Bill Johnson - How to Live Empowered by the Holy Spirit
Well, good to see you. Glad you showed up. A preacher stood waste-deep in the water at a river baptism, talking to a group of people on the bank when an overwhelmingly drunk man wandered down into the crowd. The preacher spotted him, pointed to him, and said, «Sir, would you like to find Jesus?» The drunk shook his head yes and wandered down into the water. The preacher grabbed him, spun him around, put him under the water, pulled him up, grabbed the front of his coat, and yelled, «Did you find Jesus?» The drunk said no, so the preacher repeated the baptism and extended his time under for ten seconds. He then pulled him up again and asked, «Did you find Jesus?» «No,» cried the drunk. That process was repeated a third time, except the preacher held him under for thirty seconds. He then pulled him up, and the drunk said, «You almost drowned me!» The preacher yelled yes but asked again, «Did you find Jesus?» The drunk wiped the water from his face and asked, «Are you sure this is the last place you saw him?» Just reporting the news, that’s all I’m doing.
When I listen to the voice of a problem more than I listen to the word of the Lord, faith will always be an uphill battle. If I receive my counsel from the difficulties of life, my heart will be shaped by inferior things. Oftentimes, we receive our counsel, our input, our values, and our sense of urgency, all of those things are often shaped by problems. Without the breath of God showing us His heart, His mind, God has a solution for every challenge, every problem, every difficulty. Learning not only to read the word but to meditate on the word is essential. To meditate means it’s a word that is best illustrated by a cow chewing its cud; it brings it up and chews on it over and over again to extract all the nutrients possible from that item of food.
Meditation on the word is different than Eastern meditation. The other meditations promoted by various religions want you to become empty; God wants you to become full. Their ideal is nothingness; His ideal is Kingdom, word, voice, fellowship. He tries to bring us into a place where, through biblical meditation, we literally extract the very things that God is thinking, not just saying. It brings us into connection with the one whose heart is perfect and puts us face-to-face with the one who paid a sufficient price to settle every broken issue that exists on planet Earth. There is not one situation that is outside of His reach or compassion; it is all settled.
The difficulty for us is that we are bombarded with information almost 24/7, and it’s inferior information. Some of it is overtly evil or corrupt, and some of it is just a distraction. Learning to live from Heaven toward Earth, learning to live from the word of the Lord, the heart, and the mind of God toward situations is our lifelong journey. It’s what you said yes to. People come and say, «I’m so confused about the situation that I’m facing.» Of course, you’re confused; you listen to the problem more than you listen to God. You can’t expect any other outcome. If listening to the difficulties of life has shaped my perception, then of course faith will be an uphill battle. It doesn’t mean I can’t get there; it just means I have to return to what God is saying. I have to return to His nature and His covenant. The big challenge for us is living conscious of the heart of God, living conscious of the Spirit of God, living conscious of the will of God. What is His will in this situation? Oftentimes we settle for things that are inferior; they’re not what Jesus would have done were He standing in our shoes. It’s difficult for me to silence the voice of the inferior if I’m not replacing it with an affectionate response from the voice that changes everything.
This is Jesus' imprint. Our times of worship are times in His presence. Our times of worship are filled with what can I say is the new wine of the Holy Spirit. Gideon had a challenge; he was grinding wheat in a winepress. Many people have done that with revival; they get into a move of God and try to get bread out of it. The bread of the word of God doesn’t come out of a winepress. It’s not either/or; you just move in the season He put you in. God, I want fresh revelation! He says, «What you need is a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit.» «Oh God, I want to be zapped again!» He responds, «What you need is to understand My heart. You need to understand the word. Find the season you’re in. Is it time for bread? Is it time for wine? Stay in the season He has for you.» «God, I want to be electrified by Your presence!» It’s a good dream, but He doesn’t give you a menu. You don’t get to order from a menu; you get to move with what He’s saying, what He’s doing. God, I want revelation! It’s a good dream; pray it, but then drink what He’s giving. Amen? A good point, amen. Amen! That is the truth right there.
The Lord is healing people’s brains right now. Right now, learning disorders are being healed. Head trauma, people who have had injuries, there is someone here who has had multiple concussions. I don’t know if it’s through football or a sporting event or maybe just freakish falls or whatever, but multiple concussions, and you suffer as a result of it—who is that? I believe Jesus is healing. Is that you? Yes, multiple concussions. We break that cycle where the enemy has sought to steal. He fears your creative expression through freedom of thought. We declare over you that cycle ends tonight, and we declare over you healing from the injury to your brain. There’s somebody else here, someone else back here—multiple concussions. We’re going to pray in a moment together. Multiple concussions!
