Bill Johnson - Accessing Heaven's Solutions (An Invitation to Higher Thinking)
Steve and I go way back, my goodness! I remember you at a men’s retreat when I went over to Fortuna. How long would that be? 35 years ago? Yeah, 35 years ago! And he still likes me? I don’t know; it’s amazing! I’m crazy about him; he’s so fun! It’s hard to be depressed around him. He’s allergic to it; apparently, every demon of depression leaves when Steve comes into the room. It’s beautiful! I will say that he had a dog that was heavily demonized at one time, though. You remember those demons that went into pigs? They didn’t all go into pigs! We’ve been going round and round about this for 35 years. Well, good evening! It’s good to see you! Happy Easter! My goodness, you know, without the resurrection, we’re the most pitiful group on the planet. It’s true! We are absolutely spinning our wheels, wasting our time. Everything hinges on that one reality—that Jesus was raised from the dead. Everything. And that’s true!
In a Minnesota church one Sunday morning, a preacher said, «Anyone who wants prayer, please come forward.» Sven got in line. When it was his turn, the pastor asked him, «What do you want me to pray about?» He said, «I need you to pray for help with my hearing.» The preacher put one finger in his ear and the other on top of his head and prayed blue streak! The whole congregation joined in with great enthusiasm. After a few minutes, the preacher removed his hand, stood back, and said, «Sven, how’s your hearing?» He said, «I don’t know; it’s not until Tuesday.»
I hope you didn’t come tonight looking for a nice little devotional because I really want to make you work! If you didn’t come to work, repent, I don’t know—change! Do something different! Get ready! All right, grab your Bibles, if you would. We’re going to bounce around; we’ve got quite a few scriptures to read. I think if you endure it, I’ll endure with you, and we’ll look at a number of scriptures. I want to start in Romans chapter 6. We’re going to go to Romans 6 and Colossians 2, and we’ll just see where else we go.
How many of you actually have your Bibles? Let me see your Bibles. Oh, look at this, Bibles all over the place! How many of you have the electric version? That’s okay; that’s legal! I’m still waiting for someone to create an app that, when you turn on your Bible, has the sound of turning pages. I grew up hearing the sound of Bible pages turning whenever it was time. Anyway, Romans chapter 6—we want to talk about the resurrection. We talked a little bit about water baptism; I want to discuss a resurrected mind. I feel like, you know, I’ve been teaching on the renewed mind for as long as I can remember; it probably started about 20 or 25 years ago. It’s a favorite subject—not because I like telling you about it, but because I like learning about it! The more I talk about it, the more it expands my own heart of exploration into this subject because the renewed mind is the mind of Christ. The renewed mind is the mind of wisdom.
Paul said in Romans 12:2, «Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.» There’s no transformation apart from the transformation of the mind. A transformed life is transformed consistently with their mind being transformed—no more, no less. A transformed mind transforms a person. Don’t be conformed to this world; be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove the will of God. What’s the will of God on earth as it is in heaven? The best definition of the will of God is found in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples: «Pray like this: Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.»
What does the renewed mind do? It proves the reality of heaven on earth. You’re going to make me work hard tonight, aren’t you? I can tell! The renewed mind is somehow able to put on display the reality of God’s heart, which is transforming this world. So when one person is ministered to, and they have lived with torment their whole life, and it’s gone—guess what? The kingdom came! The will of God came! It was because someone had enough of a renewed mind to demonstrate or display that which God intended to do for everyone. To seek first the kingdom is to seek first His rule in any given situation where we have influence. We’re not praying for a military invasion from heaven to earth; we’re not praying to go to heaven! We are praying for the will of God to be demonstrated in every broken situation where we have influence, and the renewed mind sees the answer more than the problem.
The enemy works to make us more aware of the problems we face than the solutions we carry. If he can emphasize in my thinking, in my awareness, if he can increase my awareness of the problems I face—and this is true for everybody in this room—if he can somehow highlight or increase my awareness of the problems I face, I will live in reaction to those problems. They will influence me. I don’t mean the devil controls me; I just mean I live in reaction to them. Jesus didn’t live that way; He lived in response to the Father. Oftentimes, people live in reaction to the devil and feel spiritual about it. You have a sense of purpose when you react to the devil, and I don’t want to say it’s entirely wrong; I’m just saying it’s inferior. My anger doesn’t intimidate the devil; my determination, my strong will does not intimidate him at all. It’s the blood of Jesus that intimidates him! Functioning under the influence of being a forgiven one allows me to repeat that in people’s lives. In other words, the redemption that I have experienced is the redemption I get to minister. I get to put on display.
