Bill Johnson - How to Grow Through Your Trial (Do the Math. Never Lack.)
Thank you! Please, please sit down. I love you, too. Thank you. You know, if you can’t get encouraged around Lou, as a friend of mine would say, your wood is wet. If you can’t get lit up under that guy, my goodness, wow, wow, wow! This is more significant than a new chapter; this is more significant than a second chance. This is more significant than a good level of breakthrough. Yes, it has been declared for months now: it’s a new era, and we’re at the beginning. We’re at the beginning of something that requires absolute devotion and incredible stewardship. You know, Divine moments—they don’t come when we want them to; we don’t schedule them. You can’t put it on your calendar and say, «We’re going to have a Divine moment,» and we’ll make all the right choices when it’s necessary. It’s actually the response of Heaven to the cries of Earth, but the timing is entirely up to the Lord. He’s the one who opens the door and says, «Come up here!» We’re in that kind of moment.
I don’t even know what to do. I haven’t known what to do for a couple of years now, but it’s not getting any better. The problem is, I’m getting worse at not knowing what to do. So I pray a lot, and I basically say, «God, I don’t know what I’m doing.» It’s good to be still. I don’t know what I’m doing. Now, I know what to do when somebody tells me, but I just don’t know what to do when it’s my prayer. I had a friend who called me recently; he said, «We have a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and we don’t know what we’re doing,» and I said, «Well, that’s what qualifies you.» But I don’t want to hear that! I don’t know if you got that, but we’ll just leave that right there.
Yeah, we’re in a significant… I don’t even know if it’s a season. We’ve been declaring this for a number of years; our team has been declaring that we are at the beginning of a Great Awakening. I believe that’s true, but there have only been two in all of history, so we’re not talking about a good weekend service. Yes, we just had a glory cloud show up. We’ve had it happen 26 times that I know of that we’ve counted. We just had one show up this last week with the junior highs. Don’t be offended, but it wasn’t a prayer meeting; it was Game Night. I don’t know why that surprises me so much, but it does. You know, the first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding, so the Lord apparently likes gatherings for delight and celebration. I have a feeling, as you can tell, I’m rambling, and it may not stop. I have a feeling that all the things we’ve experienced up until now—we’ve been in this outpouring for 30 years—have created momentum, but it hasn’t created a playbook.
It’s given us momentum; it’s given us a taste of what it’s like when the glory comes, what it’s like when there’s certain kinds of anointing for breakthrough, etc. But it hasn’t given us a breakthrough. None of the lists you find in Scripture contain God; they all reveal God. There’s a difference. The gifts of the Spirit—there are nine that are listed, three sets of three. I think it was just to help administrators feel valuable. I did an interview this week for a documentary, and they were asking about the gifts of the Spirit and stuff. I told them—I could tell he was absolutely dumbfounded. I said, «You know, I have two relatives who, when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, wrote in perfect Chinese and had never known or studied the language.» They just wrote. They kept the papers. A missionary came through town, read them and said, «This is Psalms 23,» and this one was just a song of praise. So one was a song of praise, and one was the 23rd Psalm. That’s not on the list, but it’s consistent with the list. Does that make sense? It’s consistent with the list. The list doesn’t confine God; it reveals Him.
When you taste of the things of God in a revival setting, in an awakening setting, awakening goes deep into the roots of culture itself, deep into the root system of how things are formed in a city, in a nation. I don’t know. Let me put it this way: you’ve never seen it before, so you don’t know what it’s going to look like. I’ve never seen it before because I wasn’t alive during Wesley’s day. I know you may not believe that, but I really wasn’t. All kinds of humorous thoughts come to my mind, and I’m going to show incredible discipline and ignore them all. Let me just talk to you for a bit, and let’s just see where this goes. I have some things on my heart, but let’s just see—go to James chapter 1, and we’ll start there.
