Bill Johnson - How to Hear God's Voice Every Day
Thanks, thanks, thanks! Nice to see you! Good morning! Still morning! I have some very important things to read to you. I love you. When everybody on Earth was dead and waiting to enter Heaven, God appeared and said He wanted the men to make two lines: one line for the men who were true heads of their households, and the other line for the men who were dominated by their women. He wanted all the women to report to St. Peter. Soon the women were gone, and there were two lines of men. The line of the men who were dominated by their wives was 100 miles long, while in the line of men who were truly heads of their households, there was only one man. God said to the long line, «You men should be ashamed of yourselves! I created you to be the head of your household, yet you have been disobedient and have not fulfilled your purpose. Of all of you, there’s only one who obeyed; learn from him.» God then turned to the one man, asking how he managed to be the only one in that line. The man replied, «My wife told me to stand here.»
I have another story. A boss was complaining in a staff meeting the other day that he wasn’t getting any respect. Later that morning, he went out and got a small sign that read «I’m the boss,» and he taped it to his office door. Later that day, when he returned from lunch, he found that someone had taped a note to the sign that said, «Your wife called; she wants you to bring her sign back.»
One more. A man was talking to his wife. He said, «I’m the man of this house. Starting tomorrow, I want you to have a hot, delicious meal ready for me the second I walk through the door. Afterwards, while I’m watching ESPN and relaxing in my chair, bring my slippers and run my bath.» She sat patiently listening as he went on. He said, «And when I’m done with my bath, guess who’s going to dress me and comb my hair?» She responded, «The funeral director!»
That’s funny! Why don’t you grab your Bibles and open to the Book of Numbers? We have several portions of scripture to read today. I want to talk to you about the prophetic, which I don’t do very often anymore because Chris covers it so well. I was thinking about it because Chris has his prophetic school this week and he’s the best equipper in the prophetic I’ve ever met. So, how many of you are here for the prophetic school? Put your hands up! Oh, super! Welcome, welcome! I met some of you at the airport yesterday. I flew in from Orlando, and if I fly home on a Friday or Saturday into Redding from San Francisco, I always meet several people on the plane who are coming here for something, especially if we have a school or a conference. It’s always fun to see you at the airport when people stare at you; it’s always beautiful!
So anyway, this is going to be an incredible week of prophetic training. I want to talk to you about something I’d like to address, and we’ll look at the scripture to establish this theme. Every believer has actually been called by the Lord to live in and function in the prophetic; it is the call of every believer. There is a difference between the prophetic anointing, operating in the prophetic, and being a prophet. A prophet is an office, and I’m not talking about that at all. If you happen to be one, just don’t print out a business card; if you hand me one, I will laugh at you. I don’t mind people knowing their titles and stuff, but please—here’s a great example: John the Baptist. Jesus called him the greatest of all Old Testament prophets, and someone came to John and asked him if he was the coming prophet, because the Bible talks about a major prophetic ministry that would exist in the last days. They asked John, «Are you the coming prophet?» John said, «Nope, it’s not me.» So, they went to Jesus and asked Him, and Jesus said, «Yep, that’s him.» That’s fascinating; you could have the most significant prophetic role in history and not know your title but know your function. Function is more important than how people recognize you. He was able to say, «I am a voice in the wilderness; this is who I am.»
So don’t make your title your deal; otherwise, I will quietly laugh, and you don’t want that. Alright, Numbers 11. Let’s get into the Word here. Verse 24: Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. He gathered 70 men of the elders of the people and placed them around the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is where the presence of God was manifest, so they surrounded the presence. The Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him and took the Spirit that was upon him and placed the same Spirit upon the 70 elders. It happened that when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, although they never did so again.
Verse 26: Two men had remained in the camp; the name of one was Eldad and the name of the other was Medad. I always stop at this point just to consider what it would be like to be two brothers with those names: Eldad and Medad. The Spirit rested upon them, and now they were among those listed but had not gone out to the Tabernacle yet they prophesied in the camp. Let me stop for a moment; I love this part of the story because it shows what happens when you are covenant-related and connected to other people. You actually receive what they receive. There’s an inheritance that is actually not just given to individuals but is given to families. We’ve got 70 guys surrounding the Tabernacle; two that, for some reason, didn’t get the memo and didn’t show up. The Spirit of God falls upon the 70; they begin to prophesy, and yet, back at camp, simultaneously, these two guys began to prophesy under the same anointing.