There’s someone else here who has had, I think, several surgeries, at least one where the anesthesia still has you feeling like you have not been quite the same since that surgery. It may have been a week ago; it may have been 20 years ago—it doesn’t matter what it was—but there’s almost a medical fog, and the Lord is healing you from that tonight. Who is that? I’m confident there are many who are watching online—is that you? All right! The Lord is going to clear up that fog that has been there, and His breath is going to blow away the fog. He’s going to breathe on your thought life; He’s going to breathe. Some of you will actually have unusual sensations on your head, and it’s going to be something you need, and He’s going to give it to you. Others of you, it’s just going to be clarity of thought that will be returned to you. Bipolar, epilepsy, schizophrenia—issues of the brain—Jesus is healing tonight. If you have any issue with the brain and you need a miracle, stand. How many of you just want to be smarter? Yeah, don’t stand; don’t stand! That’s between you and God! I don’t have the faith for that one, though! I’m joking; it’s just a bad joke—ill-timed bad joke!
All right, I’m going to have those of you seated around these people stand in just a moment. I want you to pray; I want you to take maybe a minute or two minutes just to pray. Pray the power of God upon them specifically. I want you to pray for the peace, the shalom of another world, to permeate every cell in their brain. I want you to pray for that, and then I’m going to ask someone in the group, after we pray for a minute or so, to lift as though you could visibly see a steel band around their head. I want you to lift the steel band off, and I want you to make the proclamation, «This ends tonight! This ends tonight!» All of you who are standing, put a hand up. Those of you who are seated, go to someone who is standing.
As soon as someone comes to you, put your hand down. Now look around; make sure that everyone with a hand up has somebody praying for them. As soon as somebody comes to you, put your hand down. If you’re about to pray for someone that still has their hand up, pull their hand down for them. There’s one right here—beautiful! There’s somebody with a hand up right here. Do they have? Yes! Have them pull their hand out so I can tell. All right, we still have somebody here? Oh no! He’s extending their hand! Worshipping churches are rough! People always have their hands up! All right, I want you to begin to pray. Listen to me carefully; the Bible says today is the day of salvation. It does not say a week from Friday. Salvation literally means forgiveness, healing, and deliverance. So what do we know about the will of God for these people? Today is the day of their salvation. The healing of their brains—today is the day! Say that with me: today is the day! Say with me now is the time! Now is the time!
I want you to take just two minutes—we’ll just time it literally—and then I’ll tell you when I want you to lift the band off. I want you to take two minutes to intercede for them. Do it right now; just begin to pray. Lay hands on them, pray. Those who are watching on Bethel TV, we declare this exact same word over you. Specifically, there are many who are watching that have that cloud from a past surgery, and Jesus is healing your brain, clearing up the fog, the confusion, and bringing great, great strength where there’s been great, great weakness. The scripture says He sent His word and healed them; we declare that over each person right now. The word of the Lord over you has come. The word of the Lord that declares now is the time has come.
Thank You, Lord! God, just keep praying; don’t stop! Just intercede for them. We pray Spirit, soul, and body, every part of their being to be refreshed, renewed in this miracle. All right, now together, I want you just to lift that steel band off their head and begin to prophesy, «This ends tonight! This ends tonight!» In the mighty name of Jesus, «This ends tonight!» All right, take just a moment just to turn your affection towards the Lord—every person, just turn your affection towards the Lord. Beautiful!
All right, God, we give You thanks. We do; we give You praise. We give You thanks. We honor Your wonderful name. Now this is a very difficult one to instantly measure, but many of you who have that read prayer right now just felt like almost a refreshing or a freshness come upon your mind—a shift in seeing, thinking. We’ve had people, as soon as they prayed, say colors are brighter, their ability to process information changed instantly. We’ve had complete amnesia and partial amnesia; we’ve actually had hearing and eyesight restored from damage to the brain. So there are a number of different ways you can measure and tell what God has done, but I want those of you who received prayer right now just in some way examine yourself. If you had a learning disorder, let’s say dyslexia, and it was very difficult to read—grab somebody’s Bible, grab your Bible and right now just try to read it. Challenge yourself! Please challenge—don’t sit idle right now—put faith into an activity! Do something right now! Those of you who prayed for them, help them discover what the Lord has done.
