Bill Johnson - Generosity Is a Weapon (An Unusual Tactic in Spiritual Warfare)
Thank you, thank you! Please, be seated. Wow, wow, wow! I’m happy—happy that we get to be together! I like this a lot. To have Lou Engle, his wonderful wife, and Heidi Baker in the same town at the same time might cause something to happen. There are no guarantees; anything could happen. It’s good to have you here too. We’re so glad you came with Lou and for lending Lou to us for the last year. I don’t think there’s anybody else on the planet that our church family has canceled everything just to do whatever we can to partner with.
So, Azusa, a few years back, was such a significant moment for us. Then this week—Friday—how many of you were at the Field of Dreams? So cool! So good! So glad you came. Leo and Tess, thanks so much for being here and honoring our house, Heidi, tonight. Oh goodness, I’m just glad that no matter what time I show up, that chair is mine. Just so you understand, I’ll get here early but not as early as you’ll have to! No, sir!
Yes, I used to make fun of my parents for going to bed at 9:30; now I wonder how they stayed up so late! Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you’ll be a mile away and have his shoes. That’s not kingdom at all; that’s from another kingdom! By replacing your morning coffee with green tea, you can lose up to 87% of what little joy you have left in your life.
How many firstborns are there? And how many are the baby of the family? Alright, this one’s for you! You finally get your own joke. I wish my siblings would stop calling me spoiled just because I’m the baby in the family. The fact is, my parents kept having children until they found one they liked! That’s not my problem! There we go. How many of you, babies in the family, felt a little better with that one? Finally, fine, a little vindication!
I started jogging today. I didn’t want to, but the ice cream truck kept driving by. Heaven has strict immigration laws; hell has open borders. Can you believe I read that on a Sunday morning when we’re being streamed? I was going to say I’m sorry, but I’m not, so I just thought that was a good one.
Some of you aren’t smiling, and I know who you are. We are no more like Christ than we are generous, as I heard someone say recently. For God so loved the world that he gave. Part of the problem is that generosity, we know, is a huge value. This is a very generous house. But part of the problem in subjects like this is it gets relegated to the offering plate that goes by or some special missions thing or something. Those are important; I don’t ever want to downplay that because it’s a significant part of my life.
I’ve been sowing into world missions for goodness, probably well over 54 years, if not longer—sowing into the poor every month for at least 40 years. It’s a regular part of my budget. I believe in that stuff a lot, but the problem is that generosity is actually at the heart of the gifts of the Spirit. For example, 1 Corinthians 12:13–14 states that the entire purpose for ministering in the gifts is for the edification of the church.
Let me rephrase that: the entire purpose for ministering in the gifts of the Spirit is to get something from God that will make someone else’s life more complete through your generous giving. When we minister in a true culture, a spirit of generosity, we are not only able to properly direct our resources, but He gives us the opportunity to access His resources and distribute them. Healing doesn’t come from me; it doesn’t come from you, but I’ve been able to deliver the gift to somebody else through His grace—the heart for the strength of the people of God to see others complete. The gifts are not for self-consumption, except for tongues—for edification. Everything else is because God puts something on you that is to benefit somebody else’s life.
So the entire purpose, in fact, the driving point behind the development and maturity involved in functioning in the gifts is 1 Corinthians 14: pursue earnestly spiritual gifts. Pursue earnestly! Get alone with God, cry out to Him for areas of breakthrough in your life so that you can generously gift somebody else. Distribute that which originated in the heart of God for people and help make them more complete.
By the time you get to the end of chapter 14, there is the implication that whenever you come together, come ready to give something to somebody else. Come with a song, come with a verse, a prophecy—come with something that will make somebody else’s life more complete. The whole concept in this kingdom culture, this culture of heaven, is that we come equipped and ready to pour into somebody else’s life. I may not have any money, but I have words. I have attention; I can give you my undivided attention, look into your life, and do my best to help you. It’s a generous lifestyle; it’s a culture of generosity.
We are no more like Christ than we are generous. The target for me—Psalms 35 says the Lord delights; He gets really happy in the prosperity of His servants. This is a biblical concept—a biblical subject: prosperity. The problem with the subject is how it’s been applied and distorted, but the subject is still rich. We don’t correct a subject by neglecting it; we correct the error by learning to do it correctly.
