Bill Johnson - Why the Enemy Fears Your Peace and How to Maintain It
When we begin to submit ourselves to the inferior, we allow anxiety and stress to fill our minds with «what ifs» that have no life to them, and the enemy is working to undermine our identity, first love relationship, and the whole idea of being an authentic representation of Jesus. He fears that. How many of you are still here from the Heaven in Business conference this week? Is there anyone? Oh good! I’m glad you’re here. It’s great to have you. I had such a wonderful time at that event. It’s so fun to see what Jesus is doing all over the world in every area of life, and it’s encouraging to see things that I kind of hoped and believed were true 30 years ago; it’s actually happening. Just such an encouragement to me.
I do have something to read. Two political rivals found that they were both in a bakery at the same time during their campaign. One was rather sneaky and came to the other, saying, «See how clever I am? The owner didn’t even notice, but I took three of his pastries and put them in my pocket. That’s why I’m going to win the election.» The other one said, «That’s so typical of you: deceit and theft. I’m going to show you how to get the same results honestly.» So he went to the owner of the bakery and said, «Give me three pastries, and I’ll show you a magic trick.» The baker gave him three pastries; he ate one after the other, and the baker asked, «So what’s the magic trick?» He replied, «Do you want to see them reappear? Look in that person’s pocket.»
Alright, why don’t you grab your Bibles and open to Philippians chapter 4? I’ve had two recurring themes in my heart for the last at least six months. In fact, I wrote out—we’re going to read verse eight in a little bit—but I wrote out a whole study on that that I did maybe as much as a year ago, at least six to eight months ago, just for myself because I could feel what was happening in the air, so to speak. I’ve been very aware of the battle that has been going on for many people in their thought life and in their minds.
I don’t like talking about anything negative in a way that fuels it. Sometimes we have the ability to talk about problems, and we actually make the problems grow, so I’m not interested in that, obviously, but I do want to address a couple of things. The two items that have been on my mind a lot are going to emerge today in today’s talk. One is the issue of prayer: the whole concept of a first love relationship with Jesus, and the second is the issue of the mind and what God has assigned for us to do with the mind.
The enemy is very nervous about several things concerning your life and mine. One is that he works to keep us exposed to anxiety and stress because that undermines our creative expression. It’s very difficult to operate out of a place of health when you’re anxious and stressful. When you’re filled with anxiety and stress, the goal is survival, not creative expression. The Lord desires—longs—to express who He is through His people: His own nature, the way He functions, His beauty, the glory, and creativity—all that flows through a yielded believer when they are free from the issues of anxiety and stress.
It is possible to live free of anxiety and stress. Jesus illustrates it; He’s headed to the cross, and He’s giving thanks. We’ll look at that a bit more later, but the point is that both Paul and Jesus illustrate something that’s almost profoundly scary in how they modeled life going into the most difficult situations possible. They did it not just as survivors, not just to stay positive with a stiff upper lip, but as overcomers. They went into a hellish situation and came out absolutely glorious because there was a way to think. I’m not talking about mind over matter or just mental exercise; I’m talking about a perception that comes when we see what Jesus sees. We see the way He sees.
So the enemy has several things that he is very nervous about. I believe I will mention three today. The first is the issue of creative expression. No one who knows who God made them to be would ever want to be anyone else. The uniqueness of every individual is so beautiful and profound that stepping fully into who God made us to be is the greatest privilege in life. There is no comparison when you look at another person regarding what you could actually become by God’s design.
The second thing is that the enemy is very nervous about the whole issue of our first love relationship with the Lord. That has been on my mind a lot lately. The Lord has stirred my own heart, stirring the pot, so to speak, about this intimate relationship with God. Anxiety infects love. You can’t be anxious and maintain the kind of fervent relationship with the Lord that all of us long for. I don’t mean that we’ve rejected Him or that He’s rejected us. I’m just saying anxiety exalts another ideal over what He has promised. When I give my heart and thoughts to something inferior to the word of the Lord, it’s true that love annihilates fear, but it’s also true that if I embrace anxiety, fear, or any of that stuff, I’m allowing something into my life that will infect love.