All right, give me your attention. How many of you who received prayer can already notice a difference? Wave your hands like this! Wave your hands like this! Look around; you can already tell a difference! It’s amazing! Glory to God! Glory to God! All right, all of you that were praying, I want you to pray again. It’s two-part epoxy; I want you to add the second part right now. Seal the deal; make declarations over them, «This will never return to them! This will never return to them!» Yeah, take just another minute. Thank You, Lord! Okay, you did good! Now just remain standing, if you would. All of you who received prayer, I want you to wave your hands again if you can tell there is already a difference. Maybe you grabbed a Bible and can read where you couldn’t. Maybe there’s a freshness; whatever it might be—the fog is gone! Wave your hands to testify of what the Lord has done! That’s beautiful! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! That’s wonderful! Now, how many of you can actually say the problem is all gone? It’s actually gone, gone, gone. It’s not going; it’s actually gone! Wave your hands 'cause I want to see who you are. Wave your hands! All right—right here! Look! Look! Look! Yeah—beautiful! It’s gone! It’s gone! It’s gone! Bless the Lord!
All right, go ahead and be seated. Go ahead and be seated. I want to find out what Jesus just did. It’s really important. Some of you just got healed of something that was so extraordinary. First of all, everything God does is extraordinary, so I never want to downplay or classify levels of healing or miracles. Having said that, some of you just experienced something that is very unusual, and it changes your life beginning tonight. I want to know who you are. I want to know what Jesus did. Tom, take that mic; just put your hand up, and Tom is going to come to you. All right, yeah, come right back here! Yeah, yeah! Stand up, tell us your name. What did Jesus do for you?
Hi, my name is Bonnie. I have been injured several times in my head. My daughter’s here, but she doesn’t even know. I don’t give the enemy any place with it, but I’ve been struck in my head many times, and I get headaches. A lot of times if something touches my head, like just slightly, I’ll feel something like fluid running in my head, and I get pains across the front. When they prayed for me, it just got really—I felt like a clearing. It just cleared up; everything just felt like it just lifted. Beautiful! Thank You, Lord! I love that! Somebody else, real quick—what did Jesus do? Right down here, yeah, go ahead! Yeah, you in the blue right there. What did Jesus do? If you give us your name and tell us what Jesus did for you.
My name’s Victoria. I was in a car accident about five months ago, and I was having some really bad headaches, and I was prayed for, and they’re gone! They’re gone! Come on—that’s amazing! Bless the Lord! Never again! This ends tonight! Yeah, there are others that still suffer from migraines—not from head injuries, it’s just been something that’s happened in your life. If that’s you, put a hand up just right where you are. Those of you sitting next to them, put your hand on their head. Just put your hands on their head and just rebuke migraines. Rebuke them! Jesus bore the curse that these folks would not have to bear the curse. We cancel that cycle; some is chemical, some is related to times of the month where women often have that. We just declare this is an illegal assault on your body; be released from it now. We accept no ownership of these afflictions; they end now in Jesus' name! Amen!
Amen! All right, somebody else; what did Jesus do? I want to hear this one. Way in the back over there, way in the back. How many of you had a migraine when you came in, and it’s now gone? Just wave your hand at me! Just wave your hand! Right over here! Another one over here! Yeah—beautiful! All right! Yeah, go ahead and stand up, tell us your name, tell us what Jesus did.
My name is—in English, Ron; in Hebrew, it’s Ruben, my Hebrew name! I can’t—I can’t hear; if you crank it up, I’m sorry! I’ve been having problems with my memory badly, and I’ve been having problems learning. My math scores have gone down to an eighth-grade level from college, and I’ve been losing keys, wallets—I don’t remember faces. One day I’m cloudy, and the next day I’m clear, and then that evening I’m cloudy. It’s been going on for 19 months, and I felt the band come off my head. My head became perfectly clear, and now it’s going to stay! It’s not going to go back and forth! I got set free! I know I did! Beautiful! Stand up! Let’s give a shout of thanks to the Lord! We bless Your great name! We bless Your great name, Jesus!
