwater and sweet water coming out of the same fountain, out of the same spring. It’s a biblical analogy—bitter water and sweet water cannot come out of the same mouth. Excuse me, I’m better now. If God—Psalms 22:3—says God is enthroned upon the praises of His people, then who is enthroned on our complaining? If God is enthroned upon the praises of His people, who then becomes enthroned—can I use the word «empowered"—through my criticism?
The Bible reveals protocol; it’s not ritual, and it’s not routine without purpose; it’s biblical protocol. Psalms 100 says, «I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart; I enter His courts with praise; I enter His presence with praise.» Whose presence do I enter with complaining? What gates open to me when I criticize? It’s not a light matter; it’s not a light matter.
James 5:9 says don’t complain or grumble against one another. Brethren—this is to the church! Brethren is the word in there. And then he follows it with, «Because the judge is standing at the door.» We instinctively know, biblically, that life and death are in the power of the tongue. I get nervous, thankfully. I’m being transparent here; I don’t hear the kind of stuff in this room that I hear elsewhere. I become afraid for the people of God.
Sometimes I’ll listen to someone who will accuse me or us or someone I know of the most horrible things, which I know for a fact are not true. I become fascinated with how they can talk without realizing the Holy Spirit is not involved in what they’re saying. Perhaps they’ve never had the moment in life where they were co-laboring with the Lord, where they could tell something significant was happening that they couldn’t take credit for; it was God working in them and through them.
Maybe they’ve never had that moment, because what they’re saying right now is opposite the nature of Christ. I’ll sit there; I just become fascinated. I wonder how long they can do it without realizing God’s not involved—and it’s not to be mentioned among us. It’s our responsibility for our spring, if you will, this fountain called my speech—to be that which edifies and encourages.
In fact, one of my favorite verses on the subject in the whole Bible is Ephesians 4:29—it’s in that area—saying, «Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.» A friend of mine did a word study on «unwholesome word,» and he said it basically means «rotten fish.» Don’t let rotten fish come out of your mouth. That was his conclusion—it means rotten fish!
So, any time you have something smelly coming out, just shut your mouth. Just shut up! Don’t let rotten fish come out of your mouth. Just choose words that are timely and edifying. I feel like the opportunity the Lord has given us in this season we’re entering is a place of even greater responsibility and influence.
Oh, Jesus put it this way: I put these two together all the time. Jesus said to Peter and the guys—they had left everything to follow Him—He said, «I’m going to add a hundred times as much into your life, with persecution.» So income tax that—that’s how favor works! Income tax. Thankfully, He’s not a socialist, so the income will always be more than the tax.
I usually save my obnoxious statements for the 1:00 meeting, so you guys are very special today. When my dad died 14 years ago, he died at the age of 75 and, in our family, that’s extremely young. His mom lived to 97, and all of our family members—well, the one who was the sickliest just got sick and, in six months, he was gone. He moved here; my mom and dad moved here to help us, to be part of what God was doing.
I remember that anytime you have loss—even if they die at 97—you know there’s pain and loss. Especially for a well-loved family member, as my dad was—a truly noble man, a great, great man. Anytime there’s loss, there’s pain. But when there’s what would seem to me at least a 20-year premature loss like that, to see that happen in front of our eyes as a family, we stayed around him—around his bed—for I think we were there basically nonstop for three days, 72 hours, just being there with him and the little kids and everybody.
I remember when he breathed his last, you have a decision to make. I know you’ve got pain; I’ve got pain. All of a sudden, I’ve got loss—my greatest encourager in my life is gone. I’ve got the pain of loss; I’ve got disappointment. We prayed; we did this; we tried that. It didn’t work; we didn’t get breakthrough. You’ve got the questions. We’ve seen others healed of this kind of disease, but my dad wasn’t.
You’ve got the guilt: Could we have prayed differently? Should we have done this, or should we have called? Whatever—it’s like you go through the list and you’ve got all this stuff going on. I have a decision to make. I can either let these things infect me or I can let the fire in my soul for God bring these things—the disappointment, the loss, the confusion, the pain—all this stuff—and bring it close to the fire so that as I give God my offering, I can give Him an offering with a flavor I’ll never be able to give Him in eternity.
