Bill Johnson - How to Walk in the Supernatural and Believe God for the Impossible
All right, good to see you! How many of you were at the basketball game last night? If you were, you saw some first-class fouls. First-class fouls! It’s how to foul with integrity; it’s how to repent and clean up your mess. Last night, you should have seen a full display of how to make things right with your brother. It was very fun for students and staff, an annual event that’s just outrageous. I guess they had to turn people away; Simpson’s basketball auditorium was packed to the rafters. Plus, someone mentioned this morning that we should stream it. I don’t know; it may need an R rating now. Everybody handled themselves so well, so there was no bad attitude. It was all wonderful, but just the intensity; it may need an R rating. I’m not sure about that, especially the competitive nature of our staff. I just want you to know they did well, and it was just a whole bunch of fun.
I saw this sign this week on the front of a church: «Deacon Joe Battle’s funeral is canceled; he is alive after all!» Oh, I think that’s funny! Can you imagine planning a funeral and then finding out the guy you’re having a funeral for is actually alive? That’s got to be a real eye-opener! I like this one; it’s the wrong time of year, but I don’t need a Valentine. I need $8 million and a fast metabolism! This is for all the animal lovers: Yes, PETA, animals have rights—the right to be tasty! I love animals, right next to the potatoes.
Two old guys are playing golf. One guy turns to the other and says, «My old eyes aren’t what they used to be. Did you see where the ball went?» The other guy replies, «Yes, but I can’t remember.» Oh, so funny!
Hey, what we’re going to do today—several years ago, I took some time to try to define, at least the way I describe it, the cornerstones of thought. A cornerstone is like a foundational aspect that holds things in place and sets parameters. There are certain theological values that I don’t want to say other people don’t have; they are just distinctive to this house. I went over them several years ago, and we’re going to go over them again this morning because these beliefs actually lead to behaviors.
The context is going to be out of Acts 2. Acts 2 talks about how they continually devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of bread, to prayer, and to fellowship. «They continually devoted» is the phrase I want to work with. They were able to maintain a move of God because they continually recommitted themselves to what got them there. They recognized the distinctives of the season they were in, and they didn’t try to pass from them too quickly. They continually devoted themselves, and in today’s case, I’ll say to the apostles' teaching.
I think it’s interesting that the Bible doesn’t include a list of the apostles' teaching because I think there are things that are always true, but there are also things that He is saying now that He wasn’t emphasizing in a previous season. So I’m going to use that distinctive, that clarity, as we approach these four things.
The first thing is that God is good. His goodness doesn’t allow anything to destroy His work of grace in a person’s life. Let me put it better: Mike Bickle said it this way: «All of God’s judgments are aimed at whatever interferes with love.» That’s good! So His goodness doesn’t avoid judgment, in a sense; rather, it’s a judgment against what would destroy you. The goodness of God is, I believe personally, the cornerstone of all theology. It’s a primary thought for us in learning what Jesus actually came to reveal—the predominant revelation of Jesus and the purpose for His coming. We know that He came to die; absolutely, we know that He came to bear our sins and to destroy the power of sin and the power of darkness over our lives.
However, continually, He spoke of His purpose to reveal the Father. The revelation of the Father is the primary revelation that He came to bring—not of a taskmaster, not of a lawyer, not of a general of an army; none of those things. He came to reveal a Father to an orphan planet. There are a lot of behaviors that exist, and are sometimes not just tolerated but applauded within Christian circles, that are actually behaviors of orphans, and the Lord is trying to heal us from that. A true revelation of the goodness of God brings healing to that misconception, that idea that I have to work for favor.
We work, but we work from favor, not for favor. So this issue of the goodness of God is the cornerstone of all thought and theology. Next to that is the whole idea that nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible with God. He allowed us to have access to that realm when He said, «Nothing is impossible for those who believe.» He described a realm of infinite power, possibility, and potential, and then gave us access to it by saying, «Nothing is impossible for those who believe.» This has been an exciting part of my personal journey—to work to invade realms of impossibility. We actually have it written into our DNA to invade realms of impossibility. We were born to invade the impossible. We were born to see things that have been deemed impossible, to watch them bend their knee at the name of Jesus through our lips. There’s something about our nature in Christ that only finds its full expression when impossibilities yield.
