Bill Johnson - End Times Prophecy and the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
My favorite story in that regard is actually a Randy Clark story. He was ministering to someone, and forgive me, I don’t remember the details because many of these stories merge in my mind—they just kind of become a potpourri, like anything in the kitchen that goes into the soup, maybe that sort of thing. This individual stood for prayer in proxy for his daughter, who was at home. She had not left the house for goodness, eight years or something crazy, and was horribly afflicted with schizophrenia. I don’t know why I’m mentioning this tonight; maybe it’s just to give hope to folks who have struggled with this or to those who have relatives or friends dealing with it.
This man stood in proxy for his daughter, who was not present—she was at home in bed, had been there for a very long time, a young adult. When he finished, they went home, and at the same time he stood in prayer, his daughter literally got set free at another location. They weren’t sure what had happened. The next morning, if I remember correctly, she got up, made breakfast for everyone, and then she said, «Hey, you guys have meetings tonight?» He responded, «Yeah.» You could imagine him thinking, «What have you done with my daughter?» She then asked, «Well, I would like to go with you.» And then the story began to unfold as the Lord demonstrated what He had accomplished in her. Listen, there is nothing impossible with Jesus; the name of Jesus is superior to every name. We do Him a disservice whenever we cower at any other name. This was such a significant matter for Israel that they were not even permitted to speak the names of other gods; they were not allowed as a nation to discuss even in a negative way another god, guarding their hearts from influence.
What happens is, it happens often when I go places. I am frequently met at the airport by someone who takes me to the hotel. It used to happen quite a bit—though it doesn’t much anymore—that they would meet me and start talking about how dark their city was. I found it strange that every city was the «capital city of hell.» They can’t have that many capital cities! They would talk about how dark it was and how churches never make it there, or how it’s a graveyard for missionaries or whatever it might be. There was always such an emphasis on how many cults existed there, how many witches, and all this stuff. I don’t know how you find that out. If it’s too dark, be the light you are supposed to be; it’s not a complicated assignment. Arise and shine! It’s that simple. Get up! Stop telling me how dark it is—just get up!
Because if we become impressed by anything the devil has accomplished, we will live in reaction to it. He’s just not worthy of having any influence over our agenda, our lifestyle, or what we focus on. I’ve said it countless times, but just as a reminder: Jesus only did what He saw the Father do; He responded to the Father, not the devil. It’s important to create lifestyles where we live from the promises of the Lord toward the situations that we face.
Alright, here’s what I want to do. I want to take you through just a few verses about the last days. We’re going to focus on the end of time since I heard that the world was supposed to end yesterday and here we are, having survived another predicted end of the world. I just feel like Teflon—I’ve survived at least five or six ends of the world! Let’s take a couple looks at what’s supposed to happen in the last days.
Isaiah 2—did I mention the chapter? I think I did. Look at verse 2: «Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, 'Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.'» Look at it again: «It will come to pass in the latter days.»
How many know this is referring to the last days? Eight of you? I may need to back up in the teaching just a wee bit. Yes, the last days started 2,000 years ago, and if those were the last days, these are the last of the last days. «It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on top of the mountains.» Okay, stop right there. Sometimes this kind of language can sound like a warm fuzzy word instead of a very precise, specific word. He says the mountain of the Lord’s house. There’s only one legitimate house of God in the Bible that is situated on a mountain. The Lord warned Israel against building altars on mountains—not because mountains were evil places, but because the enemy countries that worshiped false gods built altars on those mountaintops. They would worship false gods there, assuming it seemed more reasonable to go to a high place and talk to God than down low, because by climbing a mountain, you have earned a position to speak with God through your own effort.
God warned Israel about that. Under Solomon’s rule, they initially fell into worshiping the real God on the mountaintops. The Lord marked that as a blemish on Solomon’s reign because he didn’t destroy the high places. Why? Because it represented self-effort in worship; it doesn’t represent surrender; it represents self-will. There’s one house: we have the tabernacle of Moses, the tabernacle of David, Jacob’s was on the side of a hill, there was no building at all. We have the temple of Solomon and the rebuilt temple of Solomon, which was twice the size. So we got several houses, but only one was on a mountain. It was hardly worthy of being called a mountain; it was Mount Zion, where David’s tabernacle was, which was a prophetic picture of continuous 24/7 worship and intercession offered by the people of God for the salvation of nations.