Now here’s the deal: the Lord gives us this statement in 3 John, verse 2, where He says, «I want you to prosper and be in good health.» I want you to prosper in external things and be in good health—your temple—even as your soul prospers. So the biblical standard is that health on the inside should determine the health on the outside. Here’s the challenge: if I prosper more on the outside than I do on the inside, I will build my own kingdom. I will use that favor and blessing for me. If I prosper on the inside more than the outside, I will use whatever He gives me for His glory.
So good! When you live that way, as we learn to live with that mindset and that value system, we delight in the privilege of, let’s just say, buying the missionary’s child a bike. That’s a great privilege. But when you see it from heaven’s perspective, you have equal delight in buying your own child a bike. Both are generosity.
There are expected times to be generous, and I don’t mean that in a negative sense. You’re invited to a friend’s birthday party; it’s customary to at least bring a card or something to honor them for their birthday. There are expected times, but there are also unexpected times—unexpected opportunities that God gives us. They’re very unusual.
What I’d like to declare with you this morning is that generosity is actually a weapon. There’s this passage—see if I can bring it up here quick. I have more than jokes in here; just want you to know I do have more in case the sermon goes bad! In Romans 12:20, the Passion translation brings something out beautifully: «If your enemy is hungry, buy him lunch. Win him over with kindness.» Here’s the phrase I love so much: «For your surprising generosity will awaken his conscience.»
Listen, we live in a time and a culture where the conscience of so many people, because of things they’ve suffered, because of things they’ve done, has worn down to next to nothing. There’s hardly a conscience left! It is so easy for us to point the finger and ridicule their value system or their behavior or whatever. Generosity, unexplained, unexpected, unreasonable generosity awakens something in them that may have been dead for a long time.
So I want you to turn in your Bibles with me and open to 2 Kings, chapter 6. We’re going to look at a beautiful story here—2 Kings, chapter 6, verse 15. By the way, welcome, welcome, welcome to our online family! So glad that we get to spend this day with you.
Verse 15: «And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, 'Alas, my master! What shall we do? '» So he, being Elisha, answered, «Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.»
And Elisha prayed and said, «Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.» Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw—and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Make a mental note: this man, Elisha, had such extraordinary favor with God that the chariots of fire surrounded him as an individual. It wasn’t just around the city or the people of God; he carried with him a host of heaven. Wow!
Don’t think for a moment that we don’t worship angels—that’s foolish! But it’s equally foolish to ignore them. According to scripture, they’ve been sent to render service—to those who would inherit salvation. Listen to me. They were so important that they were actually used to minister to Jesus. If you have a hard time believing that Jesus came entirely as a man, as God, He wouldn’t need strength from angels.
But He so restricted His function that He actually needed angelic assistance. If you can imagine—angels who had been bowing before Him, worshiping Him all their time of existence—now in this moment, they come to Jesus to strengthen Him. Wow! This man of God, Elisha, has the mountains around the city covered with chariots of fire and angels, and they were there because he was there.
Your radical yes attracts the attention of heaven, and God has purposed to reinforce every yes with the presence of an angelic host to assist us in completing our task. Verse 18: «So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, 'Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.'» Don’t ever pray that for me, please! «Strike this people with blindness.» He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.
Now Elisha said to them, «This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me; I will bring you to the man whom you seek.» But he led them to Samaria. So it was, when they had come to Samaria, Elisha said, «Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see.» And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw, and there they were—inside Samaria.
Now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, «My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? Please, please, please let me kill them!» You’ve got to put this into context. This is Samaria! Right here! We’re inside of a city terrified because of the well-prepared army outside the walls. We are hiding in fear, absolutely exhausted with fear, fearing for our lives, not knowing how in the world we could ever win against this army that surrounds us.
Then the prophet leads this army into the city, and you could have your way with them! You could actually show them the vindication of the Lord. You could prove the people of God are in charge and not them! And so the king says, «Shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? Please, just give me permission.»
And Elisha says, «No, you shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword or your bow? Set food and water before them that they may eat and drink and go to their master.» And he prepared a great feast for them. After they ate and drank, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.