James chapter 1: we had a celebration of life service for my mom this last Thursday, and as I was thinking about that particular day and the closing remarks that I was to make at this memorial service, I just started pondering once again the incredible mystery of how different God thinks. He doesn’t think differently to be different; He thinks differently because He’s right, and we’re the ones who think differently. His perspective is different. He sees the end from the beginning. He sees every situation that comes our way, and He has a special design in being able to use it for a specific purpose. He sees the long-term effects of certain experiences, both negative and positive. He’s not the author of death; He’s not the author of confusion; He’s not the author of loss. But He is the significant one who wins with every hand we’re dealt. He just thinks differently.
What He’s doing with you and me is He’s given us enough commands in Scripture to help us think like He does, and without surrender, it’s not going to happen. You know, the Scripture says, «You’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.» Knowing truth doesn’t set you free. There are people all over the world who have studied the Scriptures six, seven, eight, ten hours a day for years, for decades, and they’re not free because a mental comprehension of a concept doesn’t set a person free. The knowing that is talked about here is the knowing by experience. When God gives you insight of a truth, it always comes as an invitation to an experience.
Many believers stop short of transformational encounters because they’re satisfied with good theology. When the Lord opens up something to you and to me, it always comes with an invitation to develop a relationship in that way. I’m not talking about experience in the sense that you pray, you fall, you shake for three hours on the floor—that’s glorious, and I hope it happens to everyone—but that’s not the point. The point is that because He has shown me this is His nature, this is what I’m to learn, this is how I’m to think and to see, then I am responsible to pursue Him in light of that insight. When the Apostle Paul taught the church at Corinth about the gifts of the Spirit, he was talking to a group of people who were accustomed in their history to serving multiple gods. So he was bringing to them insight that all these multiple gifts came from one Spirit, and they all came for one purpose.
He was helping them with their theology, and he gave them the greatest insight in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 12 on the gifts of the Spirit—chapter 14 verse 1 says, «Pursue earnestly spiritual gifts.» Why would we need the command to pursue if He just gave us the absolute best revelation ever on the gifts of the Spirit? Because the revelation doesn’t impart; it invites. The revelation is an invitation. He says, «Pursue earnestly spiritual gifts.» That means then, once insight has been given, there is a responsibility that you and I have to actually seek the face of God regarding that matter. Anyone can memorize Scripture, quote Scripture, win the Bible quiz. When questions are asked—what does this mean? What does that mean? What’s the oldest book of the Bible? How long was Israel in the wilderness? We can all answer the questions and still know nothing about the God who transforms because He’s a God to be known.
So, when it says, «You will know the truth,» it’s experiential knowledge of truth that sets a person free. This is fascinating to me because the Lord—every commandment He gives us leads to freedom. There are no commandments that are punishment. There are none that restrict us in the sense that they keep us from life; they restrict us from the things that kill. So, when the Lord speaks a command to us, He’s setting boundaries for our behavior so that we will experience Him more fully and know what liberty is. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Wherever the Spirit demonstrates the lordship of Jesus, freedom is the evidence. Wherever the Holy Spirit leads an individual into the experience of His lordship, you can measure it through freedom. That’s a good word!
The Lord is always working toward us being free—greater liberty, greater freedom. We were all designed to have creative expression in the earth; we were all designed to be unique thinkers. Unique—not in a sense that, you know, some people are unique just because they want to be different. They are unique, and then there’s an honest uniqueness—a person living out who God made them to be. In Zechariah 1, the Lord talks about four beasts that rise up in the earth. Four refers to worldwide—four corners of the earth; north, south, east, and west. These four horns—these powers, authorities that rise up in the earth really to overwhelm and overcome the people of God. The Lord’s answer for those four horns is to raise up four artisans, creatives. Wow! We’re not talking about people; we’re talking because it’s four—it’s worldwide. In other words, it’s the people of God who have become free because free people think creatively.
Free people think creatively! As long as I am worried, as long as I am bound with regret, as long as I’m worried about what will happen, if the enemy can tie me to the failures or disappointments of yesterday and make me fearful about tomorrow, he has undercut my creativity. I don’t mean creativity necessarily just in writing music or painting pictures; I’m talking about the way we approach life—the uniqueness of a Divine moment when you’re talking to a friend, and you have this most unusual idea, but you’re free, and you share the idea, and it happens to be the very key thing that sets that person at liberty or freedom. Come on! It’s being untethered by yesterday and the fear of tomorrow.