So when He says the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as chief of all mountains, He’s describing that He will restore His people as a worshiping people and they will have influence over all the other mountains of influence. We, as a team, deal with this issue a lot because there is a personal and corporate frustration by learning to recognize where we are in the last days by the negative things happening in the world. What happens is you become edified in a strange way by crisis; well, it’s just the signs of the last times.
What about these signs? I know there are wars and rumors of wars, but none of those are promises. It takes no faith to believe for those. A good part of the church simply believes for crisis to happen as a sign of the last days because they want to go home to heaven instead of wanting to bring heaven here and change the world. There’s greater confidence in the return of Christ than in the power of the gospel. It’s the power of the gospel that changes people. If it can change a person, it can change a family. If it can change a family, it can change a city. If it can change a city, it can change a state and a nation. These are all the same things: faithful in little, faithful in much. What it takes to change an individual is what it takes to change a nation.
This whole idea of people reading into hurricanes and all the nonsense that goes on as just signs of the last days, well, maybe so. But what about the things that require faith to believe? People can exist in the church with zero faith concerning the last days and just ride out catastrophe after catastrophe, receiving some strange, perverted sense of edification because they recognize it’s the last days.
As long as I’m on the subject, Romans chapter 2 says, «Prophesy according to your faith,» which explains why so many negative words have been given. It takes no faith to believe that things are going downhill; it doesn’t take any faith to believe that things are declining. All you have to do is just not do anything, and you can feel prophetically edified—how discerning you are concerning the last days. Yet your prophetic word has done nothing to change the environment we are in.
Alright, I said four or five verses; none of them will take me that long, I hope. All the others will be much more edifying than I was just now—maybe, maybe not. Look at it again: «It will come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s house, remember Zion, shall be established on the top of the mountains, shall be exalted above all the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, 'Come and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths, for out of Zion will go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.'» Amen! That was just a wonderful word right there.
Amos chapter 9—it’s on page 1300. If you don’t know where Amos is, just go to the Psalms and turn right. The phrase «last days» isn’t used in this passage in Amos, but it is the subject. Amos chapter 9, it’s right before Obadiah—I’m sure that helps. It’s actually after Daniel, so if you find Daniel, you’re close. Alright, Amos chapter 9, verse 11: «On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old.»
Why? Verse 12: «That they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles who are called by My name.» When this verse is quoted by James in Acts 15, instead of saying that he would possess the remnant of Edom, he uses a phrase that translates the meaning; if you will, he says that «the rest of mankind may seek the Lord.» So what about the Isaiah passage? God’s going to restore His people as a worshiping community, and from that place of interaction with the Spirit of God, interaction with heaven itself, interaction with the purposes of God on the earth, they will actually have influence over all the other mountains.
Mountains in Scripture represent governments, powers, authorities. So that mountain of worship will actually influence all the other mountains. In this passage, it says, in fact, excuse me, in the Isaiah passage, it concludes by saying, «And many people will stream to the house of the Lord wanting to hear what God is saying.» Did you recognize that? Many people will stream to the house of the Lord. I’ve seen this happen on a number of occasions where people have, I remember a situation with my sister many years ago. She went out to Whiskeytown Lake, and this guy walked up to her and said, «What’s different about you?»
She kind of brushed him off, but it turned out he was seeing the Spirit of God resting upon her and wanted to know what that was. There have been so many situations where worshipers enter an environment, and people look at them and literally want to know what God is saying. Being a worshiper—not just at the beginning of a meeting, but as a lifestyle—changes so many things in our lives and causes the mountain of the Lord’s house to become the chief of all mountains, influencing this passage. God says, «I’m going to restore that worshiping community.»
«Tabernacle of David» is the phrase used. «I’m going to restore that worshiping community.» James put it this way: «That the rest of mankind may seek the Lord.» This may not be clear to you, but worship actually opens up the heavens for people to think and see clearly. Look at Isaiah 62. I hope you have your gospel track shoes on because we’re going to run—not after any pitbulls, but we’re going to run!
I just want you to see what He says. You guys doing alright? Everybody’s alright? You’re happy still? Good! I didn’t want to mess you up with my willingness to shoot a pitbull. Believe me, if he was attacking you, you’d be hoping I was somewhere close. Alright, Isaiah 60, verse 18: «Your walls"—second half of the verse—"your walls will be called salvation, your gates praise.» This is the same theme now. Alright, so gates are praise. What are gates made of in the Bible? The gates of the city of Jerusalem are made of one solid pearl. How are pearls formed? Through irritation.