Why? I don’t understand how this works, but I love that it does. The fact that you can be in relationship with people and when they get a breakthrough, their breakthrough is yours is immense. You can live in drought conditions and think it’s normal. You can move to Redding where we have 10 inches of rain a year, and when it’s raining, you think, «This isn’t a drought; it’s raining!» But we actually need 35 to 40 inches a year to keep all of our vegetation, trees, and everything alive and healthy. So if you live here during the drought, you may think that it’s normal. What you don’t know is that when you’re in covenant, normal is 35 to 40 inches of rain a year.
The point is, there are things that you can get in covenant with people that you cannot ever access when you’re independent and on your own. Even though you think it’s full, it’s not full; it’s not near what it could be. There’s something about connecting with people in accountability, in relationship, in pursuit of the same things that causes something to happen. Tom Jones, Randy Clark’s right-hand guy, had a stunning and bizarre encounter with the Lord in Brazil a number of years ago. If I remember right, it lasted all night long and was one of those kinds of encounters that are written about in Scripture. It was extreme and forever changed his life.
Unknown to him, at the exact same time he was in Brazil having this encounter with the Lord, his wife was driving down the freeway, I believe, in Florida. She had to pull off to the side of the road because she was simultaneously having the same encounter with the Lord. What’s happening? That’s the benefit and the purpose of relationship. It doesn’t give us the liberty to withdraw or be careless in not associating but means that for the spouse of the student in the school of ministry who isn’t able to attend the meetings, something is happening in your life that equals the one who sits in the class every day receiving impartation and prayer.
There’s something about the relationship that qualifies you to receive the same thing even though you’re not in the room. Verse 29: Moses said to them, «Are you zealous for my sake?» I’m sorry, verse 28: Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, one of the choice men, answered and said, «Moses, my Lord, forbid them; make them stop prophesying!» Moses said to him, «Are you zealous for my sake?» This is another way of saying it’s not about me.
Well, they’re crowding in on my gift! It’s not about you; it’s that the Lord is represented well in powerfully anointed people. Whether it’s your time to stand on the stage or it’s someone else’s, or it’s your moment to lay hands on a person or you’re the support person for somebody else, it doesn’t matter as long as the function gets done, as long as the miracle takes place, as long as the breakthrough comes, and as long as God is exalted. The tools that He uses will always vary, and we celebrate that God is being exalted through His means, not that we have to be at the center of the story.
Moses says, «Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!» Here’s something to recognize. In the Old Testament, whenever you see someone where the Spirit of God comes upon them, it is almost always, if not always, evident in them speaking the word of the Lord. The prophetic comes through them. In other words, the sign of the fullness of the Spirit of God on a person’s life, in the Old Testament context, was prophecy.
I think it’s for that reason, Paul, when he talks about the gifts of the Spirit, says, «Lustfully pursue all the gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.» If you were raised in church, you probably have a picture of the prophetic as that which happens during a meeting, but I don’t think that’s any more than 5% of the prophetic, and I actually think it’s less than that. The prophetic is a way we function, a way we think, a way we see, and a way we communicate with people. It doesn’t need to proceed or end with «thus saith the Lord.» It’s speaking a timely word in a given situation, and if the word is from Him, it will bear fruit in their life, and they in turn will give God the glory.
It doesn’t have to come with religious trappings; it just needs to be released. When we release the word of the Lord, it alters and changes environments, and we are in a season where we desperately need prophetic people to bring clarity to what’s happening in the world. We need it desperately because both the political spirit and religious spirit are vying for your affections. Whenever there’s influence from either of those two realms, the word of the Lord becomes diluted and distorted, and the Lord is wanting a clear word, a precise word, an empowering word to come to the cities and to the nations of the world.