For those who no longer have that cry, they were either taught out of it or they were disappointed until it got buried. But it is there; it is the essence of who we are in Christ. That DNA of Jesus Himself is that expression that knows no impossibility and longs to look for the expression of the manifest presence of God, the purpose of God, the Kingdom of God. This idea that nothing is impossible is what I would refer to as that second cornerstone of thought that shapes who we are as a people.
The third one is that everything we will ever need was dealt with at the cross. The blood of Jesus purchased everything. It’s a mind-boggling thought that Ephesians 2 says that in the ages to come, we would know the surpassing greatness or riches of His grace—ages to come! So just think for a minute: a hundred billion years from now, we’ll still just be scratching the surface of what grace is all about. Everything that you will need throughout eternity—the responsibilities that we have. We don’t sit on a cloud playing a harp; heaven is a very industrious place. It’s an industrious place full of people created with divine purpose. In that position, there will be responsibility that every believer has to glorify God personally, but also in what we do and who we are.
This idea that it was all bought back by the blood of Jesus at the cross—everything was accomplished then. Living with that conviction, living with the awareness that we’re not fighting for victory, we’re fighting from victory. We’re fighting from the triumph of Christ toward the situations that each one of us face. We’re fighting from the triumph of the death and resurrection of Christ toward victory for our neighbor, the people we work with, family members, etc. So it’s that third realm: everything was purchased by the blood of Jesus.
Then there’s the fourth one. The fourth one almost seems awkward, but it’s so prevalent to who we are, and that is that I am—or we are—significant. I can always tell when someone doesn’t really get this. We work hard on identity in our school. We spend, goodness, the entire first year just dealing with issues of identity: who we are in Christ, who Christ is in us. I can always tell when people don’t really get it because they’re impressed with themselves. My significance is only found in His significance. Once I’ve seen His significance, I’m not impressed with mine.
There’s something I believe in—the significance of every created being, every human being, every person. There’s a tremendous beauty, an absolute wonder, a place that we feel in the overall scope of things—the overall plan—that only you can fill. I believe that strongly, but our significance comes from His significance. Each one of us represents, we’re created in His image. Each one of us represents an aspect of His image and nature that no one else fully represents as we do. There’s an aspect of who He is that each of us carries and that is unique to who we are. It’s a beautiful thing to discover significance, but never to allow that to capture our attention as Lucifer did when he looked at his own significance in the created plan of the Lord. He was caught up in his own beauty and lost sight of the one who was infinitely greater than he was.
All of our life, all of our significance, all of our purpose is drawn from a Father who chose us by name when we were dead in sin and made us alive together in Christ. This call of God releases that sense of identity. So we have these four things: the goodness of God, the fact that nothing’s impossible, the fact that everything’s purchased at Calvary, and the fourth one is I’m significant. We are significant in Christ. Each of these points of theology, points of thought, ways of thinking and viewing life—these corners that set the parameters for how we do life together—create behaviors. So I’ve talked about those four things before; today I want to talk to you about the four behaviors that come from these four ideas.
Number one, because God is good, you are required to dream big. Let me give you the four things, and I’ll try to relate them in a moment, but it’s dream big, take risks, trust God, and serve well. These four realms are the behavioral distinctives of this family. Dream big is required of the Lord because the moment you stop dreaming is the moment you start dying. You take any small child; they all have pictures of being a superhero of some sort. They’ve got a cape on their back and a letter on their chest, and they’re ready to change the world because that’s what dreams are like. After religion gets a hold of us, it kills the capacity for dreams.
What Jesus does is restore the dream life to a believer. Orphans find it hard to dream because their dream is for vindication or survival, whereas sons dream of destinies. The Lord heals the orphan heart and restores us to a place where we find it’s not just about us; we’re actually dreaming about the bigger picture because we’re part of a family conquest, part of a family mission. The Lord has raised us up for this purpose, and that is found in the capacity of dreaming.
I want you to look at a passage for me in John 16. We’ll probably look at maybe three passages for what I’m going to talk to you about. John 16, verse 23, is where we’ll go. It’s interesting; in the Gospel of John, this is where Jesus especially unloads His assignment to reveal the Father more than in any other book in the Bible. Jesus comes to reveal the Father in the Gospel of John. This Gospel is where you have repeated in chapters 14, 15, and 16 this predominant theme of asking anything you want. He’s empowering people to dream. Heaven is a permission culture. Our culture of—if you know anything about our staff, you know that very few of them are given strict refining assignments; they’re empowering assignments because a permission culture is the nature of heaven. It’s where I trust the Jesus in you to manifest correctly; that’s good!