Wow! Regret is very similar in its effect on the human body, on the soul; it’s very similar to unforgiveness because they both tie us to the past. Regret—let me do specifically regret. It’s a mismanagement of yesterday; it’s an improper management of the effects of yesterday. My memories—fear about what might happen—are my mismanagement of tomorrow. So, when He says, «The truth will make you free,» it’s actually an invitation to discover truth and then discover the God of that truth because in that experience of truth is freedom. What would it be like for you to be able to sit in a room, and anyone from your past could walk into the room, and there would be no regret? There would be no desire to leave out of that exit. Wow! See, freedom is real. It’s real! It’s the product of truth. Truth realized—truth realized is the ultimate adventure.
Yes, in Ephesians 3, He says that we might know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. Interesting verse—that you might know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. The original language can read this way: that you might know by experience what is beyond comprehension. Your heart can take you where your head can’t fit. Come on! You know by experience what you can’t comprehend. But here’s the glorious thing: the Lord does not want us ignorant; He just wants us surrendered. When you go heart-first, you learn through your experience.
There’s a lot of warning about learning through experience because there have been people who have been so deceived and really pulled away from the authority and the strength of Scripture, and I understand the fear, but it’s unreasonable. I understand people’s thinking, if that makes sense—you don’t want to build a theology on an experience if you can’t find it in Scripture. I’m all in. The real problem is those who are without an experience are already deceived. The gospel is not a philosophy; it’s not a club that we join. It’s a relational journey with a person—the Son of God who took on flesh—yes, who qualified me for eternity, for heaven.
He invites us into this journey, this experience where He says to know the love of Christ, to know through experience what you can never wrap your head around. It’s in the relational experience that we begin to learn in our minds. We begin to learn and gain understanding. The Bible says in Hebrews 11, «By faith we understand the worlds were made out of nothing.» By faith we understand. It doesn’t say we understand and then comes faith; it says by faith we understand. Faith is more substantial than reasoning. It’s superior to intellect, and real faith will actually teach you how to think.
Wow, that’s good! It’s why developing faith is so critical. Hebrews 11 also says, «Without faith, it’s impossible to please Him.» That’s an extreme statement! Without faith, it’s impossible to please Him. At the root of every expression, at the root of every connection, at the root of every part of our walk with Christ—at the root of that is the expression of faith. People will say, «Well, I have no faith; I need you to pray for me.» Well, what did you do with it? Because He gave every person a measure of faith. He gave it to you. Where did you put it?
Because He thinks differently than we do, surrender unto an experience helps us to change our perception of reality. It helps us to adjust and change so that we see as He sees. I want to give you an example of that. It’s in James chapter 1. James chapter 1, verse 2. «My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials.»
Anyone else really dislike that verse? Let’s do it: «Count it all joy!» I mean, He doesn’t just say, «Suck it up and endure»; He says, «Count it joy!» Count is to do the math. Count it all joy—add it up when you fall into various trials. Why? Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Let patience have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Alright, let’s think through this for a minute. Let’s assume this is actually true. God’s not sitting in heaven laughing at the command He just gave us to count it all joy. He’s actually inviting us into what? Into freedom! He’s inviting us into freedom. It’s not a mind-over-matter kind of freedom; it’s not hype yourself up; it’s not psych yourself out kind of freedom. It’s not pretend; it’s actually the substance of liberty at the end of this verse, and He says, «Count it all joy.»
So, here’s the deal: Count it all joy when you encounter various trials. Now, the end result of that is that you’re perfect and complete, lacking nothing. The implication then is if I don’t count it joy when I face certain trials, I am incomplete, immature, and I will always be lacking.