Wonderful God! Wonderful God! Wonderful Lord! Beautiful! Now, turn to the person next to you! Find out where they need a miracle! Do it quickly! Find out where 'cause you’re going to lay hands on them and pray! Find out where they need a miracle! Okay, now go ahead and pray! Just pray for each other! You should be praying by now! Wonderful! The Lord’s healing the sciatic on the right side of the body! If that’s you, you have that issue—put your hand on it right now! Put your hand on it right now! Injury to the sciatic right side—this cycle of pain affliction ends tonight in the mighty, mighty name of Jesus! It ends tonight! Chronic sinus infections—put your hands on your forehead right now! We just declare that ends tonight! Now in the name of the Lord Jesus!
Okay, check yourself out! Everyone, check yourself out! Just try to do something you couldn’t do. It’s difficult to do! In some way examine yourself! As soon as you discover you’re at least 80% better, wave both hands over your head like this! Wave your hands over your head like this! Give testimony! Keep doing it! Keep doing it; look around the room! Yeah, look around the room; beautiful! All right! Thank them for praying! Find your places! Go and be seated! You open your Bibles to John chapter 20 please, verse 21. Jesus said to them again, «Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.» When He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, «Receive the Holy Spirit.»
Let’s read those two verses again. Jesus said to them again, «Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I send you.» And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, «Receive the Holy Spirit.» It’s interesting to take a look at the four gospels and see how the disciples were commissioned. Each one—the one we are most familiar with would be Matthew 28:19, «Go into all the world, preach the Gospel.» Luke’s gospel has a little different, not in conflict but just adding something a little unique. He talks about going into all the world, preaching the Gospel, and then he says, «Stay in Jerusalem until you’re clothed with power from on high.» So it’s an interesting commission because He says, «Go,» but before you go, «stay.» Go, but not yet. Stay because in your staying you’re going to get something that will make your going work.
As we look through the scripture, we know that in Acts chapter one, people are gathered together—they’re in one accord, they pray! Jesus ascended to the Father forty days after His resurrection. He had been appearing for a 40-day period. Pentecost means fifty, so Jesus appeared and reappeared for 40 of those 50 days, but there were 10 days of nothing. They had 10 days to pray before Heaven invaded Earth. For 10 days, they prayed and cried out to God; they were divided people—wonderful people devoted to Jesus, but there was a lot of strife, a lot of conflict. They were normal human beings. The disciples would argue as to who was the greatest, and there were those kinds of issues.
I’d like to suggest that when they came together to pray for those 10 days, they didn’t know what was going to happen. They didn’t know when it was going to happen; they just knew that before they could go, they had to stay, and they would know when it was time to go because something would be given to them. So they stayed. The scripture doesn’t record what happened, but it does say that they were in one accord. So they were people who were broken and divided, and when the Spirit of God came upon them, they were in one accord. They all had unique instruments in the orchestra, if you will, but they were all tuned to the same Master tuning fork. They all played harmoniously in the work that God was doing.
When the Holy Spirit was released upon them, they were clothed with power. This baptism in fire, this baptism in the Holy Spirit does a lot of things in a person’s life. One of the things it does is introduce you to what we would tell our children when they were small: it gives them their secret language, tongues. Each of our children received their secret language when they were four. I believe so much that this is part of the outpouring of the Spirit upon our lives. When you see the 120 immersed in the fire in the presence of God, you see them responding to the Lord, praying in tongues.
This prayer in tongues is generally one of two things: it is either intercession or it is praise. The Bible teaches about the prayer in tongues, and it talks about praise. In Acts 2:1, we have people from the surrounding nations visiting Jerusalem at that time of outpouring. They are stunned and mystified by what’s coming out of this group of 120 from the upper room, and they are conversing with each other because they know this group of 120 people doesn’t know their language from the country they came from. But they are discussing with each other, and verse 11 says, «Are they not all speaking of the mighty deeds of God?» So here they are, speaking in a language they didn’t know but declaring the secrets, the mysteries, the wonders of God Himself. They were doing it in a language they didn’t understand because their spirit grabbed hold of that language and began to declare.