Let’s just get into Romans 6, and we’ll take some good thoughts here. Just get ready to bounce around with me! All right, let’s go to verse 4 of chapter 6. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death; just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also should walk in newness of life. Now these are pregnant ideas, very lofty thoughts! How many believe Jesus was raised from the dead? Equal to that conviction, you should walk in newness of life. What He does is He tricks us—He raises the bar, and then He says, «All right, this is how you’re supposed to live. Because you believe this, this should be the impact of your life.» But then He pushes it farther. We’re not going to go through the whole chapter; it would be worthwhile, but I have other places I want us to go. So jump down to verse 11.
Likewise, you also consider yourself to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Likewise, consider yourself! All right, so just think with me a minute: How many of you believe in the resurrection of Jesus? You weren’t as eager that second time, but just know I did not trick you! You believe in the resurrection of Jesus, the power of the blood of Jesus, the absolute condition of forgiveness. Yes? All right, consistent with that thought, here’s this huge idea: I am dead to sin because of this reality. Here’s a reality you might not have known about that’s so good—it’s not mind over matter! The mind is a horrible leader and a tremendous student. We know that faith doesn’t come from the mind; the Bible says, «With the heart, man believes unto righteousness.» All heart issues are surrender issues.
So that means, then, that great faith comes from great surrender! Yet, the renewed mind creates opportunity for faith to flow. The illustration I give you all the time is that the renewed mind is like the banks of a river; it creates the context for faith to flow in. We see it with the centurion. He gives this brilliant answer to Jesus about the chain of command and authority, and Jesus hears his reasoning and says, «I’ve not seen such great faith in all of Israel.» Kingdom reasoning can manifest or reveal kingdom faith. So here, Paul is establishing facts for us: Jesus died, He was buried, He rose from the dead, His blood has cleansed you, and you stand forgiven. Now that lofty ideal needs another matching lofty ideal. Consider yourself—think of yourself in this way: I’m dead to sin. If you believe this is true, then you must believe this is true too!
So I wonder how much sin takes place in our lives because we give ourselves to thinking about it before it’s birthed. Again, it’s not mind over matter. He’s just saying if you’ll think consistent with the kingdom, you’ll get the benefits of the kingdom. Let me put it this way: whatever kingdom your thoughts reveal, that kingdom will be manifested in your life. Go to Colossians chapter 2, please. Please, that sounded kind of demanding—please turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 2, verse 13: «And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that were against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.»
So every indictment ever written about you, every handwriting, every judgment against you, the accusations, all the stuff, He nailed it to the cross, and it was crucified with Him. Do you get the picture? Yes, of course you do! Verse 15: «Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.» We know in 1 John 3:8 that he said He came to destroy the works of the evil one. One of the reasons He came was to destroy those works. Remember, they planted Adam and Eve in a garden, a paradise, a perfect location on a planet that was in chaos. You have to understand that part of the mission that God had for Adam and Eve was to expand His delegated authority on a planet through them as they increased in number and influence until the powers of darkness were destroyed.
Now, the devil has never been a threat to God. This idea that spiritual warfare is God and the devil fighting? No, that’s laughable! God is eternal power; the devil has limited strength. God is unlimited power in every possible way; the devil has no claim at all. The devil wars against his creation, which is you and me. He works to defile people. People say, «Why did God create evil?» He didn’t create evil; evil is a distortion of what He created.
Let me illustrate it. Let’s say this piece of paper represents God’s creation of marriage—all right? Just to illustrate! God created marriage. Part of the marriage relationship is the intimate part of that relationship. What has the devil done? He takes that part and puts it down here. What do you have now? You have a distortion of what God made. It’s called evil. Everything that’s evil is a distortion of God’s purpose and plan. God didn’t create evil; He created the capacity to choose. Why? Because He’s a Father! What does that have to do with anything? He can give gifts all day long, but He wants to give rewards, and there are no rewards where there are no choices.
Colossians 2:15—I want to read this to you out of the Passion translation. What I like that Brian Simmons does in his translation, by the way, I think he has two books to go to complete the whole Bible, which I’m excited about! What he does is occasionally there’s a verse that’s translated very differently from what we’re accustomed to, and he always puts footnotes with brilliant explanations so that you understand why.