The first thing to be addressed is my first love relationship with Jesus. I remind you of the passage in Revelation chapter 2 where Jesus addresses the church at Ephesus, a great church. He honors them for many things, but then He says, «I have this against you: you’ve left your first love. That passion you used to have is not what it used to be. You’ve got the structure down, and you function in the gifts well, but this first love, this burning affection we are to carry for Jesus, is not like it used to be.» He then gives specific instructions.
So we have creative expression, we have first love, and the third thing I would mention is the attack on fear and anxiety. Let me back up. Every thought comes from fear or love; every word out of my mouth comes from fear or love. What does the enemy want to undermine? If he can get me to compromise my first love, then he can get me to lose my sense of identity, and that’s what fear and anxiety do. They cause me to lose track of the tools given to me, the authority He’s given me. Peace is a huge part of God’s economy for us as believers.
I’ve talked to you in recent weeks and months about this issue. Whenever I feel anxious and stressful, I ask myself, «Where did you leave your peace?» It’s mine; it’s my possession. I just have to find out where I dropped it. So I backtrack and remember, «Oh, I was feeling stressed there. It was that phone call I got this morning.» It might not have even been a bad one, but my reaction to the situation was to become anxious, and I embraced a lie. I allowed inferior information over the word of the Lord in my life. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but it happened nonetheless.
What I have to do is always repent my way back to where I left my peace, confess my sin, pick it up, and realize it’s my permanent possession. Peace in the kingdom is very profound. Peace is not the absence of something; it’s the presence of someone. Peace is actually a person: the abiding presence of the Spirit of God in my life. I’m not saying I can drop it or leave it as if He abandons me, but the felt awareness of Him gets laid aside in the world. Peace is always the absence of something in the world—noise, war, or conflict. In the kingdom, you can be in the middle of all those and still have peace because peace is a person.
So I repent my way back, embrace peace once again, and use that as my lifestyle. We’re going to look at why now. One more, or two more comments before we open the scripture—although you already have it open, right? Philippians 4, you’re so good! In your life, I’m here to teach you patience.
The other side of this issue that we’ll read about in a moment is the amazing purpose of prayer. Prayerlessness is costly; it would probably be worth a study sometime just to look at the cost of prayerlessness. Let me give you two things. In Scripture, it says, «You have not because you ask not,» so the implication of that verse is prayerlessness creates lack. We often think in terms of lack being God’s sovereign will for our life, and it’s not. It’s just lack that fills in where prayerlessness exists.
The second point I will mention about prayerlessness is that Jesus taught, «Pray so that you wouldn’t enter temptation. Pray; make sure you maintain prayer in your life so that you don’t enter temptation.» The implication is that if I am prayerless, I will face temptation for which I have no grace. It doesn’t mean I am prone to sin; I may resist the temptation, but the problem is prayerlessness creates a battle I didn’t need to fight. Prayerlessness puts me into a conflict of wills. Let’s just say I win; I make it through. I don’t do what I was tempted to do, but the problem is that because I was prayerless, I attracted the situation into my life that was completely unnecessary.
If God designs for us to face a battle, it’s only because He’s already given us the tools to win, and He wants to punish the powers of darkness. It’s never so that we would fall or falter. If He allows the battle, it’s only so that we get to enforce His purposes on Earth. But there are many battles that people face that were brought on by prayerlessness. I’m just here to encourage.
Philippians 4. Let’s read some scripture together. We’ll start with verse 4: «Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!» I remind you Paul writes this from prison; he’s giving us tried-and-tested truths out of his own experience. «Rejoice in the Lord always.» I don’t know if you’ve ever looked it up, but that word «always» means always. «Again I will say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing.» That is one commandment I have obeyed 100% of the time because everything I’ve ever been anxious over came to nothing. Maybe that’s not what He meant!
«Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.» Be anxious for nothing, but everything with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
There’s a picture painted for us in this part of Philippians 4 of a military guard protecting a person’s heart and mind—the heart, the place where thoughts come from, and the mind itself. That military guard is there because of the previous verse: pray over everything with thankfulness. If you look at the nature of thankfulness, I don’t think we could overemphasize it. I’m not sure that it’s possible to exaggerate the power of thankfulness.
Jesus, on the night in which He was betrayed, took bread, broke it, and gave thanks. He was about to be betrayed by Judas and forsaken by all 11 disciples that he was now breaking bread with. He was about to experience the most gruesome death anyone has ever faced—not only because of the crucifixion, the scourging, and all that He went through, but because of the weight of sin itself that came upon Him. You know what it is to sin and feel guilty and shameful; multiply that by billions of people with millions of sins on one particular individual.
When the soldiers came to kill the three on the cross, they didn’t have to kill Jesus because He was already dead. Why? Because the weightiness of sin was upon Him. That’s why He said, «God, why did you forsake me?» At that moment, He became sin and was forsaken by the Father. The two thieves had to be killed because theirs was just a crucifixion. I don’t mean to make light of it; I’m just saying the weightiness of sin—He became that which the Father despised, which was sin. But He did that so that we could become what the Father delighted in: the righteousness of God. It was an exchange.
So in that moment, which was His most difficult moment in all of human history, He broke bread and gave thanks. I’d like to suggest that these difficult moments throughout scripture are the moments where He sets an example, a model for us that must be followed. Thankfulness, regardless of circumstances, maintains our connection to Life Source in a very practical way.
Maintaining thankfulness keeps us sane when things are not going right and keeps us connected to the right source. So we have this interesting passage. I want you to look at it again: verses 6 and 7. «Be anxious for nothing,» verse 6, «but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Now here’s the result: and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.»
Verse 8: «Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report—if there is any virtue, if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.» We have two verses that give us instruction. The first one is to pray over everything with thankfulness, and verse 8 tells us to think on these things. Those two verses sandwich the promise, and the promise is His peace will protect you, but it has responsibility given to you and me on both sides. The first has to do with prayer, and the second has to do with what we choose to think about.
Jesus gave an illustration, kind of a parable. He talked about the human being like a house. In this illustration, he said if a house has all this junk in it and it’s clean and swept but the owner doesn’t refill the house with the right things, the enemy that once dwelt in the house comes back seven times worse. But the house, in this example, is actually a human being.
So here Jesus says, «Pray over everything; I’ll guard your heart and mind. Now fill the house with the right things.» Do you understand? You can think about anything you want; nobody has control over your mind. I can think about pink elephants right now if I want to, and I just helped you do the same. You’re welcome! No one controls that part of our life.
So what’s the issue? When we begin to submit ourselves to the inferior, we allow anxiety and stress to fill our minds with, «what ifs» that have no life in them, no promise. The enemy is again working to undermine identity, first love relationship, and this whole concept of being an authentic representation of Jesus. He fears that so much that in the book of Zechariah, when Zechariah talked about these four beings rising up in the earth to destroy the people of God, they’re illustrated with the term «horns.» Horns are figurative for authority and powers.
So the Lord says these four horns were raised up in the earth to wipe out the people of God, and God’s answer was to raise up four artisans—the creatives, in other words, the authentic expression of who Jesus is in a human being. He was going to, in the four corners of the earth, do the same thing: have an honest, authentic representation of who Jesus is released through His people. That authentic expression would be the very thing that would defeat the four horns. That authentic expression of people who remain in first love and find that as their identity is what the enemy works against. Every time he stirs up the stress, the anxiety, all that junk, because when I am anxious, I’ve bought into something that’s inferior.