Why? Because in heaven, there’s no pain, there’s no loss, there’s no disappointment, there’s no confusion—none of that junk is there. It’s only here. So, I have a once-in-an-eternity chance to give Him that costly offering, and it’s in pain. So, I take all these ingredients of loss and pain and bring them close to Him so that as I honor Him for always being the healer, the generous promise-giver—the one who is perfectly faithful and true—I can do it in the context of pain.
See, the gates are made out of pearls. Pearls are developed in irritation. They’re developed in conflict. I’m thinking this fervently. There’s a conflict, so I’m going to yield my thoughts to what the Word of God declares and I’m going to give Him an offering. Why? Because the gate is something He comes through.
I don’t think it’s a mixed metaphor here to use it in this manner. Psalms 24 says, «Lift up your heads, O you gates, that the King of Glory may come in.» There’s something welcoming about this. «I trust in You, God, regardless of circumstances. I trust in You, regardless of my disappointment in the turnout of this situation. I trust in You! Bottom line is, You are good. I trust You.»
And I’m going to celebrate ahead of any breakthrough I could possibly have in my future. I’m going to give You that praise right now, and there’s this moment of celebration towards God in declaring His greatness in the middle of pain and loss and all the junk. Why? I read a passage this morning that was quite important to me—Psalms 50. It was in the Passion Translation, and there’s this one verse that says, «Honor Me by trusting in Me in your day of trouble.»
Ah, man! That messed me up when I saw that this morning. «Honor Me by trusting in Me in your day of trouble.» We love to honor Him in song; we love to honor Him with dance, or whatever shout—whatever you know, the stuff we do. But He’s saying, if I can put it in my words, «Let that praise you give Me be in the context that you trust Me in your day of pain, in your day of difficulty.»
In that moment, determined with the focus of a soldier, with the focus of a disciplined soldier—with the focus and intentionality of a Navy SEAL—who says, «Saltwater is not coming out of this mouth.» I am not going to misuse my moment, but instead, I’m going to declare the greatness of God, as much as it may be in conflict with my fears, my ambitions, my disappointments—all this stuff. I’m going to yield all of this to the sovereignty of God, and I’m going to declare His greatness.
The darker the cloud that I feel over my head, the more exuberant I will be in my declaration of praise. The other thing I felt the Lord spoke to me last night—again, you have to understand, I was in a swirl; it’s very hard to describe. I’ve only had this kind of thing happen maybe three times in my life—four times at the most. Yet this one was the most bizarre in a sense that so many Scriptures were coming at me. Usually, it’s one thought, and I just can’t shake it all night. But this was different; it was all these verses, all these statements, all these phrases.
I’m trying to help you feel my pain—that’s all I’m trying to do. Just kidding! In that swirl, I found myself with this conviction that I believe was the Word of the Lord: The key to mental health is giving thanks in every situation. I heard a psychiatrist or psychologist, I forget which now, say years ago that he felt about 95% of all mental illness was traced back to trying to avoid pain.
Giving thanks to God is not denial; giving thanks is letting faith rise above what you can’t understand, comprehend, or control, and chooses to give Him glory in the middle of it. So, the key to mental health is giving thanks in everything. The key to emotional health is rejoicing always. The key to heart health—remember, blessed are the pure in heart; they shall see God. Proverbs 4:23 says, «Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life.»
The key to heart health is to pray without ceasing. So we have this passage in 1 Thessalonians 5, where He says, «Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks.» He actually gave us keys of heaven, if you will, droplets of heavenly reality that get planted deeply in our soul to keep us in a place of continuous emotional, mental, and heart health.
The purity of heart is not a challenge for us. Why? Because we stay connected to the Spirit of God. There’s no off button to my prayer life. There’s no off button. Everything is worth talking about to Him!
So I want you to stand, if you would please. Don’t worry; you’re not getting out that early!
I will give You all my worship; I will give You all my praise. You alone I long to worship; You alone are worthy of my praise. I will give You all my worship; I will give You all my praise. You alone I long to worship; You alone are worthy of my praise.
I want you to take whatever came to your mind when I was talking about giving thanks in the middle of difficulty. I want you to put it in front of you. My dear friend, Dick Mills, who is now at home with the Lord, would sometimes have a problem that was just overwhelming. He’d go into a room, take two chairs, put them facing each other, sit in one, and say, «Devil! Satan! Sit down; I’m going to worship God, and you’re going to watch me.»