So, John 16:23: «In that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. Until now, you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.» I love the part of this verse that emphasizes the dream: the fact that we can ask whatever we will. But here’s what I want you to really see: What is the Father’s dream? It’s revealed in this passage—it is that you would be full of joy. His dream is that in each one of us, there would be this overflowing spring or well of joy that is not contained, that is not restricted, that is not refined, but actually exemplifies the eternal grace called joy.
Joy is so vital that Jesus endured the cross to obtain it—"for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.» So joy was the reward for the cross. Perhaps you’ve never heard this before, but joy was the reward of the cross. Joy was what He endured this for. Because joy is such a priceless commodity in heaven, it gave Jesus the willingness to endure the most horrible event in the history of the universe because of joy. It’s that valuable. So here, Jesus now locks into the heart of the Father, and He comes to us with this wonderful revelation: Let me just put it in my terms: because He is good, you are required to dream. It is His goodness that sets the parameters for your dreams.
Let me take it a step further: there’s something about the dreams, the desires of God’s people that are supposed to manifest Him or unveil Him. There’s something about His nature that cannot be seen—let me put it this way—that will not be seen because we’ve become a robotic group of people that perform exactly what we’ve been assigned to perform. It’s a relational journey, not a step-by-step robotic journey, and in that relational journey, He put Himself at risk by giving you a contract where you could ask anything. How valuable is the dream of the believer? It’s incredibly valuable.
In Ephesians, when He wanted to take the lid off of all promise and say, «God will act on your behalf beyond all you could ask or think,» God is saying, «I’m going to go beyond the reach of your asking, your prayer life, and I’m going to go beyond the reach of your imagination, your thought life.» Where I dwell is beyond the reach of these two things. That’s His devotion and commitment to dreams.
The second one is that, because nothing’s impossible, a huge part of our life is designed around taking risks. I remember back in 1987 when I went to Anaheim; I took some of the leaders in Weaverville with me to the Vineyard Anaheim for their healing and power conference. I was so hungry to see what I saw in the Bible and heard of in history, and you know all that happened in my life is I’d pray and they’d die. If you want to go to heaven quickly, have me pray for you! There wasn’t much breakthrough for healing at all. I had heard about it; I read about it, but it was not happening anywhere close to me.
I remember talking to my grandparents and parents and others about the miracles we had seen. I’d gone to see Kathryn Kuhlman, and I was impressed with that and tremendously moved by it, but my heart did not cry out for a stadium-type breakthrough and healing. It was the day-to-day. Every person in the body of Christ carries an anointing for healing as we invade this world system. That’s what my heart cried out for. So, I heard about the Vineyard, and a bunch of us went down. I attend a lot of conferences; I’m actually in about 30 of them a year, so it’s a lot of conferences. Add that up year after year, you can do the math—it’s a bunch!
This is the only time in my life that, at this particular conference—the first one in Anaheim—every teaching I heard that week, I had done before myself—every single one, verbatim! I had even used some of the same examples that I thought were just entirely my own. But it was frustrating for me because they had fruit for what they believed. I had theology, and theology without experience is a real disappointment! The Lord doesn’t reveal Himself so that we know about Him; He reveals Himself so that we know Him.
As I mentioned at the beginning, let me know Your ways that I might know You. God, unveil Your nature to me because I want to experience that nature. Every revelation of His nature is an invitation to encounter. Unfortunately, Israel was satisfied with knowledge about Him. It says they were acquainted with His works. Moses was acquainted with His ways. Israel was stuck on the actions of God and they never asked the second question: How does this action reveal Your nature? But Moses went beyond what was convenient and pressed in until he could actually see the glory of the Lord. This is available for every single believer.
So here we’ve got this idea that taking risk is a huge part of the Christian life. We actually have to make room—When I came home from that event in Anaheim, realizing that while we believe similar things—same things in many cases—their life was different than mine, with a fruitfulness I didn’t have because they took risks. They lived with risk.
There are two kinds of faith: an abiding faith and an active faith. An abiding faith is focused on identity: it’s who you are in Christ; it’s who Christ is in you. But active faith is connected to our mission, and active faith stands on the shoulders of abiding faith. That’s good!
Understanding who we are in Christ, who He is in us, is not to position us to take a nap. You know when we talk about rest? It’s not a rest of inactivity—it’s a rest where we work from triumph toward triumph. We work from favor to illustrate and manifest His power, His love, His Kingdom. It’s working from His accomplishments toward our mission and our assignment.