Here it is: «Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were His.» Not bad, huh? That’s good news! Now think about this: we have to learn to think consistent with what is true, because sometimes we think of things that are true but hope they become true for us someday, not realizing they are already true for us right now.
Did that make sense? Yes? Bill, it made perfect sense! Let me read the Aramaic text, which is what Jesus actually spoke. The Aramaic text has a phrase not found in Greek manuscripts. The Aramaic can be translated: «Having put off His body, He stripped principalities and powers and shamed them openly.» This implies that between the day of crucifixion and the day of resurrection, while in the spirit realm, Jesus destroyed death, the powers of darkness, and every work of the enemy through the blood of His cross. All the enemy’s weapons have been stripped away from him, and now the church has authority in Christ to enforce this triumph upon the dethroned rulers of this world!
When you pray for someone, and they get healed, and the torment that was on their life gets broken—guess what? You just enforced the victory of Christ over a dethroned influence! When you pray for that neighbor who’s been struggling with torment since they were a child, and that torment gets broken off them, guess what? You just enforced the authority of Christ in getting that person free according to what Jesus would do if He were standing in your shoes!
When Jesus died in Ephesians 4—in fact, let’s turn there instead of just quoting verses. I’m going to make you look at them. So turn to Ephesians 4. Yes, I’m going to make you work! I promise you I will make you work. Ephesians 4, how many of you are there? Let me see, you’re there, you’re there, you’re there! All right, Ephesians 4:7: «To each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.» Therefore, He says, «When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.» Now what He’s doing here is describing what Jesus did between the cross and the resurrection. Some people say Jesus went into hell and suffered in hell on our behalf. No, He did not! If He did, then the blood wasn’t enough.
He went into what’s called Sheol. If you read Luke 16, I might get to it if I feel we have time. But in Luke 16, it talks about this place of the dead. Before Christ, before the death and resurrection of Christ, people would die and go to either a place called Abraham’s bosom—anybody remember what Abraham is known for? He’s the father of faith! Remember God looked at his faith in his obedience and considered him righteous? Because of faith, he became the forerunner of the entire New Testament church. He set the pattern for how we live life!
Are you all right? Is it too late for this at night? No? You’re doing all right? All right, there’s this place called Sheol, and there’s a place called Abraham’s bosom. That’s where every person who lived by faith went—believe it or not, Old Testament, New Testament, the same. No one was able to qualify themselves by obedience to the law. Abraham’s bosom. Then the other place is called the place of torment. This is the place of the dead. When Jesus died, He went into those lower parts of the earth to present to those in Abraham’s bosom the price that had been paid.
This passage says He led captive a host of captives. They were captive because they were under the law that said, «The soul that sins shall die.» Are you with me? So when He comes, He makes an announcement to them: «The price has been paid; you are no longer under that bondage! I took care of it for you!» And so He leads captive a host of captives—these are all the righteous dead! On His way to the Father, He sees Mary Magdalene weeping, and He stops to talk to her. It’s in John chapter 20. Turn there!
All right, empty tomb! Mary Magdalene, verse 11—John 20, are you there? Did you get there already? All right, you’re fast, that’s good! Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain. I want to remind you, in the Old Testament, there was the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant had two angelic cherubim that faced each other. The ark of the covenant contained the budded almond rod, the tablets of stone, and a jar of manna, called the ark of the covenant or the ark of the testimony.
The angel sat here on top—this is called the mercy seat. This box contained the testimony of God’s covenant with Israel. So every time you share a testimony of what God has done, you’re bringing in the mercy seat of God into that environment. When Mary looks into the tomb and sees an angel at the foot and at the head, you’re seeing the real copy of the testimony of Jesus, the true ark of God. The other was a preliminary glimpse into what was coming. This mercy seat is based entirely upon the resurrection of Jesus and His militant intent to show mercy wherever people are open to receiving mercy.
Verse 13: They said to her, «Woman, why are you weeping?» She said, «Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.» When she said this, she turned and saw Jesus standing there but did not know it was Him. Jesus said to her, «Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?» She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, «Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.» And Jesus said to her, «Mary.» She turned and said to Him, «Rabboni,» which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, «Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. Stop clinging to me; I’ve not yet ascended to my Father. Go to my brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'» Think about this for a minute: we’ve got the 70 disciples that Jesus anointed, we’ve got the 12, we’ve got the three, Peter, James, and John, who were with Him at the Mount of Transfiguration. So we have this…oh, hierarchy is not the right way to put it, but you understand how people start feeling when they get favored, right?