I heard of someone this last week that when they would pray in the Spirit, in fact, it was one of my friends who heard them and said, «Man, it sounds like they’re speaking Japanese.» We know they don’t know Japanese, so they brought some Japanese friends over to hear him pray in tongues. For a while, he would pray in high Japanese, with royalty, the wealthy, the elite, and then he went to the middle-class Japanese, and then he eventually went to the street language of the Japanese. Each time was saying essentially the same things, declaring the wonders and the greatness and significance of God. Stories of this nature are unusually great. We’ve had our own teams in Israel; one of our—I think it was a young lady—was used over and over again to pray in the Spirit, but she was praying in Hebrew, and we actually had someone interpret for her. I have it on tape somewhere; I’ll have to try to find it someday, but speaking in Hebrew, the prayer language that God gives us is because sometimes our thoughts aren’t clear. In fact, the Bible says we don’t know how to pray as we should. The Holy Spirit in us does. It’s always best to start with His prayer and then pick up His heart, His mood, His faith, His perception, and then add your prayer to His. It’s much more powerful, much stronger, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit was, in part, for that reason.
But when He says in Luke 24, «Don’t leave Jerusalem until you have received this gift from the Father,» which was this outpouring of the Spirit, He defines it as being clothed with power. The real evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is power. Many people are satisfied with good theology and stop short of a divine encounter. The revelation of scriptures is to take us into an encounter with a person that transforms us. Power has two basic functions. One, the most obvious to us—miracles. Miracles! Impossibilities yield to people who walk in power. But the second purpose of power is endurance.
Many people waver in difficult times because they’ve not been baptized in fire. The friends that I know who have gone through the greatest trials, the greatest difficulties—from imprisonment to beatings to all the horrible things you read about in scripture and hear about in church news—my friends who have endured those things first had a great baptism of fire, and there was something in that encounter with God that so deeply transformed them that they could hold the course in the midst of circumstances that seemed to deny the promise. What the Lord is looking for—I don’t believe He creates any of those conflicts for us—but what He’s looking for is a people that will hold fast to what He has said regardless of circumstances. It’s not mental strength that enables us to do that; it’s the Spirit of God upon us that enables us to do that. It’s not our self-imposed discipline; it’s not our vows; it’s not our promises that we’ve made, «Oh God, I will hold true.» Look at Peter. He was in the middle of three and a half years of interaction with the miraculous and the miracle worker, and he said, «I will never deny you.» His determination was the strongest of all of them, but determination itself cannot get us to where we need to go. It’s the grace of God; it’s the empowering presence of God. It is that fiery work of the Spirit of God upon a person’s life that enables us to bring the miracle and endure till it comes.
We have been summoned under the Lord for this life work. What I just read to you in John chapter 20 is a little bit different, though, because this is before the day of Pentecost. So just think with me what this means. This is before the day of Pentecost. Jesus has raised from the dead, but this is during the 40-day period where He is still visiting His disciples, giving them words about the Kingdom, giving them direction about what He’s going to do, giving them promises, teaching them about this assignment that they’ve been given. So for a period of 40 days, He appears and instructs them. This is during that time. This is not Pentecost. What did He do? He breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit.
So we have to ask the question: was this symbolic of something that was going to be released upon them on the day of Pentecost? Because the group that He just breathed on was also in John 20. This may not be significant to you; it is for me, so I’m going to take you on my journey. I’ve heard my whole life the church was birthed on the day of Pentecost. Okay, it may be true, but when were they born again? When were these 11 born again? It’s in the receiving of the Holy Spirit. So even though they were born again and the Spirit of God lived in them, they still needed this baptism of fire. Hallelujah! And this baptism of fire is not a one-time experience.
«Been there, done that!» Anyone who has that attitude has lost the flame entirely. It may be smoldering; you may have the testimony of a past event. But when you’re on fire, you’re contagious! Fire creates an appetite for the impossible. If the appetite for the impossible is not there, then I suggest you get a fresh baptism! Do you remember when Jesus hung on the cross, and they took the spear and put it in His side? Does anybody read their Bible here? Yeah, you remember that? What came out? Blood and water. Blood and water! Sin can only be dealt with by blood; refreshing is dealt with with water. In the Old Testament, when they came into the outer court, the first thing they walked into was the brazen altar where they would sacrifice their lamb to the Lord—the shedding of blood for the remission of sin.
The blood of bulls and goats did not wipe out sin; it just postponed the penalty for one more year. It was the blood of the spotless lamb that once and for all dealt with sin, and it’s for that reason we never have to sacrifice sheep again. Why? Because this spoke of something greater that was coming. Now that the greater has come, we never go back to this. In coming into the presence, the first thing is the blood because the blood deals with sin, but then on the other side of that piece is a laver. It was made out of the mirrors of women, and this laver contained water. And the priests, although they had the blood of the lamb that dealt with the sin in their life, still had to wash with water before they came into the presence of the Lord.