That’s amazing! David had a moment like this when he had been prophesied over that he would be king several times—a pouring on him, anointed as king—yet he’s being chased by this madman Saul, who was trying to kill him on several occasions. At one point, David is hiding with his men in a cave, and Saul came into the cave, not knowing they were there. He laid down to rest. David’s men reminded him of the prophecies over his life, saying, «This is God’s moment.» They prophesied to him, «This is the divine moment! You can kill Saul!»
Remember the women of the city saying, «Saul has killed his thousands; David his ten thousands»? David already had favor; he would be the next in line. All he had to do was strike the king. But he refuses to because he will not grab for himself. It must be delivered to him from the Lord.
I can’t prove this, but it’s my thinking: if he would have killed him, he would have had a blessed kingdom. But he could not have reached the level of breakthrough that he did, because he chose to do it God’s way without the arm of flesh as his backing and his strength. He chose not to kill him, and in fact, what he did was cut the corner of his robe off. Then he went on the other side of a ravine and yelled, «Woke up Saul!» He showed him the robe, saying, «I could have killed you!»
But then he actually repented because he blemished the image of his king by cutting off the corner of his robe. I wish there were greater conviction in the body of Christ to stop using opportunities to blemish the image of another person, no matter how right it seems to be. It can feel so vindicated because of their behavior or their values, and yet David refused to step into a promotion and an opportunity by his own hand.
Now we have the Syrian army surrounding—excuse me, the army of Israel—the people of Israel surrounding the Syrian army, and the king wants to kill them. The prophet says, «Let’s feed them.» To me, that’s a great idea! I figure it’s always time to eat. I tell people when I visit their cities or nations, «Listen, I’m here to eat! If you want to have meetings in between the meals, that’s fine—I don’t mind! But I’m here to eat.»
In fact, I’m going to France this week; I’m going to eat! I know there are meetings and a lot of people will be healed, but I will be fed! This is the ambition right here! Here’s this extraordinary moment: using this concept out of Romans 12 is a verse I read earlier—where radical generosity awakens the conscience of another.
Think through the story for a minute. You’ve got an army that is absolutely filled with passion, desire, and ambition to kill every person in that city. They are bent on destruction. Their goal, their ambition, their way of gratification is to kill everyone in the city of Samaria. And now they’re inside. They haven’t lost the desire to kill; they’ve just lost the opportunity.
Instead of doing what any other army would have done in this moment, Elisha says, «Let’s feed them.» They create a big feast and they give—at the most awkward time possible! There are times to give; you know you’re invited to a friend’s birthday party, you bring a card. You’re invited to a Christmas party; whatever—we’re accustomed to.
Yesterday, I was at our BCA final day of the play Christos, and the afternoon performance was absolutely amazing. It’s appropriate to honor those who did so well, and I did—and many others enjoyed that incredible production. There are appropriate times, then there are neutral times, and then there’s just plain awkward times—this is one of them!
Awkward times! You’ve got a group of people that wanted to kill you 10 minutes ago, and now, instead, we throw a feast! I don’t know what happened. If you can imagine, I don’t know how it worked out. We know that the Syrian king is in charge; he’s not with the army. The army’s there. They honor this group of soldiers, feed them, and drink well; they eat well.
They send them back to Syria, and somehow the king, who was dead set on Israel’s destruction, was persuaded to change his value system because of soldiers who had awakened consciousness. Those soldiers were filled with passion right before they faced their own funeral—but instead, they faced a feast. It so impacted them that somehow they brought a report back to their king, and the king changed his plans. That group never again invaded Samaria!
This lifestyle of generosity is actually one of the evidences of actual repentance. Repentance isn’t just continuous godly sorrow; godly sorrow produces repentance. Repentance is changing the way you think and changing the view on how reality functions. When you come to Christ, you learn that He thinks way differently.
I’ve been doing this a long time; He still thinks way different! I’m trying to catch up, but He still thinks that you’re exalted by going low. He still thinks you receive by giving; He still thinks you live by dying. He still thinks that these ways of His kingdom are superior to ours, and every day of our life, He’s exposing us to the way He thinks because He’s looking to shift our perspective—the place from which we see.