So we have this incredible opportunity and invitation to take risks, and you guys live with this. I mean, you know the stories that we hear, that we witness together, and have for years—the thousands of people who have been healed and delivered—the extraordinary stories—most of them come because somebody took a risk. Somebody stopped for a moment and said, «I’m not willing to just know that this is happening to my neighbor or the person I work with, but I’m going to press in a little bit farther.» I’m going to be uncomfortable. My comfort is not as important as the glory of God being glorified. So we press into the situation, and we take risks. We learn in the risks. We learn how to hear His voice.
I don’t know that we learn a whole bunch before we take the risk. I mean, I wish we did! I wish I could just get it all in print, and then it wouldn’t be much of a risk, would it? If He just gave me the outline: do this, this, this, and this and this will be the outcome—that would be really easy. But it doesn’t happen that way. There are subtle invitations into this lifestyle, and it all comes simply because nothing’s impossible with God.
So the goodness of God makes it possible for us to dream, and nothing’s impossible with God invites us to take risks. The third behavioral distinctive is to trust God—which sounds very generic, and I know it’s important for all of us—but this issue of trust is anchored in what He has done at Calvary. Look at it this way: faith—real faith—never draws attention to itself. Real faith always draws attention to the one who is perfectly trustworthy. Real faith doesn’t say, «Look at my bold action that proves what I’ve got going on inside.» That’s not real faith; that’s somebody who’s an orphan needing attention.
Perhaps you’ve never heard this before, what I’m about to share with you: real faith doesn’t take a bold act trying to draw attention to real faith. Real faith’s focus is on the one who is completely and perfectly trustworthy. That’s the unique nature of genuine faith. And this invitation we have from the Lord to live with a lifestyle of risk is constantly feeding from who He is, and who He is helps me to discover who I am and what my assignment is. But it is what I’m impressed with; it’s His Word; it’s His absolute faithfulness. It’s the fact He doesn’t lie.
We know that He doesn’t tease either. He doesn’t draw us in to be disappointed. He doesn’t bring us to a point of birth then fail to bring delivery. He is the God who is absolutely faithful, and there is arising in the earth a generation that is fully convinced of His goodness, fully convinced that nothing’s impossible, and fully convinced that it’s actually already been purchased. It’s my job to back the truck up to the warehouse and pick up what was purchased so that I can deliver it to the person it’s supposed to be delivered to.
I’ve told this story several times. When we first invited Chris and Kathy to come down and take a staff position with us, they owned a number of businesses in Weaverville and had a great history in business. It was fun for me as a pastor to watch what God took them through and trained them in. When they came, they actually sold all the businesses, got rid of whatever they needed to, and they came with this huge debt because of it. I remember, Chris wouldn’t mention it to anyone. They wouldn’t broadcast it, but they just had this huge debt. One day someone in the church met me at the back door and said, «Is Chris here?» I said, «No, he’s preaching somewhere else, but he’ll be here tonight.» They said, «Well, would you give this to him?» They handed me a check that was folded in half but wasn’t in a sealed envelope, so I figured, you know, the will of God must be for me to know what was on that check.
Being the courageous one I was, after they walked around the corner, I flipped the check open and I looked: $30,000! Then I looked at the name to make sure it was his name—it was! I thought, «Wow, he’s going to be happy tonight!» I put it in my Bible. Pre-service prayer used to be back here in the dining area, so pre-service prayer came, and I was there. Chris walked in, and everybody was quiet worshiping the Lord. I said, «Chris, come here!» I gave him this check, and he goes, «Does that say $3,000?» I said, «No, that’s $30,000!» He completely ruined that entire prayer; he walked around saying, «Look what somebody just gave me!» That whole peace thing was just gone; it was just celebration and joy!
You know what? Chris never thanked me for that check because I didn’t write it—I just delivered it. When we minister healing and deliverance, salvation to people, all we’re doing is delivering a check that someone else wrote. That’s the basis for a lifestyle of risk—that’s an invitation for a lifestyle of risk because in the kingdom, you won’t write checks for what you don’t know is in the account. That’s good!
The last area—I meant to have you look at a verse; I’ll just quote it to you: Romans 8:28: «All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purposes.» How many of you know that verse is completely unnecessary if every prayer is answered immediately? The Bible talks about enduring faith—faith brings answers, but enduring faith brings answers with character. God is interested in both; He’s interested in this journey we walk in where we see the immediate breakthrough, but it sets us up for the enduring breakthrough—the one that takes some time, the one that shapes us in the process.