Why? Because in this outer court, they’re dealing with people, and there’s always contamination. No sin was dealt with there, but you heard a story that could depress you if you allowed it. But you ministered to that person; you still need to go to the water and wash. You heard a conflict, a problem; you’re walking with somebody through great difficulty—you still need the refreshing of the water! The scripture talks about this water and uses this phrase in Ephesians: the washing of the water by the word of God. So the blood of Jesus deals with my sin, but I still need to bathe frequently in water. I still need to bathe frequently! I need to be refreshed! I need to be encouraged! I need to be cleansed! I need my conscience cleansed! You see what dealt with that with the blood—that’s true! The power of sin was defeated by the blood of Jesus, but it’s the continual washing of my mind that makes me God-conscious and not sin-conscious, the heart of God-conscious and not the heart of defiled man-conscious.
This is what connects me to the passion, to the heart, the purposes of God. It’s the word of God: Jesus' imprint, washing. I want you just to listen to this verse. I’ll give you the reference after I read it. Just listen: «In that day, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.» In that day, a fountain shall be opened for the house of David, for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. In that day, a fountain will be opened! Blood and water— for sin and uncleanness! Where did Adam’s bride come from? Where did the Last Adam’s bride come from? It was made possible by blood and water—born again, continually cleansed by the word of God! We need our brains washed!
Turn to the person next to you, look at them in the eye, and say, «You need to be brainwashed!» Ephesians 5 says, «Don’t be drunk with wine; be filled with the Holy Spirit.» Listen to the words! We are commanded to be full! It’s not merely one of several doors you can walk through should you choose that direction; it is a command put upon our life: «Be full of the Spirit!» Jesus put it this way: with the eleven, «Go but stay! Stay till you can go!» There’s a difference between the fire of God that these heroes of the faith walked in after the day of Pentecost and what many of us have experienced.
I don’t want to downgrade anyone in this room, any of our experiences; I’m thankful for everything that God has done for me. I just live where there’s more for me. The healthiest posture of my life is thankfulness and hunger. Those two things together for me are two sides of the same coin. I don’t ever want to divorce the two. If I get hungry without thankfulness, I will live frustrated. If I’m thankful without hunger, I will become complacent. But these who had the baptism of fire of Acts 2 said of themselves, «We cannot help but speak of the things we have seen and heard.» We cannot help but speak! Volcanically, these things erupt from our soul, and we find ourselves declaring the things that we have tasted of, the things that we have seen, the things that we have heard! Somehow, 120 people isolated in a room spill out onto the streets and change the atmosphere of an entire city in a drunken condition! Drunk wasn’t the goal; it was a byproduct! If you make the main thing the main thing, you get all the parts!
Don’t be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Contrasting experiences—intoxication naturally versus intoxication spiritually. The crazy thing about being intoxicated by the Holy Spirit is you will never think clearer in your life! It has a different effect than drunkenness; if you’ve been around drunk people, either in the natural or the spiritual, one thing you learn quickly is they really don’t care what you think. They don’t stagger either through the church or down the alley through natural wine! They don’t stagger around wondering what people are going to say about them! Social media has exaggerated the value of public opinion. If you study the New Testament, you’ll find that both the Pharisees and Herod and the political world—both were governed by the fear of man.
Jesus warned His disciples; He said, «Beware! Be aware of the leaven of Herod!"—the political world—and «the leaven of the Pharisees"—the religious world! They both made decisions. Jesus would ask the Pharisees a question, and they would discuss with themselves, «If we say this, the people will think this; if we say this, the people will think this!» And they’d give Him no answer! And Jesus said, «Neither am I going to answer you!» If you don’t have the courage to defeat the fear of man in your life, you’re not ready for the revelation knowledge! I would speak over you that! That was Jesus; that wasn’t me! I’m teasing!
There is a fresh baptism of the Spirit available for every single person in this room! For every single person! For some, it’s a very difficult subject, and there’s so much anxiety in your life over the subject that the Lord actually has to minister to you while you’re sleeping because your anxiety has kept Him at bay! Sometimes there’s so much work to have an experience that He has to wait until we’re through working! Otherwise, we’ll actually think that what He gave us was the result of our labor! Once again, faith is not the product of striving; it is not the result of determination; it is not something you choose in the sense of self-will. Faith is the product of surrender!