He’s not just looking for an occasional act of generosity on my part; He’s looking for perception—a way of thinking. You can’t receive the benefits of one kingdom by obeying the laws of another. You can’t receive the benefits of one kingdom by yielding to, submitting to the laws of another kingdom. And often, unknowingly, ignorantly, we obey the ways of thinking of this culture, of this system, and then pray for God’s bounty—the bounty of His world to enter ours. And God is so merciful; He constantly lets us taste of that.
But He’s looking to train us on how to see, how to think. Generosity is actually a possible, potential default—an immediate response to a situation! The immediate response is how I can give into this. So good! A number of years ago, I started a particular discipline—a routine. I like taking communion day after day after day, which we did on the ball field yesterday, by the way.
Someone on Lou’s team had a dream—Christian, I don’t know if she’s here, but she had a dream where she saw Benny, my wife, at the prayer house, and she was overseeing the ball field. She made this statement: «Wherever there’s division, there’s a lack of intercession.» Is that amazing? Wow!
When I take communion, I bring before the Lord the names of different leaders that I know—around the country, around the world—who have taken it upon themselves to not like me. I don’t know why they have done this, but they have; they speak against me and speak against Bethel. They do videos, movies, the record, the podcast—all the stuff.
I have a mental list. I don’t write it down because I don’t want anyone to find it; they might think it’s there for a different reason. I have a mental list. I know the names, I know the ministries, and I believe they are truly doing what they believe is best to honor the Lord. For some, we just fall in different categories theologically; for others, they believed a sentence out of a message and heard a rumor or whatever.
A case was built against me for not believing whatever. My list, when I take communion—especially when I break the bread—I come to the Lord with the names of these people, praying for God’s blessing on them, praying that they would have prosperity of soul, that they would fulfill the dreams they’ve said yes to Jesus. They’re in full-time ministry, serving Him around the world; they have dreams, they have ambitions, and they have things that God put in their hearts many years ago.
So I pray for them to fulfill those dreams, and I pray for their children, their grandchildren, that they would have multiple generations of believers. I do this. I don’t pray for God to correct their theology if we’re different; I never pray that. I don’t pray that God would do something that violates their belief system.
I personally don’t want any sense of vindication. What I do want is to know that I am functioning the best I know how with clean hands and a pure heart. That’s what the scripture says—to approach the Lord, there needs to be clean hands and a pure heart. So clean hands, for me, is no pointing of the finger. Proverbs says you never criticize a servant to their master. So I’m not going to come to the Father and say, «Look how your son or daughter treated me!» He sees all; He knows all. If He doesn’t defend me, I’m not worth defending.
I’m not going to do it myself, but I will take my moment and genuinely pray for their blessing—that they prosper inside and outside. Why am I saying this? Because, in a sense, it’s giving to someone that you might not automatically want to give to. It’s just who we are! It’s what you do!
To that neighbor that seems to be cantankerous, you bring them a birthday cake on their birthday—I mean, it’s just not the normal expected stuff! We have to keep that up. You know the expected stuff is there for a reason, but it’s the stuff that so violates—that’s a violent term, and I don’t mean it in that sense, but so it goes against what people anticipate and expect.
And that’s who you are! You are counterculture! You’re a person whose act of kindness isn’t when it was expected, but it’s outside of what was expected—outside of what could ever have been anticipated. I remember—I won’t go into the situation, but I remember a number of years ago having a neighbor that was rather interesting—cantankerous, yes—and I remember thinking one day that I need to honor him.
So I went down to Best Buy, bought a fairly elaborate gift, and took it to the house and just left. This guy, who was so normally hard and resistant, came weeping—because somehow, a gift—a feast—awakened a conscience!
It’s who we are! And if I only get immediate return, immediate gratification—"Oh, I did the right thing!"—then I will be subtly trained to give for my benefit. There actually has to be times when it’s thrown back in my face or it’s rejected.
I like to, when I get on a plane, sit often in first class. Thank you, Lord! Let’s give thanks together. I spent decades in the back of the bus; now I get to sit up front because I have flown so much. Anyway, I’ll stop there!
I like, often on international flights, to buy a box of really fine chocolates and give them to the stewardess. Sometimes when I get off the plane, I’ll notice that it got put on some shelf! No one ever benefited from it! I need those times! I need those times when nobody noticed and didn’t come to 5A and say, «Mr. Johnson, are you the one who gave the chocolates?»