We all hate that! Jesus chooses to reveal Himself first to Mary Magdalene, the person out of whom seven demons had been cast. The first Mary that He revealed Himself to in His virgin birth was the Virgin Mary—purity! Wow, Mary Magdalene—grace! It’s not a new chapter in the book; it’s a new book! Wow! So Jesus says, «Stop clinging to me.»
Matthew’s Gospel, Matthew 27—go ahead and turn there! I’ve told you I’m going to make you work! Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 27, verse 50: «Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earthquake and the rocks were split.» That word «torn» and the word «split» is the word used in Mark 1:9 and 10 to describe the parting of the heavens when Jesus was baptized in water, and the Holy Spirit came down. In other words, it’s a word that describes a violent action.
When Jesus gave up His spirit—it wasn’t taken from Him; He surrendered it—He died. At that moment, the veil in the temple, which was four to six inches thick, was torn from heaven toward earth, and the rocks around Jerusalem were also torn. Those two words, or that word in those two statements, is the same word used in Mark 9 when Jesus was baptized in water, came up out of the water, and the heavens were torn open in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prayer, «Rend the heavens and come down!»
So there’s this violent act at Jesus’s baptism, and the Holy Spirit came and descended upon Him and remained upon Him in the form of a dove. Verse 52: «And the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.» And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. Wow!
All right, here’s what I think happened: Jesus dies. He goes into Sheol, He announces the payment has been made; He’s leading a host of captives to the Father—the prize of His suffering! He’s leading this host of captives that He gets to present to the Father as the redeemed. On the way to the Father, He sees Mary, and I get so rocked by this. Here’s His plan to go to the Father, but He’s moved by His love for this lady out of whom He cast seven demons. He stops the whole procession and comes over to Mary and begins to talk to her. All the saints that were with Him start thinking, «We might as well catch a few sights in town and see how the old house is doing,» you know? So while He’s talking to her, there are all these sightings of old saints walking around Jerusalem.
This is just weird and glorious. Then Jesus takes the prize to the Father. Now what I want you to see here, I want you to go back to Colossians 2. You guys still all right? Yeah, I hope so! Colossians 2—I’m going to read it out of the Passion translation and then jump to chapter 3, and we’ll probably end there. Let’s see how we do time-wise.
Verse 15: «Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were His.»
Now look at verse 1 of chapter 3: «If then you were raised with Christ.» How many of you were raised with Christ? His resurrection—that’s important to understand. His resurrection is actually your resurrection! That’s the whole point! The Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the Spirit of resurrection; He is the one who dwells in you. That’s why surrender to Him is key to every aspect of victory we could possibly have in our lives—because He is that power of resurrection that is able and capable of producing a resurrected life through you and me.
Verse 1 of chapter 3: «If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth.» Why? Because you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Now let me take it in the Passion translation. «Christ’s resurrection is your resurrection too! This is why we are to yearn for all that is above, for that’s where Christ sits enthroned at a place of all power, honor, and authority. Yes, feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your thoughts with heavenly realities and not with the distractions of the natural realm. Your crucifixion with Christ has severed the tie to this life. Now your true life is hidden away in God in Christ, and as Christ Himself is seen for who He really is, who you really are will also be revealed, for you are now one with Him in His glory.»
Now I don’t know, these are pretty large thoughts; they hurt my head, actually. It’s hard for me to comprehend this, and I don’t know what you’re like, but I know my tendency when I read lofty thoughts is to read over them and move on—almost like, «Well, that’s too big for me,» or «Too big for now,» when some of these things just need to be prayerfully meditated on.
This would be the kind of thing where you would sit in your car or in your prayer closet or wherever, and you pray. You sit in there and you pray, «My mind is set on heavenly things.» You imagine; you wonder about unseen realities, the realities of God’s rule, the reality of His world. Those are the things I get to feed my soul on. Those are the things I get to feast on. I’m going to set my eyes on those things. I’m going to set my mind on those things. I want to engage with things that I don’t understand because I want Him to teach me what His world is like.