So here’s the deal: How do you extract the nutrients out of a trial? Because there are a lot of people going through all kinds of trials, and they are not becoming more like Jesus. Oh, do you understand me? The trial doesn’t do it—does that make sense? The trial doesn’t do it. When you can give thanks in the midst of trial—He says, «In everything give thanks.» When you can give thanks, you have just tapped into how to extract the nutrients out of that which the enemy designed to destroy you.
The Lord reverses the effect so that it actually becomes the thing that sets you up with maturity, stability, and complete total provision. Because He sees the end from the beginning, He can actually come to you and say, «You know what? This isn’t a joke! I’m really telling you the truth. You can get happy right at this point, right here.» When that trial came, you start getting happy! You start choosing joy! You start offering thanks in the midst of trial, and you’re going to cause the effect of that thing that was designed to destroy—to be the very thing that promotes you—yes, completeness, maturity, strength, and provision.
There’s provision in the trial. The provision isn’t just to help you to endure. There’s a lot to be said about endurance, and it’s important. He who endures to the end shall be saved. I get that. But in this particular case, it’s the invitation for triumph. It’s the invitation for open vindication. It’s the invitation for things to be so reversed that what was meant to take you out and cause you to lack is actually your point of access for personal gain.
See, now that’s how He thinks. The reason my mind went in this direction this week at my mom’s memorial service, celebration of life service, is I was thinking about that verse out of Psalms—116, I think it’s verse 5—where He says, «Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.» Precious! You ever hear the phrase precious metals, precious gems? We’re actually talking about something that has extreme value—extreme value! I was with a friend some months ago, and he has a couple of artifacts that I’m not even going to tell you what they are. Yeah, I can’t tell you one, for example. I’ll tell you one, but I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have even brought this up. I should now change the subject—an actual nail from the time of Christ that the Romans used for crucifixion. The other is actually a piece of a very significant building in Israel’s history. Are you with me? Priceless! It goes in a safe. He brought it up to show me that somebody got this and gave it to him as a gift. It qualifies as precious—something that is so treasured is kept safe. Something that is so treasured is actually put on display at very special moments. It’s not put on the coffee table for anyone just to walk past; it’s not stuck in the hotel lobby somewhere.
It’s something that is brought up because it is of such extreme value that there are only certain people that would look at that nail. Not everyone on the planet would get excited about seeing that. Not everybody on the planet would get excited about seeing a rock that was actually taken from one of the greatest moments in Israel’s history. You’re kidding! Precious!
So with that in mind, the Bible says, «Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones.» Highly valued, incredibly treasured, protected, and put on display for those who would understand and benefit. Celebrate! He just thinks differently. He thinks differently, and He’s right. There’s no question there’s sorrow on our end when there’s loss, and the Bible doesn’t pretend there isn’t.
Faith doesn’t deny the existence of a problem. Faith denies the problem a place of influence. Come on! Wow! Problems don’t have the right to dictate how I’m to think! Amen! Let me read to you a random verse out of Numbers. I was thinking about it this morning and actually opened up to it, not knowing where it was. It’s in Numbers 14—this is when Joshua and Caleb had spied out the promised land and came back with a good report. Ten other spies came back with a bad report. So some of you may remember that story. Joshua and Caleb, spying out the land, came back and said, «The land we passed through,» in verse 7, «to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into the land and give it to us, a land which flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread. The protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.»
Think with me for a minute—the problem that is so intimidating to you is actually breakfast! It’s toast! Now, this is in the Bible! This is not in the funny papers; it’s not a comic book; it’s not the newspaper. This is actually in the Word of God, where an expression of faith comes from two guys who have refused to live in fear. When they refuse to live in fear, but instead live according to promise, they were able to see the giants that terrified a nation. They saw them as breakfast!
What does bread do? It nourishes! A lot of people that are spiritually fasting—they’re spiritually fasting; they’re not devouring the enemy. There are nutrients to be had in the problem you face. But without a proper approach, the problem will constantly bind us in fear. But seeing through His eyes—seeing through, and you can see through His eyes if you see with His promise!