Bishop Joseph Garlington told us this way: «We go from glory to glory, but it’s hell in the hallway.» Romans 8:28 is for the hallway! It’s when nothing is working the way it’s supposed to work. You’ve got the verse in front of you; it’s not happening. This is where trust is anchored in who He is and is not abandoned because our circumstances don’t seem to measure up. That’s when trust becomes fortified.
The last one I want you to turn to is John 13, and this particular passage today is where I’ll spend a little bit more time than I have on the others. John 13 has to do with serving well. Because of God’s goodness, we are required to dream big. Because nothing’s impossible, we must take risks. Because everything was purchased at Calvary, we’ve got this assignment—this ongoing assignment—to explore what is possible in our lifetime.
This final cornerstone, if you will, of thought is the fact that I’m significant, and because of my significance, I must serve well. No one who sees who they are in God wants others to rally around them to build their empire. I watch it all the time because we work with people who have no identity in Christ. We start working with them about their identity in Christ and His faithfulness—who they are now that they’re freed from sin; their history is no longer in sin but in Christ—and it’s just a wonderful journey.
But in that process, people at one point become really impressed with who they are. They’re impressed with their gifting—you know, ready to put out the business cards on their intergalactic ministry, changing one universe at a time! You laugh, but we have had similar results, a little bit dialed down, but not by much! Whenever I see that, I realize they don’t get it yet. They still see their significance independent of His absolute overwhelming significance.
In this story we are going to read, we’ll see this beautiful picture of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. Start with verse 2: «Supper being ended, the devil already having put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel, and girded Himself.» After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
Then He came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to Him, «Lord, are You washing my feet?» Jesus answered and said to him, «What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.» Peter said to Him, «You shall never wash my feet!» Jesus answered him, «If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.» Simon Peter said to Him, «Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!» I love Peter because he’s just all or nothing. Jesus said to him, «He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; but you are clean, but not all of you.» And He’s referring to Judas.
I want to look at two verses: I want to look at verse 3 and verse 8. Start with 3: «Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside His garment, and picked up a basin of water to wash feet.» Think through this with me: The context is Jesus has already watched the betrayal set in motion. The Holy Spirit is clear in helping us recognize the context for what Jesus is about to do. It says He knows He came from God; He’s about to go back to God and that everything has been put in His hands.
This would be the ultimate revelation given, probably to Jesus personally, about purpose and destiny. In the context of this completed assignment, He stoops to wash feet. When you discover who you are, all you want to do is give it away. It says, «All things have been put into His hands.» Think about this with me: Jesus, eternally God, forfeited everything. How many of you know He had everything in the Father? He and the Father were one; He has everything. He gave that up to become a man. Now, reinherent everything has been restored.
Do you understand that when Jesus, when there was defeat over the powers of darkness, Satan, the demonic realm, the powers of darkness—when there was a defeat of the power of sin and the defeat of the grave—none of that needed defeat as God. Because the devil has never been a contest against God. God is absolute power; Satan is a finite created being that has been severed from his life source and is withering as we speak. He has never been in opposition to God in the sense of equal power, where good and evil fight—that’s nonsense.
Absolutely nonsense! He is a created being, the opposite of Michael. When Jesus defeated the powers of darkness, He defeated him as a man who lived a perfect life without sin, came to the offering, and was raised from the dead by the Father. In that triumph, as our elder brother, the powers of darkness were defeated. I understand it was God in Him, but is this making sense to you? He never needed to defeat the devil as God because all God would ever have to do is breathe, and you know the enemy is toast.
So here we have Jesus; He realizes all things have been given to Him. It’s a moment of revelation, probably I’m assuming, and in that moment of significant revelation, He turns to serve. See, I think that’s really the outcome of true revelation, where God opens up His heart for us, opens up His description of the definition of our assignment, our gift, our mission. I don’t know anyone who sees it clearly that builds a monument around themselves.
You know, everything’s about them. I remind you of something we covered several months ago about Solomon, where the Queen of Sheba said to Solomon, «God loves you, Solomon. He’s given you favor because of His love for Israel.» God loves you; He’s given you favor because of His love for the people around you. In other words, favor that comes to me and ends with me did not find its purpose.