I say, «Yes.» And they thank me; that’s fun! But I also need the times when nobody knows; because it helps me to make sure I’m doing it for the right reasons.
So here it is: they prepared a great feast—not just a feast! They prepared a great feast! The French laundry just appeared suddenly in the city of Samaria. After they ate and drank, he sent them away, and they went to their master. The bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel!
Do any of you have bands of raiders in your life that you would just as soon not visit you anymore? Alright, I’ll try this side: any of you have bands of raiders that you’d just as soon not come to your house anymore?
This isn’t a formula; it’s a lifestyle! It’s a lifestyle that makes you Teflon—where things don’t stick that normally would stick. Things can’t attach themselves to you. Why? Because you’re looking where to serve, where to love, what to give!
The cool thing is when you’ve given what you have, you start tapping into the privilege of giving what He has. Suddenly, you’re able to give somebody something that is bigger than your ability to give.
I’ll end with this story—I’ve shared it many times. Chris Vallotton came here. He and Kathy came here 25, 26 years ago and they owned multiple businesses. They closed them down to come and join me! Such a courageous move to move from the business world to this life—and they were!
What I knew he brought with him was extraordinary debt in closing down these businesses. He had extraordinary debt! He didn’t broadcast, didn’t let it be known, but as a friend, I knew what he was facing.
I remember one Sunday morning, I was standing back at that door, as I do week after week. Somebody came up to me, and they had a folded piece of paper. They said, «Is Chris here?» I said, «No. He’s gone this morning, but he’ll be here tonight.» They said, «Here, would you give this to him?»
So I looked at it. It was a check folded in half, and I waited. I said, «Yes, I’ll give it to him tonight.» I waited until they walked around the corner, and because it wasn’t in a sealed envelope, I felt it was God’s will for me to know what was on that check!
They walked around the corner; I flipped it open. I went, «Woo, $30,000!» I looked at the name to make sure it was his, and it was! So I went, «Wow, that’s going to be a blessing!»
I folded it up, stuck it in my Bible. Back here in the dining room is where we used to have our pre-service prayer on Sunday nights, and I was walking around praying. Chris came in. I said, «Chris, come here! Somebody gave this to me to give to you tonight.» He looked at it and said, «Does that say $3,000?» I said, «$30,000!»
He completely ruined the prayer meeting! He walked all around that prayer meeting waving his check, showing everybody what had just been given to him. He was beside himself with joy, and he never once thanked me for all that money, because I didn’t write the check—I just delivered the check!
When you get accustomed to delivering your checks, He starts allowing you to deliver His checks. Then you start imparting the healing that you could not produce—the prophetic word that alters a person’s destiny—the word of wisdom that helps in a moment of crisis. These are the things we get to deliver when we carry the heart of generosity that says, «It’s time to create a feast,» even in the most awkward setting!
So Father, I pray for us as a church family. Impart the grace to see opportunities for the feast! Help us to awaken the conscience of people—Lord God, help us to awaken the conscience of a city, of a nation, through unusual and unreasonable generosity!
Thank you! I want to ask the question—there’s always a high chance that there are people in this room who have never made a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. You don’t know what it is to truly be forgiven of sin. You don’t know what it is to be changed literally from the inside out! The Bible calls it born again.
I believe God set you up; He brought you here as an invitation. I don’t think anybody’s here by accident. So I want to ask the question: is there anyone here that would say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know what it is to be forgiven of sin, to be brought into God’s family, to be changed from the inside out? I’m tired of fighting this thing on my own; I want to surrender to the only one who has the right to run my life.»
If there’s anyone in that position, put a hand up. I want to make an agreement with you right where you are. Just put your hand up high. By doing so, you acknowledge right here—amen! Amen!
Anyone else? Anyone else? Real quickly. Anyone else? I’m going to ask all of you to stand, and for this gentleman here and anyone else that I may have missed, I want to ask you to come down to the front. I want the ministry team to come quickly, and I’d like for anyone coming to Christ to stand over here on my left by the banner.
The people we know and trust; it’s not about joining Bethel; it’s about becoming a child of God—into relationship with Jesus. So I’ll ask you, if you have a friend, maybe they can bring you down. But I want you to come on down. Church, won’t you bless them as they come? Ministry team, come on down to the front!