How are the gates of praise formed in our lives? By praising Him in spite of circumstances. If you want a gateway for an invasion of God into your life’s situations, there’s only one way to build the gate: as you turn your heart toward Him in difficulty and give Him praise before you see an answer. «So your walls are called salvation, and your gates praise.» In the same theme, move now to verse 10 of chapter 62: «Go through, go through the gates.»
What are the gates? Oh no, I just gave you the answer like 30 seconds ago! What are the gates? That’s right! I’m not handing out grades, but I always loved it when my teacher gave me the answer before asking the question—always happy about that because I needed all the help I could get. Alright, what are the gates? Verse 10: «Go through, go through the gates.» Yes! Are you with me? «Prepare the way for the people!» Aha! «Build up, build up the highway.» Huh? What’s a highway? A place of easy access.
Now, what are we doing in this context? We’re entering through praise into this gateway, doing what? Opening the way for people! «Build up, build up the highway! Take out the stones! Lift up a banner over the people!» He said, «I’m going to establish the mountain of God’s house as the chief of all mountains.» And the reason is so the people will stream to the Lord. He says, «I’m going to restore the tabernacle of David.» So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord.
Here He says, «Go through the gates of praise, and the end result is you’re going to be building a highway.» Jesus is the Redeemer; He’s the one who makes the connection. But we get to participate in the process when we live beyond human reasoning and give praise in advance of an answer. In doing so, we literally clear the airwaves so that people can think clearly and have honest options to give themselves to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you get all that? Okay! Alright, go to Micah. If you’re in Amos, turn right and go about three books. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah; he lived in his day. Another prophet—Micah 4, verse 1: «It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it.» Have we heard this anywhere recently? Many nations shall come and say, «Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways; we will walk in His paths. Out of Zion the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.»
So we have two prophets saying the exact same thing. Amos comes along and just changes the perspective a little, but it is with the same intended outcome. The intended outcome of last days ministry is the harvest of masses, masses of people; it’s the harvest of souls; it’s nations literally coming to the Lord. That’s the prophetic description of the last days.
How many remember Paul Harvey? Paul Harvey, the news commentator—he was a believer, by the way. At the end of his story, he’d say, «And now you know the rest of the story.» That’s what I’m trying to do today: let you know the other side of the story, besides the earthquakes and famines. This is the rest of the story. Let’s go to Hosea. Go to Hosea, which is back after Daniel, so you need to turn left. Alright, go left; it’s before Amos. Some of you guys have been through more of your Bible tonight than you have in a long time. You’re just used to plodding along chapter by chapter. I’m trying to get you familiar with the book.
Hosea 3:5: «Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.» What is the significance of David their king? Do you remember who is called throughout eternity the son of David? This is an easy one. If you were raised in Sunday school, you know the answer was always Jesus, right? I remember the story of a Sunday school teacher who asked her student, «What’s gray, furry, about this tall, and has a long tail?» The kids just sat there in silence. She said, «Come on, you guys—furry, gray, this tall, long bushy tail, eats nuts, climbs trees.» And one kid says, «I know the answer is supposed to be Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!»
So if you look at this verse—verse 5, last half of the verse—they shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days. It probably doesn’t exist in this room, but there is certainly not much belief that the fear of God is not a New Testament principle. And it’s silly, because it actually says so. So what the Bible says is to just adjust what you think. If you think differently than the Bible, just slap yourself and adjust. Don’t try to make what contradicts your belief say what you want it to say. Just say, «Thanks, I needed that,» and move on.
This word for fear, the fear of God, actually means tremble, but it has another unique meaning—it means to be startled. In other words, it’s somebody standing there, just nice and peaceful, and somebody comes up behind them and shakes them. They’re startled, and they’re still shaking for several minutes afterward because they got so startled. Imagine God sneaking up on you with His goodness and overwhelming you with His goodness to the point that you sit there trembling because of His goodness!
Sorry, if you’re in the last days, you’re stuck with that promise—I’m so sorry! Startled by His goodness! Now listen, if you get a nice raise at work—let’s say you work hard, and they give you a $3 raise per hour—that’s awesome! But you’re not startled. You save your money, and you can get that car you’ve been wanting. Bless you for that because that’s an important part of life, amen? I’m happy for you, but you’re not startled!
It’s got to be a wee bit bigger than that to be startled. My prayer is that He sneaks up behind you, goes boom, and then releases bounty and blessing all over you. It’s interesting—in verse 6 of chapter 4 of Hosea, He says, «My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.» You have rejected knowledge. People are destroyed for lack of knowledge. You know, you’ll never find God leading His people into mindless Christianity. I don’t buy into that. I just don’t like to subject God to human reasoning, that’s all. I want my submission to God to affect my human reasoning. I don’t want to try to control God through my human reasoning, does that make sense?