Seeing through the promise of the Lord is seeing through His eyes. He gives promises because He sees it differently than we do. So when He gives a promise, that’s how we can see a situation through His eyes. That’s why it’s called the promised land. The destiny of every believer is to live in a liberated place of promise. Yes! And so the giants that Israel feared were terrified of that. Actually, that first generation—their fear of the giants kept them from the promised land. Two guys said, «No, they are bread!» What you’re running from is actually dinner!
You’re running from breakfast! Let me put it this way: you are avoiding the thing that will strengthen you because it’s nutritional! It’s health food! And it doesn’t need to be gluten-free; even gluten-free people can eat this bread! «Do not fear the people of the land; do not fear the thing that intimidates you in your life the most right now.» Don’t fear it! Why? It’s your bread! It’s that which will sustain life for you! It is that which will strengthen! It is that which will define you!
After this comment was made, the glory of the Lord appeared—so it was kind of His «Amen» on the statement; He liked it too. None of us have the option of not grieving or not mourning. I’ll wrap up tonight with this—I’ve gone long enough—but we don’t have the option to not grieve. We don’t have the option to go through life without mourning. Mourning well is one of the signs of the operation of grace on our lives. It doesn’t mean we always have to get it perfect; it just means we have to be going in the right direction.
You know, as I’ve mentioned to you before, some battles require such intense effort on our part—with the fasting and the cries and the prayers and the decrees—sometimes, though, all you got to do is just show up, and He sends the angel of the Lord out who wipes out your enemy. So, you just—you just got to show up! Sometimes I don’t feel strong at all, but I just show up! Sometimes, I show up and I go, «God, I don’t know what I’m doing!» He says, «This one’s on Me!» And He takes care of it! Other times, He shows me play-by-play: «This is what you need to do; take this first; make this decree; lay hands on this person.» Sometimes, you get specific things that you’re to do, but you just have to be courageous enough to show up.
This thing with mourning takes us in one of two places. If you could imagine—here’s an interesting observation I’ve made for the last 30 years. This won’t make sense initially, but hopefully, it will ultimately. I’ve watched people who are desperate for God—desperate, desperate, crying out for God—that end up in a place of actual resistance to God. Then I see some who are desperate that come into this place of great Divine encounter. That’s a mystery to me.
I have reasons for perceptions on how it happens. Here’s a weird thought: do you know how vaccines and stuff are made? They’ll take a little part of a disease—a small portion—put it into your body, right? And you build a resistance. People get small portions of Jesus and build a resistance to Jesus. You experience Him through surrender; He doesn’t come in bite-sized pieces—that was free!
So, here’s this thing of mourning—it takes us in one of two places. Here’s a road that goes toward unbelief, and here’s a road that goes to a Divine encounter. I want you to look in your Bibles to Mark 16; we’ll end with this one. Mark chapter 16, and I want to leave you with this thought because we’ve got to know how to manage and navigate our hearts.
I can tell you from my experience you don’t have to be strong; you don’t have to feel strong; you don’t have to feel full of faith. You just got to show up! If everybody in this room would just determine, «I will be faithful regardless of how I feel,» you’ll be amazed what will happen in and through your life in the next couple of years with just the courage to show up.
There were 500 people that Jesus appeared to in the book of Acts—excuse me, 500 people He appeared to announcing there was going to be this mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There were 120 in the upper room, so there’s 380 that didn’t accept the invitation. It doesn’t mean they didn’t get it later, alright? I’ll just let you just sit there.
Okay, verse 9 of Mark 16: He said, «When He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, and they mourned and wept. When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.» Their mourning led to unbelief.
Verse 12: «After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country. They went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.»
Verse 14: «Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table, and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.»
This is a very sobering verse to me. I don’t know what you do with this, but this troubles me in a sense. I’ll tell you why: He rebuked them because they did not believe the experience of another. The fear of being gullible has kept us from the testimony that prophesies a reality into our own personal lives. Fear, again, keeps us from the very thing that God has set us up to experience.
Because it may not come through that vessel that you think is so specially anointed, so here we have good examples of the disciples that actually resisted the best news in the world: He’s alive! It’s crazy because He even told them He was going to rise. But their mourning can make you stupid!