Favor that comes to me empowers the people around me to succeed and to step into destiny; that is the purpose of favor given to me. And never—it’s never for me. It will benefit me, but it’s never for me; it’s always for the people around me. What does Jesus do? It says He knew He’d come from the Father, He knew He was going back, He knew all things belonged to Him, so what did He do? He looked at the remaining eleven—those He was about to turn everything over to—and He served them.
I’d like to suggest to you that their destiny of impacting the course of history was dramatically impacted by a basin of water and a towel because it reset the result of true insight, true wisdom. Verse 8, the last verse, we’ll wrap it up with this: «Peter said to Him, 'You shall never wash my feet! ' Jesus answered, 'If I do not wash you, you have no part with me.'» That word «part» would be like a share. It would be like, let’s say we have a thousand shares of a particular stock. Jesus says, «If I don’t wash you, you don’t get shares.»
Your significance has been defined by the willingness of the Almighty God to serve you. Wow! It’s pretty tough to get caught up with yourself when you see the King of Glory putting a towel over His arm, serving you to empower you into purpose. See, there are some people who work to stay humble by reminding themselves of their sinful past. That’s foolish! People say, «Well, if God wasn’t in my life, I would be nothing.» That’s true, but He’s already promised He’ll never leave us, so that’s kind of a vain thought.
There has to be some other way to maintain a sense of humility without revisiting the past to keep you mindful of your need of God. How about discovering the fact that the King of Glory has a towel over His arm, and He’s willing to serve you into your destiny? How could we ever want to build a kingdom around ourselves when we’ve been empowered by that One, by that One, by the One who, at His moment of significant revelation, to stoop and then begin to wash the feet of people to say, «You know what? I want you to have shares! I want you to have stock in this family.»
Because God is good, we dream big. Because nothing is impossible, we take risks. Because everything is purchased at Calvary, we find that He’s trustworthy, and we trust God. And because I’m significant, I’ve been given the privilege to serve well. Those are the behavioral distinctives of this family. I believe those corners, if you will, to the building. It’s not a roadmap because He never designed us to be robots stuck to a trail; He planted us in a kingdom and invited us to explore.
All right, why don’t you stand, and we’ll pray. I forget which epistle it is—in somewhere in the Bible it says, «I say this by reminder; I’m reminding you of these things which is salvation for you.» What he’s basically saying is «I’m going to review some things because it’ll help to add some stability to us and kind of ensure the kind of success and breakthrough we’re looking for in our life of following Christ.»
I find that this challenge that is revealed, if you will, in Acts 2, of continually devoting ourselves to the apostles' doctrine—I’d like to summarize it by saying I believe we’re to pay attention to the things that God is highlighting in the hour that we live in, and then realize that’s what we up our commitment to on a regular basis. I’ve been married 43 years, and yep, I’m a happy camper! I love my wife more today than when we got married. It’s something that’s increasing. I’m so thankful for her; she’s one of the greatest persons I’ve ever met.
But I didn’t say I love you on that day in 1973, and then hope that would stick. I tell her all the time. We’ll sit and watch TV, and I’ll just yell out, «I sure love you!» I also say, «Thanks for not being a bozo!» I do! Thanks for not being a—sorry, that’s just between you and me; keep that a secret! I renew that covenant in word and in action, not just daily but many times a day. Why?
Because you continually devote yourself to what got you in your most significant moment of your life. Learning how to look back and say, «All right, this and this shaped me. I’m going to review this; I’m going to rededicate myself to this.» It’s not going backwards; it’s saying, «I’m going to plant myself firmly in the amen corner of these truths that God established in me because I’m going to see what else He’s willing to build in me.»
I just want to pray that over you: Father, I pray that there would be this awareness that You just make us conscious of the mind of Christ, the apostles' doctrine for this season, for this moment that we’re in—the ability to recognize Your very breath, Your very heartbeat for what You’re saying and doing now, and that we, as a people, would be able to stand and say amen. We renew our commitment to these things. Lord, I pray that these distinctives would not just need to be rehearsed but that they’d be modeled and illustrated even more than they already are.
That we would wake up with an awareness of what kingdom looks like in this day and age and this assignment You’ve given to us. I’m just glad, Father! I’m just so thankful! I’m so thankful for what You’ve accomplished, what You’ve done on our behalf that none of us deserve. But we do confess that Jesus deserved it, and because Jesus deserved it, we embrace the call and say yes and amen. So I pray for that grace now in Jesus' name. Amen.