He’s not subject to me. He doesn’t owe me anything. He doesn’t owe me any explanation. He owes me nothing! God will not answer any of our prayers that elevate us as the Lord of our lives. God will not answer any of our prayers that somehow elevate us or strengthen our tendency to want to be the Lord of our own lives. He does not lead us into independence; He leads us into maturity, but not independence.
A couple more verses, I think. Let’s do—well, no. Let’s do three more; let’s go to Malachi. That’s the last book in the Old Testament, and go to the last chapter, and we’re going to read the last verse in the Old Testament. Actually, I’m going to read more than just the last verse. I just lengthened this thing by five minutes! If you get through before I do, just go home!
This last chapter is about the great day of the Lord. Look at verse 1: «Behold, the day is coming.» Now remember, we’re talking about the latter days: «Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven. All the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble; and the day which is coming shall burn them up,» says the Lord of hosts, «that will leave them neither root nor branch.» But you, «who fear My name, the Son of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.» Here’s something I want you to see: «But in that day He will come to you with healing in His wings.»
This isn’t heaven, because healing is needed. You know, your healing ministry, your deliverance ministry, is only good for now. It won’t do you any good in heaven. Your deliverance ministry will do you no good unless He lets you go on a field trip—that’s bad! The son of righteousness says, «But you who fear My name, the Son of righteousness will arise with healing in His wings.»
Notice something: son of righteousness, healing in His wings—wings can be translated as edge of a garment. Sound familiar? There it is: healing in His wings, edge of a garment! The son of righteousness will come with healing in His wings. What’s it saying? Healing is a manifestation of God’s righteousness. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. The manifestation of His kingdom is healing.
Verse 5—oh, actually, I should read the rest of verse 2: «You who fear My name, the Son of righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings, and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.» I just wanted to read that part—"you shall grow fat.» It’s interesting because earlier in the book of Malachi He said, «You’ve robbed me because you’ve withheld tithes and offerings.» And He says, «Tithe and give offerings that there may be food in My house.»
It takes food to get fat, you understand? It’s not talking about our waistlines; it’s talking about the abundance of revelation in the hearts of God’s people that there may be food in His house. I don’t know any church on the planet that has constant, fresh revelation from God that also does not have radical generosity. One precedes the other. You can’t buy it, but you also can’t get it any other way.
Alright, finally verse 5. It took me a while to get here, but I’m here! «Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.» He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. I will send you Elijah the prophet. People came up to John the Baptist and said, «Are you the coming prophet?» John said, «No, it’s not me.» They went to Jesus and said, «Is John the coming prophet?» He goes, «Yeah.»
Yeah, he’s the guy! You don’t really need to know your title as long as you know your function. It’s so funny to me; it’s not me! Honestly, I know it’s not me; Jesus is—He’s the one! So that prophetic mantle that was upon Elijah comes upon a generation to prepare people for Jesus, and that prophetic mantle is not for the destruction of people; it’s to prepare for the restoration of fathers and sons, sons and daughters—that whole family connection, that relationship. It’s to set the stage for what God wants to do in the earth, because the outpouring of the Spirit is, in part, for the restoration of family.
Two more verses, I promise. Acts 1—I’ll skip one of the verses I was going to read; it was Luke 24, and it’s basically the same as this passage. The last phrase of verse 3 of Acts chapter 1 says that Jesus appeared to them over a period of 40 days, teaching them about the kingdom of God. Verse 4: «Being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said you’ve heard from Me.»
«John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days from now.» Verse 6: «They asked Him, 'Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? '» He said, «It’s not for you to know the times or seasons.» Verse 8: «But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.»
Twice in this chapter Jesus is speaking, or it says that He’s teaching them. Picture this: He raises from the dead, and He appears and reappears to His disciples a number of times over a period of 40 days, and He’s teaching them about the kingdom because that is now the message. On two occasions, in this chapter, it records Him teaching about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Every believer has the Holy Spirit, but there’s more.
Remember when Israel left Egypt? You recall that Old Testament story? They were in slavery; the blood was put on the doorpost of the house—the Passover lamb, representing the blood of Jesus. Egypt—forgive me if you’re Egyptian; this is not derogatory towards you, it’s just a prophetic picture of being enslaved in sin. They were slaves; blood was applied, and they were released. What happened next? They went through what Paul calls the «baptism of Moses.»