What you do is you pray it, you talk it, you sing it, you confess it. You find scripture of this nature—please, please be willing to write your own cross-references in your Bible! When you see another verse that stands out to you that intersects with the verses I just read to you from Colossians 2 and Romans 6, they fit perfectly! Any time you find these threads through scripture, write them down in your own reference. Because one day, you’ll read that verse, and you’ll wonder, «Why did that stand out to me?» And you’ll notice another verse, and you’ll be farther down the journey, and as you turn to that second passage, it begins to open up.
And that’s the one thing I’m not a great student, but I do mark why a verse stood out to me, and I mark my own references down. That will take me through my own history, my own journey in scripture. And so that means, in a sense, this is my diary. It’s not filled with a lot of explanations; it doesn’t need to be. It just has the right things marked. Yeah, it’s a good point, Bill!
You know what? I said that we’d probably not use any more verses, but I want to use another one. So go to John 3. Here’s one of the loftiest thoughts that I’ve ever seen! I’ve taught on it a number of times; it’s been a while, I think. But go to John chapter 3, and I think we’ll probably end it—I’m allowed three endings before it’s a lie! This will be my second one; I’m allowed one more before you can actually say I’m lying. I don’t know where that rule is written; somebody made it up, and it sounded good to me!
All right, so John chapter 3 is where Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night, and he asks Him. We’re going to read through several passages, so I have it open. Verse 2: «This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.'» I emphasize this all the time, but I’m going to do it again. When you see «doing» and «teaching» in the same phrase, mark it—do something!
Because our culture is accustomed to teaching without doing. Our culture is accustomed to embracing lofty ideals with no change in how we behave. It’s just a culture; I don’t know that it’s intentional; it just happens that way. You can go to school and be taught a business class by somebody who never owned a business. Because we don’t always require performance equal to what we say. But the biblical approach to training and education is quite different from that.
It is learning through experience. People say, «Well, if we interpret the Bible through our experience, we can be deceived.» And that is true, but if you interpret without experience, you’re already deceived! All right, let me put it this way: would you listen to anybody’s teaching about being born again that wasn’t born again? No! Why? Because they haven’t experienced what they’re talking about! Amen, Bill? That was a very good point!
Okay, all right, John 3. Jesus answered and said, «Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.» So what happens here? Conversion gives you the capacity to see! Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Most people are repentant enough to get forgiven but not enough to see the kingdom.
Verse 4: Nicodemus said, «How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?» Jesus answered, «Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.» Born of water is natural birth; the water breaks in natural birth and born of the Spirit.
Verse 6: «That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes; you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.» That’s a very strange analogy that Jesus just provided! He just described—you are born of the Spirit? Okay, here’s your description: don’t know where he’s coming from and where he’s going. It’s like wind!
Honestly, the nature of the Spirit of God has become your nature!
All right, verse 9: Nicodemus answered and said, «How can these things be?» Jesus answered and said to him, «Are you a teacher in Israel and you do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not believe our witness.» All right, you still alive? Still awake? We speak—who’s we? It’s not him and the angels. The angels don’t know what’s going on; it’s certainly not him and the disciples.
Father, Son, Holy Spirit: we speak what we know; we testify what we have seen. God has a testimony He’d like to tell you about! He’d like to describe to somebody the release of the Spirit of God upon the 120 in the upper room and how it forever changed the course of world history, where the Christ, the Anointed One, was crucified. As a result, 3,000 Christians, smaller anointed ones, were raised up on that day of Pentecost, released into the earth!
What the enemy thought he had destroyed had absolutely multiplied exponentially to terrify every thought and plan that he had of conquering this earth! It’s true!
Verse 12: «If I’ve told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?» All right, if I tell you earthly things and you do not believe—where did He speak of earthly things? He said you must be born again, born birth. He said one who is born again is like the wind—you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. Wind is natural; it’s not a trick question; you can trust me! Honestly, I know the hour’s late. I know He speaks of earthly things—birth, wind—and He says, «If I talk to you about natural things and you don’t make the connection between the natural and the spiritual, how can I talk to you about heavenly things that have no earthly parallel?»
Now see, when the Lord reveals truth to us, He often uses natural things to illustrate. For example, sowing and reaping is a spiritual principle, so He uses natural things to illustrate. He says, «I no longer call you servants; I call you friends.» He uses natural things to reveal things to us, to illustrate. Now He’s telling us, «If I talk to you about earthly things, and you’re not making a connection, then how can I talk to you about my world, that has no earthly parallel?»