We are being lied to every day of our lives. If you have anything to do in media, you’re being fed a bill of goods every day, but very little of it is intentional deception. Most of it is agenda-driven, and when you’re driven by an agenda that’s wrong, you reinterpret circumstances incorrectly. I’ve got to be careful here, but just a little bit. Years ago, a Satanist was converted, and a pastor was giving him a fair amount of money every month. A news organization found out, did some research, and found out he was giving him money, so they did a big exposé to show that the pastor was funding this guy to keep his story alive that he was an ex-Satanist who was converted.
They reported that he lived in a condo overlooking a golf course and drove a Lincoln Continental—all those things were true. But they weren’t true at all; they were true in that the pastor was giving him a substantial amount of money, but it was to pay for the counseling he needed because of the abusive environment he grew up in. He was paying for his counseling—the condo overlooking the golf course was actually an apartment, the golf course was a miniature golf course, and the Lincoln Continental was an old Lincoln covered with bumper stickers. It was true, but it wasn’t.
Here’s what happens: both a religious spirit and political spirit want to impart the gift of suspicion because that reinterprets circumstances and causes a spirit of offense to rise up that mirrors the prophetic anointing. It’s a counterfeit prophetic anointing. When you arise in a spirit of offense, it counterfeits the prophetic anointing. You have the same burning conviction; you have the sense that something needs to be done, something needs to be said, but not recognizing that the origin of the information is actually the spirit of deception.
The gift of suspicion gets imparted. You can hear information and be righteously stirred up, not realizing you were given wrong information, even though your conviction is correct. And what do they say? Whatever you misdiagnose, you will mistreat. I have experiences now and then that I never bring to you, but I get off the airplane here in Redding, and somebody’s just standing there cursing me—Christian curses, of course. Cursing me—why? Well, probably because they believed something they saw on YouTube or they believed a bad report from somebody. There was never any dialogue; is their conviction correct? It probably is; it’s just that their information is wrong. Does that make sense?
I look at them, and I see they have a conviction for the Lord. They are making what they think is a righteous stand, but somebody fed them a lie that they believed. Or they just don’t like me; it could be that too. I don’t know; it can’t be that. Never mind; yeah, impossible, impossible!
So you get the point: the point is to be a prophetically discerning people, we have to be able to recognize the difference between the true prophetic anointing and the counterfeit, which is suspicion—it’s agenda-driven, and it moves in the spirit of offense. One of the biggest challenges in life is to not pick up the offenses of the people you love and serve. It’s really hard! If you give yourself to the poor, it’s very hard not to be offended at the rich. If you have been called to serve the wealthy, it’s very hard to do that well without being offended at those who don’t work.
If you minister to college students, it’s very difficult for you to minister to them without being offended at conservative political groups. If you minister to the old, it’s very hard to do that well without being offended at the young. The list goes on and on and on. If you minister to Native Americans, First Nations people, it’s very hard to do that well without picking up an offense toward those who have obviously mistreated them.
The point is our effectiveness and my effectiveness are in some way restrained and restricted by how well we can serve people, love them well, and bring the word of the Lord for this moment for their benefit—not ours, not for our agenda, not for our identity, but for their benefit entirely—without picking up any offense that they may have. The depth at which we get to go in the anointing to impact the course of history and affect culture is, in many ways, determined by how well we can navigate this without being offended—that’s the truth.
Isaiah 59, we’ve got three more verses, so hold tight here. Isaiah 59 and 60 is, if you’ve been here a while, one of my most favored chapters because it changed my life. «Arise, shine; your light has come.» That whole passage, I believe with all my heart, is a prophetic word for the church right now. But preceding that, the last verse of chapter 59 sets the stage. Look at why. Verse 21 of Isaiah 59: «As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth nor from the mouth of your descendants nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants, says the Lord, from this time and forever.»
Please notice again the correlation between the Spirit of God coming upon people and the word of the Lord being in their mouth. The evidence that the Spirit of God is resting upon us, as a people, as a tribe, as a family, must be—I know how much I love the healing, the miracles, the deliverance, all those things—it must be that from our mouths comes the word of the Lord. Jesus set a standard when He said, «I only say what I hear my Father say.»