Remember? They went through the Red Sea, which was supposed to be an 11-day journey that took 40 years. They got out of Egypt, but Egypt didn’t get out of them. Sometimes what God has planned to take a short time takes a long time! Yeah, so the blood does what sets them free. They go through a water baptism of Moses before entering the Promised Land. What has to happen? They have to go through a second baptism.
That was a sea; this one’s a river. Jesus talked about that river in John chapter 7 and made specific reference that that river is the Holy Spirit. Some of Israel lived on the wilderness side of the river; on the wilderness side of the river, some of Israel lived on the other side, but they were one nation. Today, we have a church divided over a river, but they’re still one nation! When there’s a war, you fight for each other. They got to that second body of water and had to go through another baptism, if you will—if we can use that language—to come into the land of promises.
The land of promises is a prophetic portrayal or picture of living in the kingdom of God. The baptism of the Holy Spirit—verse 4 is called the «Promise of the Father.» Picture yourself standing on the wilderness side of a river, and there’s this river in front of you. On the other side of the river is what God has promised for you. Then the miracle happens; the river parts, there’s dry ground, and you walk into those promises. What is that over there? That’s the Promise of the Father in New Testament Christianity. What is that promise? It’s the immersion into the power of God so that His purposes can be worked in and through you to bring transformation to the world around you.
Verse 8: «You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.» Chapter 2, verse 33: «Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear.»
Verse 39: «This promise—» What promise? Easy quiz; I just gave you the answer. What promise? «Okay, the Holy Spirit promise of the Father!» Yes! Verse 39: «The promise is to you and your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.» What’s the life spirit? What’s the shelf life of the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the purposes of God in the church? This right here says it’s for every generation, amen!
It was never meant to be relegated to an opening generation; it was supposed to be an ongoing, sustained impact of the Spirit of God on people. The worst thing in the world to do is to try to enter that experience through your brain, because it will hurt you. You’ll get a whiplash and an injury. This is literally a hunger that we have for a fresh touch of God in our lives. To try to categorize what God wants to do through our theological filter is horrible. The best thing we can do is hunger for God.
In Acts 2, there was an outpouring of the Spirit, and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. In Acts 4, a verse that was read earlier tonight, they were baptized again, and it was some of the same people. So the whole point is we leak! Therefore, we have to be refilled constantly.
So, please stand. Alright, you do alright? We got four survivors; that’s awesome—that’s great! Yes, indeed! You know how a mother bird gets its little chick to learn how to fly? Why are you laughing? Did I say it right, or did I…? Yes? You know how it happens? It just keeps pulling feathers out of the nest until the little chick gets so dissatisfied! May the Lord give you the gift of dissatisfaction because sometimes what we really need is outside the nest!
But it’s so warm and comfortable in here; I just want God to bring it to me. No! He wants to take you to it! He wants to take you there in your own way! Yeah, that’s probably enough.
Close your eyes—not that it’s spiritual; I just don’t want you to be distracted. I want you to ask Him to touch you. I want you to ask Him, like out loud. I know He can read your thoughts, but don’t test Him. Ask Him! Ask Him until you can hear your own voice. Ask Him! Don’t stop; no tokenism! Thank you, Lord!
Ask the Lord specifically. You may be at a place where you say, «Lord, I’m not even hungry for this, but I know I should be.» That’s a good place to start—honestly, it is! He loves honest prayers! He loves honest prayers! Maybe you’ve been warned that something weird would happen—then tell Him that! «God, I’m afraid!» But just pray!
There are some in the room that have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. There are others who have, but it’s become stale and old; it’s been like a past experience, but it’s not fresh; it’s not current. I feel like the Lord wants to give everybody in the room an upgrade—an upgrade, an increase! Those who are watching on Bethel TV, the same thing can happen to you—a fresh baptism in the Spirit! We pray for that for every person, every person right now.
Those of you that are asking for more, honestly, just begin to worship, to bless the Lord. We pray for that Holy Spirit baptism. Sometimes it comes like lightning, like fire; sometimes it’s a soothing rain. But He comes to refresh. We used to call praying in tongues the secret language to our children, and it was so easy for them to receive that secret language at the age of four.
So if you have a secret language, your prayer language, just begin to pray right now in the Spirit all through the room! It’s not halves and halves; it’s all people that are hungry for more fresh baptism in the Holy Spirit! Come, Lord—baptize now in the Holy Spirit and power!