How do we have any place to put it? Does this make sense to you? That He uses truth—revealed truth—as a platform for greater truth! It’ll always stay consistent with the foundation. «I no longer call you servants; I call you friends.» He didn’t abolish servanthood; He built on top of it a measure and level of intimacy that servants never have, but we still serve, right?
So He uses the previous truth as the foundation for the newly revealed truth. It will always be consistent with the foundation! Right? So then He comes and says, «All right, now I’m talking about earthly things; you’re not making the connection. If you don’t, I have no place to put what I want to show you about my world.»
All right? He says, «Whatever you bind on earth…» The best translation is «shall have been bound in heaven.» We know what to bind: things that cause death, loss, and destruction; He came to kill, steal, and destroy. So we bind when we see someone in torment, when there’s affliction—spirit of infirmity—we know what to bind. We bind! What does bind mean? God has given us a contract.
You devil of torment, I’m holding you—I’m binding you to the contract that says, «I have authority over you.» It’s a binding contract! If you go buy a car and decide not to make payments, the bank will come to you and say, «We have a binding contract; we’re going to hold you to the contract.»
So when you bind the devil, you’re holding him to the contract from the higher power that assigned you to administrate His purposes! Right? So He says, «What you bind on earth will have already been bound in heaven.» In other words, you bind here because it doesn’t exist there. Right?
But then He says, «Whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.» We know about binding because we know about loss, death, and sickness. But what are you going to loose? See, without understanding the nature of His world that He’s wanting to reveal to us, we don’t have the insight to know what to release into a given situation.
So verse 13: «No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.» Look at this verse: no one has ascended to heaven! But Jesus, you remember? He died, He resurrected, He ascended, and He was glorified, right?
He died, resurrected, ascended to the right hand of the Father, glorified. That hasn’t happened yet in John 3. This is early in the game; there’s been no death, no resurrection yet, there’s been no ascension. And yet Jesus says, «Nobody has ascended except pointing to Himself, the Son of Man, who first descended!»
All right, picture yourself—you’re one of the 12 guys sitting there—and He says, «Nobody’s been ascending into heaven except for me, and I’m there right now!» If you’re going to live there, then you’ll think there!
So He says, «If you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth; for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.»
Let’s wrap this up—right now! No three endings tonight! No sir, this is it!
What I wanted to do tonight was to try to set the legal parameters that give you permission as well as an invitation to live a higher life—a higher life—living conscious. I don’t mean you become a stupid driver because your mind is in heaven and not on the stoplight that says you really shouldn’t go through this red light! It’s not that! It’s living with the realization of heaven itself, this realm of the Holy Spirit!
The verse I quote often for you is, «The kingdom of God is not meat or drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.» The kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. So being a person who feeds naturally on fellowship with the Holy Spirit is our introduction into thinking His thoughts, imagining His imagination, desiring His desires.
I hope that made enough sense for you to at least ask Him questions and look for chances to think higher. Amen? Let’s stand! You all right? Yeah? Good! Is anyone else tired of thinking thoughts of fear, intimidation, and worry—all the nonsense? I want you to know that we have permission and mission to think from heaven toward earth! It’s really how faith functions, doesn’t it?
Faith doesn’t function from earth toward heaven, I don’t think—not in its strongest form. You can live life as a Christian one of two ways. Both work, but one’s better! Stand on earth and beg Him to come and fix your problem, or live in heavenly places and enforce His authority on the problem. The first is where everybody starts, but you don’t have to stay there!
Put your hand on the neighbor next to you because I don’t know if they know it, but they needed to hear this! I want you to pray for them! God, help them! Help them! Help our online family! I bless you! Help us, Lord, to live in and with the mind of Christ! To live in and with the mind of Christ! Open our curiosities!
I pray, in fact, I pray for everybody in this room that over the next 30 days, there’d be some sort of an encounter in the night—dreams in the night where You actually teach us about how Your world works! That You would introduce us to that which Jesus lived in continuously—that You’d teach us an ascended lifestyle!
Yes! Keep us from being weird! Some of you, it’s too late; I know it is! Just too late! Yeah, I should have prayed that years ago for some of you! Yeah, seriously! Lord, help us to really function in the mind of Christ—in the curiosities of children who have questions for the Father! Help us to administer Your will on earth as it is in heaven! Open our eyes to see things we’ve never seen, our hearts to understand things we’ve never understood, our mouths to declare things we’ve never stated before! Amen? Amen!