I love this verse, verse 8. I like it because I like really practical things; I need practical things. He says, «Finally, brethren, whatever things are true,"—things that are true are absolute and liberating. Remember, truth sets you free, so think about that which is absolute and liberating. «Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble.» That word noble is honorable and revered. «Whatever things are just"—that is righteous, correct, innocent. «Whatever things are pure"—that’s holy and sacred. «Whatever things are lovely"—that’s pleasing and agreeable. «Whatever things are of good report"—that’s well-reported of; it’s attractive.
«If there is any virtue,» this word virtue is moral goodness, but it’s also excellence. «If there is anything praiseworthy.» I don’t know if this will make sense to you, but sometimes I have a real battle—maybe somebody just did something that really went against what they should have done. I’ll be nice: someone just really stepped outside the line of what they were doing and perhaps representing me or us as a house, whatever it might be. Like anybody else, I have this mind thing going on where I’ve got to ensure that I stay—I can’t ignore a problem if I’m responsible, but I also don’t have to fuel it with my own stress and anxiety because then I will come to wrong conclusions, and I will misapply truth for my sake and not theirs. That is more true than you realize.
And the scripture says I’m supposed to fill my mind with certain things. If I’m struggling with that, here’s what I do: I think about my wife, because she embodies everything in this verse. She is true, absolute, and life-giving. She is lovely, praiseworthy, and virtuous. She is excellent. All those things. I will just stop, and if I’m having difficulty, I go, «Okay, I’ve got to recalibrate. What is it that I love about my wife?» I start to think specifically about those things, and it’s hard to be mad at anybody when you start thinking of those kinds of things.
Are you catching my drift here? It’s hard. If I’m filling my heart and mind and recalibrating what’s important, recalibrating my heart and thought life to what’s valuable, as soon as I do that, something takes place in me. I may have a responsibility with this individual who’s just betrayed or done something dumb; maybe I have a responsibility there. But when I recalibrate my thoughts to what is righteous and good, I don’t come to that person who I need to work with abusively. I come to them in grace. Does that make any sense to you?
This thing has to be practical, and Jesus illustrated it the best. I want you to look at one more portion of scripture, and then we’ll wrap this up. Go to John 13. This is something we studied here, I think, a couple of years ago now, but it’s a very meaningful passage to me. Jesus is soon to go to the cross. I’ve already described a little bit just the suffering He was to go through: the abandonment by all of His disciples, the betrayal by Judas himself—all of this that He knew about and was stepping into in this moment.
It tells us what He was thinking in that moment, which is this: what floors me is He was doing what we were instructed to do in Philippians 4. This is what He had consciously in verse 3: «Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God,» rose from supper. He laid aside His garments, took a towel, and girded Himself. In the next few verses, He washes the disciples' feet.
There are three specific things for any person in this room. Let me announce to you why I’m talking about this today. I felt this morning, in prayer, that God was going to end a mental battle for many people, and it will end here today. I really sense that. I felt like I had a word of promise from the Lord regarding this. If you’ve been here any length of time, you know I don’t throw that kind of statement out very often, but I felt this morning that the Lord was going to bring peace to a chaotic, anxious thing for a number of folks.
I’ve not seen a season like this. In fact, there have been a number of suicides across our nation of high-profile people, even in ministry. It’s one of the most horrible things—bitterness is immature murder; self-condemnation and self-hatred lead to suicide. In other words, it’s just undeveloped, and it’s the reason we have to stay so far away from those kinds of patterns of thought. It’s not that I’m going to go kill myself; it’s just that it is already killing me. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. Even people who don’t murder still speak unkindly and release death into a situation.
So in this passage, it tells us this: «Jesus knowing,» so that tells me what Jesus was conscious of as He was about to head into this betrayal and crucifixion situation. What does it say? It says, «Jesus knowing all things had been given to Him by the Father.» There’s an interesting twist: you’re about to lose your life, and what you’re thinking about is that everything is yours. You’re about to suffer the greatest loss anyone has ever experienced; what’s on your mind is that I’ve just inherited everything.