Think about this: if there’s anybody who ever walked the Earth that probably would have some pretty good ideas on his own, it would probably be Jesus. Yet He was unwilling to come up with anything of His own. The Gospel of John says, «He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory.» He who speaks from himself—in other words, it all originates with me—seeks his own glory. In other words, us being unwilling to tap into what the Father is saying is a subtle way to move into self-promotion.
Acts chapter 3, another real quick one. You guys alright? I hope so. Acts chapter 3 is a great prophetic passage after the outpouring of the Spirit in chapter 2. Verse 24 says, «Yes, all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You are the sons of the prophets of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'In your seed all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.'»
Verse 25 again: «You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our father, saying to Abraham, 'In your seed all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.'» This passage in Isaiah 59 was given to the nation of Israel but prophetically foretold the nation of the redeemed, which is the church. But this one is clearly to the body of Christ. If you missed 59, this one for certain is to the body of Christ, in which He says, «You are the sons of the prophets; you are the daughters of the prophets.»
Why is that important? Because of the covenant established that I will put my word in your mouth, in your descendants' mouths, and in your descendants' descendants' mouths. The whole point is that a distinguishing feature of being in the tribe of God, who is carrying His heartbeat into the Earth, is that He has put His Spirit upon us, manifested by every generation being able to carry and declare the word of the Lord.
Acts chapter 3 says, «You’re the sons; you’re the daughters of the prophet.» In other words, you have an inheritance. It’s important for us to know what our inheritance is; it’s important for us to discover what God says about us. You’re not going to write a check if you don’t think you have the money in the bank. You’re not going to withdraw from identity if you don’t realize it exists. You’re not going to live from something that is far above everything you could imagine unless He reveals that it’s who you are.
Once you realize who you are, your posture changes. It’s not arrogant; it’s not self-centered; it’s not even self-confidence. It’s a confidence in who God has pronounced you to be, and God says you are the sons and daughters of the prophets. Because of that, you’re in line for an inheritance to carry the Spirit of God and the word of the Lord. They are one and the same. Jesus is the Word made flesh, so the presence of God is the same as the voice of God. Whenever you sense the presence, the voice is in the presence. Whenever you hear the voice, the voice represents the face.
Now we’ll leave that there. Alright, let’s get back to the verse I really want. Isaiah 51, go to Isaiah 51, and we’ll spend our remaining time in this kind of abstract portion of scripture. There’s a little bit of difference, again, between New King James and New American Standard, and I’ve tried to study both to ensure that what I’m going to emphasize is accurate, and I believe with all my heart that it is.
Alright, I’m going to read out of the New King James and then I’ll make reference to a couple of words. Isaiah 51, verse 12: «I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid?» Perhaps you didn’t catch that. The Lord shows up and says, «I, even I, am the Lord who comforts you. Who do you think you are being afraid?» Now, when I’m fearful, I want Papa God to come, cuddle me, massage my shoulders, soothe me, and tell me it’s going to be okay. «I’m going to go before you; I’m going to drive out the enemy forces; I’m going to protect you.»
But in this particular case, He chose not to do that. He said, «I, even I am the one who comforts you. Who do you think you are being afraid?» What right do you have to be afraid? That may not be the way you want to hear it, but sometimes it’s how He delivers it!
This is perhaps an offensive thought, but I want you to think it through: if I become inward, if I become internal, all wrapped up in «Oh no! This is going on; this is going on! My life is happening,» I am going to end up in fear. Fear sometimes is the expression of selfishness because it has lost a glimpse of the One who spread out the heavens.
The One who spread out the heavens reveals Himself in this passage as the One who gives comfort. In other words, I have to lose sight of Him to become fearful. Here, let’s read it again. Verse 12: «I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, of the son of man who will be made like grass?»
What is He dealing with here? He’s confronting the fear of man. I have people come to me, and if I ever talk about this subject, people will line up and ask me to pray for them to be freed from the fear of man, which I do. But there is one basic cure for the fear of man: it’s called the fear of God. You can’t fear both.