You were born for great faith! You were designed for it! Everything about you is designed and wired to recognize God and hear God! Everything about you! All of your senses, your entire creation! When God made you, He could do no better! When He made Adam and Eve, it was the high point of His creation; He could not improve upon His creation, and everything about us—our emotional life, intellectual life, our senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, touch—all these senses were actually given to us to be tools that we use to discover Him. Hebrews 5 says, having our senses trained to discern good and evil! Trained! That means it doesn’t just come suddenly with full knowledge; it means there actually has to be training!
For a period of time, will you learn to recognize presence? You learn—having your senses trained to discern good and evil! If you work for a bank, and you’re the one responsible to make sure that the currency you have in that bank is actual currency and not counterfeit, you go through training. And I know that most of you know this already, but the training you go through—never do you study counterfeit money! You only study the real! You become so absorbed with the authentic $100 bill that when you’re handed a phony one, even though it may look exactly the same, there’s something about it that you may not recognize at first, but there’s something that is not right!
Having your senses trained to discern good and evil! We are trained to recognize presence; we’re trained to recognize voice, countenance, mood, the heart of God! These are all things that we are capable of recognizing through our senses. In Hebrews 5, that is actually the mark of a mature believer: How many of you have some growing to do? My wife and I were driving from Weaverville to Redding—this is back when we were pastoring there, years ago because Leo wasn’t even born yet! It was just our two boys in the car! We had this little Toyota Corolla hatchback, blue 5-speed, cassette stereo in there—uh-huh! Air conditioning! We were at the pinnacle of wealth—the high point! And we’re driving from Weaverville to Redding, and we just began to sing in the Spirit, and our boys became so calm and quiet! It was like a miracle equal to the parting of the Red Sea!
These boys were extremely high energy, and putting them together was just inviting a problem because they’re brothers, and they wrestle and do stuff! One time I was driving, and Brian was the only other passenger with me, and he was just a little guy. He said, «I want water!» I said, «Son, I’m sorry, we don’t have any water. When we get to Redding, I’ll get you some water.» He said, «I want water!» I said, «Son, I don’t—I don’t have any water! I want water right now! There’s no water!» I’m driving down Buckhorn Summit! There’s no water! He said, «I want water!» All right! So I pushed in the little cigarette lighter—you know how you push that in? I pushed it in; I put a pretend cup under it. I held it; when I was through, I handed it to him. He took the pretend cup and threw it down! He would have nothing to do! He’s sitting there in the backseat, and Benny and I are just singing in the Spirit—just worshiping!
And they’re completely, we recognize later, they are just completely in the right sense—almost drugged! Suddenly, right about—if you know where the turn is to Leon off of 299—right about that area, I started smelling like flowers or something! I started smelling, and I’d smell and look outside to see if there were flowers, and then I realize this is winter; there are no flowers anywhere! So I just kept driving; I didn’t say anything to Benny because I didn’t want to jinx it, you know? And what I would do is I’d smell, and it reminded me of a fragrance I’d smelled before—and then I could taste it! It’s strange, but I could taste the smell! And it was like granules of sugar on my tongue—very, very sweet to the taste! So I’d worship; I’d stop; I’d taste; I’d smell. We continued worshiping that minute or two later; I’d stop; I’d taste; I’d smell; continue worshiping—did almost the entire way to Redding, and then it finally lifted! And I said, «Honey, did you smell?» and she goes, «Yeah! Did you smell that?»
So we were having a shared experience here of the fragrance of the Lord that brought such a peace over our car and gave us this—I don’t know what to call it, just a heavenly encounter—actually tasting of another world! Because everything in Heaven has light, and has sound, has color, and has flavor! Every flower has a sound to their color! Yeah! I just—just leave it right there! Everything is alive! On steroids! Everything is alive! Abundantly alive! Living! You walk across a meadow of flowers; none of them die when you step on them; they just come right back! Fragrance, light, flavor—everything is released from everything He made! Everything testifies of Him! Everything is alive because of Him! You and I are people who have dual citizenship, but our primary citizenship is there! Our temporary citizenship is here!