«Jesus knowing all things had been given to Him by the Father,» number one. Number two, «He came from the Father and was about to go home.» In other words, He was going to step into eternal purpose and eternal destiny. So what was He thinking about when He was about to be betrayed? That unlimited resource and a destiny that can’t be challenged or changed—that’s about as practical as it gets. Facing betrayal, crucifixion, all this stuff, He is thinking about, «I’ve just inherited everything now as the Son of Man, and I’m about to ascend to the Father into eternal destiny and eternal purpose.»
The third thing He did was He washed His disciples' feet. What’s the point? Come back next week, and I’ll tell you! It’s an overused joke, sorry! The serving is what brings people together.
It’s what makes practical His own confidence in His own destiny. The fact that He went low reveals His security. Many people can’t go low because their identity is wrapped up in a title or a position. When Jesus illustrates going low, He actually reveals His security.
Now, in a moment, I’m going to give people an opportunity to meet Jesus. It’s the most important thing that could happen today, so I’m going to ask everybody to not walk around because I don’t want anyone’s restlessness to affect anyone else’s opportunity to respond to an invitation. I want you to respect that there’s always a chance when we have this many people in the room that there are folks here who have never had a personal relationship with Jesus.
The Bible calls it being born again. It’s simply faith that we put in Christ to follow Him alone that brings transformation to the heart of a person—born again from the inside out. That is made available to everybody here, and I want to give the opportunity. If you would be one who would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the room. I don’t want to leave the building until I know that God has forgiven me of sin and that I’ve been brought into His family. I want to follow Jesus.» If that’s you, then just raise your hand where you are, and I’ll acknowledge you.
If that’s you, just put your hand up right here. Yep, I see you. Bless you for that. Wonderful. Anyone else? Is there another one back over here? There’s another one back over here. I bless you. Yeah, wonderful. Beautiful. Another one over here. Oh, excellent. Beautiful. Wonderful. There’s another one over here. Thank you, Lord! It’s the greatest miracle ever!
Anyone else, real quick? We have three that I could see that responded to this invitation. Here’s what I want to ask: we have people that we know and trust that I want to pray with you and talk with you. It’s not about Bethel or membership; it’s about your walk with Jesus because we want you to experience His love in a way that changes everything from this moment on.
So I’m going to ask two things to happen at the same time. I want to ask the ministry team to come to the front, and I want to ask the three people that raised your hands and any others that I missed to walk right up here to this team by this banner. These folks will talk with you and pray with you. If you would, just leave your seat wherever you are and come down here right now. Ministry team, come quickly! Yes, those who raised your hand, come on down here!
I want to make sure—yeah! Bless you, bless you, bless you right here. Alright, alright, well I love that!
Now I want to pray over you because I really felt strong this morning that the Lord was going to end for many people a mental battle that has been going on for a long time. In fact, I just feel like I should announce this: this is the end of that season of anguish, anxiety. Nothing ends; circumstances don’t always immediately end. Sometimes it’s me who needs to change so that they can change, and I just really believe that the Lord’s releasing a grace for this right now.
So let’s pray together, and then I’ll turn it over to Tom, and we’ll wrap it up. Alright? So Father, I thank You for the fact that You give us tools that work and that we can expect and anticipate things to be different simply because we have anchored our hearts into the superior, not being influenced by the inferior. I ask now for grace over the heart and mind of the people of God, that our thought life would accurately represent who You are and the resources You’ve made available for us. I ask all of this in the wonderful name of Jesus. Extend a hand toward those who are receiving Christ today. We pray again, Lord, that the power of the Spirit of God would come upon each one. For anyone else in the room that still needs this, that the power of the Spirit of God would come so mightily that there would be permanent transformation that would ripple through their entire family line. In Jesus' name, everybody said amen! Amen!