I kind of like that approach to life! So, I want you to take whatever situation is the most challenging for you and put it in front of you. Right now, I want us to lift up praises to the Lord. I don’t need anyone shouting or yelling, but I’m also going to ask you not to do this quietly in your heart.
You were designed to reveal who you are through passion before the Lord. So, I’m going to ask you to passionately pray, exalting Him, giving Him praise. I’m going to ask you to do it with the understanding—I love praying in tongues, singing in tongues, all of the above—but on this one, I’m going to ask you to use your mind and think through it. Give Him an offering that causes the most dangerous thing for us right now, familiarity with the blessing of the anointing of God.
It’s the greatest challenge we have because what happens is yesterday’s sacrifice is today’s norm. I can just maintain now because I’m familiar. It’s the scariest moment to be in.
So, I’m going to ask you, let’s together lift our voices. I’m going to ask everyone in the room just to join with me and give Him honor—give Him a sacrifice of praise facing that challenge, that difficulty. Let’s do it together; lift your voices, lift your voices! Don’t do it quietly—with the understanding, lift an offering. Lift an offering! Let it cost you!
Declare His greatness—be very specific! God, You are so faithful. You’re so honorable; every word You say is true. We celebrate You, God! You never lie; You’re the promise-giver, the promise-fulfiller. We bless and honor Your name. God, You’re the God of abundance, extreme kindness. Wonderful, wonderful God!
Now just grab a hand of the person next to you, if you would please. That person you’re holding hands with really needed to hear this today; they need your help right now. I want to ask you to pray for them.
I want you to pray; I want you to pray that God would give them such a great grace over the gate of their mouth that only sweet water would come out of that spring, that carelessness would not be found in us again—ever again.
So, I’m going to ask you to pray for them—pray for the one on your right—just pray for them. God, give them the grace needed, give them the grace needed, great purity of heart, purity of mind. Let our mouths be used to build, to give place for the presence of God to rest. Do that great work in us, God. Do that great work in us here, Lord!
Now pray for yourself the same way; just honestly put it—make a covenant with the Lord. God, I have purposed in my heart to only let sweet water come out of this spring—to really honor You with what I say. Put it on your lips!
Yes, wonderful Lord Jesus! Wonderful Lord God! Oh, come, let us adore Him. Oh, come, let us adore Him. Oh, come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!
Again, oh, come, let us adore Him. Oh, come, let us adore Him. You alone are worthy—for You are worthy, Christ! We give You all the glory; we give You all the glory; we give You all the glory, Christ!
Just lift up a spiritual song!
Father, I do ask that You’d give us a real unusual grace for this next season. Thank You so much for the increased favor; we even thank You for the tax! We thank You that we get to demonstrate our love for You, regardless of circumstances. We thank You for the privilege; I thank You for the privilege of standing with thousands and I thank You for the privilege of standing alone.
I sincerely honor You for that, and I ask that You would put a grace upon us as a church family to build gates that You’d come through—the gates of pearl, developed in irritation and conflict. Help us to grab our moments and to give You an offering that You’re worthy of.
Amen!
I want to give one opportunity before we wrap this up. Actually, we’ll do two; we’ll have teams up front in a moment for you to receive your miracle.
But anytime we have this many people in the room, I know the chances are high that you have people here that don’t know the Lord. It’s the most important miracle of the day, that you would realize that God arranged for you to be here.
Please, let’s not have any moving around. If I could have you protect this moment, I really, really would appreciate it. What’s most important to me is that anyone here who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus—not know what it is to be forgiven, not know what it is to turn from everything to follow Him and Him alone—would not be distracted by anything else but to hear simply the opportunity that Jesus died for you.
He actually took on Himself what I deserved so that I could receive what He earned. I deserved death; He died in my place. It’s the same truth for everybody in this room.
If there’s anyone here who would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know I’m at peace with God, until I know what it is to be forgiven, and I know what it is to be a true disciple of Jesus,» if that’s you, just put your hand up where you are; we’re going to pray. I’ll wait just a moment; I don’t wait long, but if that’s you, I want you to respond quickly.
Alright, I will assume then that you’re all in. Welcome to the family!