As dual citizens, we live in two worlds! Jesus put it this way—He said, «No one has ascended to Heaven except for he who descended from Heaven!» Who descended from Heaven? Jesus! It’s not a trick question! Who descended from Heaven? Jesus! It reminds me of the Sunday school teacher who asked the children, «What’s gray and has a long bushy tail, stands about that tall, and climbs trees?» The kids are completely quiet! She said, «Come on, you guys know! It’s gray; it’s about this tall, eats nuts, long bushy tail!» They’re quiet! This kid, you know the answer to this—this tall, eats nuts, long bushy tail—gray! And one kid says, «I know the answer is supposed to be Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!»
Jesus tells His disciples early in their journey together, «No one has ascended to Heaven except for the one who first descended.» What does that tell us? He’s been ascending while He is in His earthly body! He is ascending in the sense He has learned to live from a place of abiding in the Father! Why did everyone Jesus pray for get healed? That’s why! It’s in John 3:13—no one has ascended to Heaven but he who came down from Heaven, and my translation adds this last phrase that is, «The Son of Man who is in Heaven!» So it’s like Jesus talking to us saying, «No one has gone into Heaven except for me! I came down; but I’ve been going up too! And actually, I’m there right now!»
When we hear the mysterious examples of scripture, they are to wow us, but they are to make us hungry. God can easily impress us with His understanding, His wisdom, His insight, His power—all those things! But none of them are done merely to impress us! They are all to create in us an affection for a world that we cannot see! To anchor our faith, our values for things that we cannot see—it’s to make us hungry! So I want you to stand! What I’m going to pray for tonight—ask for tonight—a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit is not something you want; it’s too late! You never should have come tonight! It’s all I can tell you because you just got drafted into a momentum that is God-created! God has orchestrated your steps! He won’t force anything on you, but He’s very persuasive!
Israel is standing at the Red Sea. Moses opens the Red Sea. There are two walls of water, but they’re still not moving! So the Lord releases the Egyptians to persuade them to walk between the walls of water! He won’t force you, but He will persuade you! This is a year for a fresh baptism of fire! I can tell you what happened to me; I’ve already talked too long; I don’t want to go into the story, but something was deposited in me in February of 1995 that possessed my soul! It started light, but it increased its grip on my heart, and it was a hunger for the more of God! I prayed it day and night! I see some people get touched the moment they cry, lift up their voice; others, it’s a while! It’s not mine to judge; it’s mine to pursue! It’s not mine to understand; it’s mine to give place to! For me, it was eight months—eight months of continuously praying and there was a baptism of fire that came into my room in October 1995 at 3:00 in the morning, and it continued for three nights! And that’s what I’m praying for you!
I don’t care if it’s 3 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon, at the 8:00 a.m. service on Sunday morning or while you’re going through the car wash—that’s a rather frightening thought! Let me take that one back! But I want you to lift your hands, your faces, your voices, and I want you to put in your own words—your words out loud! You don’t need to scream them, but your words out loud about your hunger for more! Some of you aren’t hungry, so you can do this—you can hunger for hunger! «God, I really know I need this, but I don’t have the passion for it! Make me hungry!» Lift two voices together! Let’s pray a fresh baptism of fire!
Dear Lord God, a fresh touch of the Spirit of God on every person! Keep praying; don’t stop! Keep praying; don’t stop! Don’t change the subject! A fresh baptism of fire! A fresh outpouring! Fresh outpouring! God, give us the gift of dissatisfaction, never satisfied with the inferior! Never satisfied with less than Your desire! Put a hand on the person next to you! Pray for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit of God upon them! Pray for them—fresh outpouring! Fresh outpouring! Fresh outpouring! Never the same again! Fresh outpouring! Fresh outpouring! Never the same again! We just say, «Lord, increase this! Increase! Increase!» Those who are watching Bethel TV, more to you in the name of Jesus! Let the presence—the fire of Heaven—fall upon households! Entire churches that gather; churches that gather right now! We declare that in Jesus' mighty name! Holy Spirit, welcome in this place!
Holy Spirit, You are welcome in this place! Holy Spirit, You are welcome in this place! Omnipotent Father of mercy and grace, You are welcome in this place! Holy Spirit, You are welcome in this place! Holy Spirit, You are welcome in this place! Omnipotent Father of mercy and grace, You are welcome in this place!
One last time—let’s sing it! Holy Spirit, You are welcome in this place! Holy Spirit, You are welcome in this place! Omnipotent Father of mercy and grace, You are welcome in this place!