Forgive me for repeating this, but people will say, «Well, there’s no fear in love.» How can I love God and fear Him? You must not be married; that’s all I’ve got to say about that. Whoever made up that one is obviously single! That’s all I’ve got to say!
And all the married men said, «Amen!»
Alright, verse 12, let’s do it again: «I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, of the son of man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor when he has prepared to destroy, and where is the fury of the oppressor?»
Do you get a feel for what He’s saying here? You’re afraid of whoever—put someone in the blank—you’re afraid of them. You had to exchange a fear of them; you replaced the fear of God with fearing a person. Repent! I’m really not trying to put shame or guilt— I’m not interested in that. But I am interested in people being free from the fear of man.
Turning from the fear of man to the fear of God is just a short step; it’s just a short step. You turn from one to the other. And here’s what He says following this: this is actually where I wanted to go. Verse 15 says, «I am the Lord your God who divided the sea, whose waves roared— the Lord of hosts is His name.»
Verse 16: «And I have put My words in your mouth. I have covered you with the shadow of My hand that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth and say to Zion, 'You are My people.'»
This is interesting: the Lord protects what He blesses. Do you remember this passage? It says, «And His favor surrounds me like a shield.» That’s because He protects what He blesses. He doesn’t bless and then leave it to be devoured; it’s the opposite. He blesses and surrounds it with protection.
So here we have the Lord saying, «Alright, I’m the One who put My Word in your mouth,» and what did He do then? «I put My hand over you. I’ve covered you with a shadow of My hand because I want, through you, to plant the heavens and build solid foundations on the earth.»
This is an Old Testament warm-up for «Yes, on earth as it is in heaven.» He’s revealing process; He’s revealing the tool that He uses to release the reality of one world to rest upon the reality of another. He says, «I’m going to build strong foundations here and then I’m going to plant that world where there are strong foundations.»
How is it done? Through decree. «I have put My words in your mouth; I’ve covered you with the shadow of My hand that I might plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, 'You are My people.'»
Moses interceded, «Oh, that all God’s people were prophets.» Jesus talked about the prophets and the spiritual fathers of the Old Testament; they longed to see what we see. I’d like to suggest to you that out of the ache of his heart, Moses was prophesying about the day that you and I live in where all the people of God would be carrying prophetic anointing that is not, number one, self-serving, and number two, it is not to expose and tear down. In this hour, it is to call out destiny.
We’ve watched this now for years where somebody will be caught up in a lie, maybe a lie they’ve believed about their whole life. In fact, we see this happen often now to people who don’t even know the Lord. They don’t even know the Lord, and one of you will come along and call out the gold in their life, and it completely changes them. It changes their entire life. Why? Because they’ve bought into a lie for a lifetime, and somebody comes with one word of truth, and it completely changes their identity.
When they start living from a different place, they start moving into repentance; they turn from that lie and embrace what God has said about them. Every person in this room, the Lord has declared strong things, powerful things, positive things, corrective things—adjusting words—have all been declared over every one of us, and when we hear them and embrace them, they empower us to make changes that are impossible otherwise.
The Lord is inviting us into being a people that hear the voice of the Lord. If there is anything that has mocked on the Earth right now, it is that you could actually hear God’s voice. It’s mocked. It’s mocked openly. It’s mocked! And I believe, simply leaning in, every one of us has had the experience where we just called a friend randomly, and come to find out it was their exact moment of crisis and they needed help, and we didn’t know.
It wasn’t this thundering voice; it wasn’t, «Bill, call this number.» It wasn’t that thing. It wasn’t a number appearing on the wall, and you punch that number out and you talk to someone. It’s not that! It’s not that! It’s the subtle leaning into a lifestyle of the presence of God, the Spirit of God, and you find yourself day after day after day bringing the word of the Lord until it becomes a lifestyle where you think His thoughts, you declare His words, and it’s not the strain and the effort of trying to hear from God. I don’t hear well when I try. In fact, you know what I do sometimes? In healing meetings—when I’m in other places, sometimes we’re in a healing meeting during worship—I will sneak around and find people that need a miracle and pray for them then, because I know that if we wait until the official time to be healed, they’ll try too hard!