And how do I mourn in a way that doesn’t take me to unbelief? What’s the other way? God encounter! It’s in the Beatitudes: «Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.» Blessed are they who mourn, for they will encounter the Comforter! See, there’s one of two ways to go. There’s: «I keep going! I’m mourning! I’m struggling! I’ve experienced pain!» And all of us get it.
If I don’t mourn correctly, it actually takes me into a place where I become a professional resistor. I may even still have the same theology. Yes, I believe I know God heals. Yes, He does! You’ve got that disease? They have a really good anointing for that—go have them pray for you! What am I doing? I’m avoiding an opportunity for God to use a broken vessel to bring healing, health, and life to somebody!
It’s the avoidance, and I know this one well. I know this one really well—that it’s really easy in that place of mourning, if we don’t mourn correctly, to look for ways to escape a situation. So how is it that we can mourn correctly? I’m glad you asked!
See if I can find it here: «I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have died, lest you sorrow or mourn as those who have no hope.» Did you see it? What causes this? This is why—in the road, what in this journey of mourning that we all have? Grief, we all— it may be the loss of a job, it may be the loss of a friend, it could be the loss of the animal that you’ve had, your pet dog for 15 years. It could be your spouse; could be different degrees, but it’s still mourning, still grieving.
And sometimes it’s the little foxes—sometimes we do better on the big things; we do the little things because it’s the little foxes that spoil the vineyard. So, here’s this road of mourning, and I’ve got a decision to make: how am I going to mourn? Am I going to mourn with hope because it’ll take me to the Comforter? Or am I going to mourn just trying to handle stuff on my own? Because it will just take me deeper and deeper into resistance to the good news that God has put all around my life!
He thinks differently! Psalms 27 says, «I would have lost heart had I not believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.» I would have lost heart, but what caused me to not lose heart? What kept me from the bottom falling out of my life was the fact that I believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! I kept that hope alive. I don’t know how; I don’t know when, but I just know His goodness is so overwhelmingly true that the end of the story will be that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!
Alright, I’m done! Let’s stand. Thank you, Jesus! We’re going to have ministry stuff going on and all kinds of fun things. So it’s not over; it’s not over. I feel like the Lord’s doing heart surgery and stuff—what I feel like! I feel like He’s just cutting in there; it’s kind of cool; He has a double-edged sword!
Yeah, because it heals where it cuts! It’s got two sides to this sword: He cuts deep, but it heals where it cuts! Wow! Oh, yes, Lord! This may sound way off subject, but I’ve got you standing, which means I won’t talk long. Did you know that healing is an actual expression of holiness?
Yeah, wow! Wow! It’s sickness to my body what sin is to my soul. That’s why it says, «The Son of righteousness will rise with healing in His wings.» Healing is connected to an expression of righteousness. Wow! Why are you looking at me like that?
I see all that I’ve talked about tonight—all of this—as actually what holiness looks like! You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free! What is that freedom? It’s the liberty to live in purity! It’s the liberty to live like Jesus—undefiled, unrestrained—becoming the creative expression that God desires us to be, bringing solutions to the pains and the difficulties of people all around us.
So, Father, we’re hungry for You. We’re so thankful for what You’re doing, what You’re saying. This is bigger than a season change! It feels like we just threw away the old calendar and started a new one! But I’m asking tonight—and as we step more confidently into the season—that You would bring us into experiencing truth in such a deep and profound way that we illustrate Your holy nature, Your wonder, Your beauty, Your creative insight, Your passion for providing solutions.
The patterns of everything that was talked about earlier—oh, for all of that—that You’d release such a simple grace over us as a family to embrace this shift in calendars. I ask this for the honor of the name Jesus, and I do pray: mess us up with dreams! Mess us up with dreams in ways we’ve never known. Introduce us to new ways of thinking, I ask in Jesus' name.
Put a hand on somebody next to you and just say, «God mess them up with dreams!» Mess them up with dreams!