Faith does not become effort through effort; hearing from God does not come through effort. It comes through surrender. Faith is the product of yieldedness; it’s not the product of «I’m determined to live for the glory of God.» Sweat all you want, but soon as you get exhausted, you’ll hear from God. Soon as you finally say, «I’m done,» then He speaks. Why? Because if He speaks when you are striving with effort, He will only reaffirm flesh and carnality and not the genuineness of who you are in Christ.
So let me read this verse again: «I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand that I might plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and say to Zion, 'You are My people.'» I didn’t prepare ahead of time to find this verse, and I apologize for that, but there’s a great verse in Job where Job talks about declaring a word and it puts a mark on someone for God to strike. It’s like he throws out the word and the Lord is attracted to that word.
It’s actually the concept that we find in Ephesians 4 where he says, «Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, which is a great standard for all prophetic people. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only a word that’s good for edification according to the need of the moment that it might give grace to those who hear.» What is grace? It’s divine favor.
Think with me: only speak edifying words that it might give grace. What is grace? Divine favor! You choose who to encourage, and your word of encouragement is something that God approves of and He pours favor into the person you’ve chosen to encourage. It’s the same concept: you put the word there. You come to somebody, you do business with a neighbor, you just go over, you just encourage them. You just give them an encouraging word; you just tell them, «This is what I see God doing in your life.» It’s a beautiful thing!
Or, «I just want to encourage you; you’re so gifted in this area.» What are you doing? You’re planting a word, and God is going to put favor right there. He’ll pour the grace right there. Why? Because one of My own distributed a word of encouragement there.
I’ve got to back it up! Why don’t you stand? You know how we started the prophetic in Weaverville years ago? There was zero prophetic! There wasn’t a prophetic mouse; there wasn’t a prophetic flea. It was zero! When we moved there, I’d get men to sit around a table and I’d turn to the one on my right, I’d say, «If Jesus were to walk in the room right now, what do you think He’d say?» And they’d go, «I think He’d say…»
I’d go to the next one, go all the way around the room, and after we got all the way around the room, I’d say, «Do you realize that you all just prophesied?» And they’d go, «Huh?» It’s that easy! See, when you strive, you miss it. When you’re relaxing, who you are, abiding in His presence, abiding in His voice, it becomes very natural to speak words that are life-giving.
Put your hands in front of you; let me pray for this prophetic anointing to be released. Lord, I do pray for that. I pray that You would increase the mantle of the prophetic. God, help us, help us, help us to keep it pure, to keep it real, but to serve our city well. Thank You! Amen.
Okay, if you’d hold your places for just a moment. I know in a crowd the size we always have people who don’t know the Lord, and if there’s anyone here today that would just say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave this place until I know that I am right with God, until I know that I’ve been forgiven of sin and brought into His personal family,» if you would be willing to say that, I want you just to put your hand up where you are, because we’re just going to pray. Just put your hand right here. We have one. Anybody else? Just put your hand up real quick.
Another one back here; just say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave until I know I’m right with God.» I know we have—yeah, we have two overflow rooms as well. For those in the overflow rooms, please do the same thing. In fact, this is what I want to say: the two who put your hands up, could you just come right down over here? If there are any others, come quickly over here; we have some people that we know and love and trust that are going to pray for you.
I need our freedom team down here—here— and if you’re in one of the other two overflow rooms, please just make your way from there to here right now, and we’ve got a group of people who are going to pray for you. Alright, this is the most important thing that’s happened all day, right here. This is the most time-sensitive issue of the day, right here. So we’re going to pray that the Lord would touch them so deeply and so profoundly. I need some more of our freedom team down here also. I want to have our ministry team come to the front. If everyone else could hold your place for just a moment. This does help us out. We want to open it up for people to receive miracles in your body, miracles in your life. It’s just become normal for Jesus to touch and heal people, so we encourage you to come be a part of that.
Alright, why don’t you explain what to do and how to do it?