Bill Johnson - Your Breakthrough Is on the Other Side of a Fight
Apparently, it went so well last week that they extended it for another week, so there’s one more showing today. If you get a chance, see it. I personally, uh, live indebted to Mario Melo; it was his preaching over 50 years ago that completely changed my life. I’ve been in meetings where I remember at the old Bethel, over on Belli, calling out a lady and saying she had a tumor in her abdomen that she hadn’t even told her husband about. Then she put her hand on him, and she went flying back and got touched by God and healed. Pretty cool, pretty cool. So, that’s the normal Christian life. I’m just trying to adjust to it, you know? Yeah, so fun. Anyway, if you have a chance.
Uh, yeah, in Florida… you ready? Okay. In Florida, an atheist created a case against Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians and Jews regarding their observance of these holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no recognized days. The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel, declaring the case dismissed. The lawyer immediately stood, objecting to the ruling, saying, «Your Honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter, and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur, and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays.» The judge leaned forward in his chair, saying, «But you do. Your client, Counselor, is woefully ignorant.» The lawyer said, «Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.» The judge replied, «The calendar says April 1st is April Fool’s Day. Psalms 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool, therefore, April 1 is his day.»
I have staff members who just pray for me whenever I’m going to read something. They just amp up their intercession and start praying, «Oh Jesus, what is he going to do now?» Um, I want to continue on the subject of the promised land. I’ve been talking about it for, uh, quite a few weeks, maybe eight weeks or so now, and I have a specific word that I want to look at. Just a quick review: the promised land in the Old Testament. First of all, Paul said in Corinthians that what was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. This means there are actually patterns, templates, and insights given in the Old Testament narrative that are directly applicable to how we live our lives now. I remind you that the Old Testament was actually the New Testament for the early church; it was the Bible they had, and there are so many things in there that are for us.
The most profound lesson for me in the entire Old Testament concerning how we are to live is the story of Israel leaving Egypt and going into the promised land. The promised land has a state—I’ll repeat a number of things to set the stage here—but the promised land concept is a land of fulfillment. It’s what you were born for. It is not a picture of Heaven because the enemy is there, and the enemy occupied the cities they were to take possession of, and the devil doesn’t exist in heaven or anything you’re going to inherit in eternity. As for how we do life now, the enemy does inhabit many areas we are supposed to inherit. For example, you may have a long line of generation after generation in poverty, or perhaps generation after generation of broken families with divorce—things of this nature—things we were never designed for but just happen. They happen for whatever reason, and oftentimes even Christians get born again and yet think that it’s just their lot in life to be part of that sense of brokenness, and the pattern continues in their lives, which is not true.
The Lord has actually set before us something to inherit regarding families, finances, vision, jobs; you know, whatever it might be. It applies in a thousand areas, but the Lord has designed us to inherit and live in fulfilled promise. The thing you have to remember is that when I talk about fulfilled promise, I’m not talking about cars, boats, planes, and houses. It may include that, but that’s never the focus. It’s always about the realms, the dimensions of God, where we represent him well, and even his answers about the house or the car or whatever. Even his answers to prayer actually bring him glory. They’re not about setting us up with a materialistic kingdom.
These areas of breakthrough are things that we need in our lives; breakthrough brings a sustaining presence or power. If you abide in me, my word abides in you (John 15:7-8). If you abide in me, my words abide in you; you ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you. The very next verse says, «By this, my Father is glorified—that you bear much fruit.» What is the «this»? It is the answers to prayer. In other words, you living fulfilled is what glorifies God; it testifies of his nature to those around you. If I have a wife and children and I dress in fine clothes while they are in rags, you have reason to question my godliness—you have a reason to question my integrity. It doesn’t mean we drive Rolls Royces; it just means that we’re cared for, we are well taken care of. It means that there are answers to our prayers; it means that we cry out to God and things happen because we prayed.
It’s never just about us; our breakthroughs actually create momentum for others to feast on. It’s never just about me; it’s always about living a lifestyle that impacts community and culture. Israel has this land to inherit, and it’s occupied by enemies. What is happening here is the Lord is creating in us an appetite, but then he gives us a warning that there’s a fight involved in obtaining what you were born for. Oftentimes, as believers, we interpret that the fight means we’re doing something wrong. Matthew 13 says when persecution comes—when opposition comes because of the word—in other words, the word over your life actually attracts conflict because we never know the strength of God’s word over our lives until it is opposed.
It is in the opposing of the destiny of our lives that we find out how real that promise was. Discovering the strength of the word is something that reinforces our own faith and devotion to the purposes of God. The Lord prepares Israel to inherit this land, and he tells them it’s occupied by enemies, which means there’s going to be a conflict. Sometimes the conflict is horrendous; sometimes you just show up, and God fights for you. What happens to Israel is they are coming into a land where they are now going to inherit cities that have been built, crops that have been planted, farmlands that are all in place. They’re going to inherit the corrals, the fencing, and all the stuff that it takes for businesses. They are literally going to walk into a territory where everything that was built for another people becomes theirs.
What God does is he sets them up and says, «All right, the first place you’re going to come to is Jericho, and I’m going to drive out the enemy before you. But in Jericho, not only am I not going to drive out the enemy; that city is mine, and you have to destroy it.» That’s a weird idea when you’re planning on inhabiting cities. The first thing you anticipate is that you’re going to come up against this city, and it’s the first taste of our inheritance. We get to settle; we get to put people in the homes, into the businesses, and thrive there. Yet the Lord says, «In this city, I want you to destroy it,» which is absolutely opposite of what they’ve anticipated. For 40 years, they’ve been anticipating finally coming into the blessing of the Lord.
Most of us don’t have financial problems; we have lordship problems, and the Lord will test those boundaries for us. But not for punishment; he tests those boundaries to see what measure, what weight of responsibility and increase in blessing can I actually maintain without being crushed in my own character and development. He looks to see a people—find individuals and a corporate body—who are able to manage well what God has entrusted to us without it turning us into pride or self-reliance. He’s constantly measuring that in our lives.
So here’s the situation: He says, «All right, you cities you’re going to inherit, it’s all going to be yours—the businesses, the houses, everything set up. There’s Jericho; let’s go get it. By the way, you have to destroy it, and I’m not going to chase the enemy out. You’ll have to kill them yourself.» Anyone else ever have a situation where the Lord’s final word to you was opposite of what you expected and anticipated, and yet the word of the Lord almost sounded like you must have gotten something wrong or you must be being punished for something or must have misunderstood? No, you understood perfectly. God gave you an appetite for something because he wanted you to have that inner drive to take possession of what he promised.
Let me rephrase this: You can’t crave something sweet unless sweet exists. The appetite you have in you is the testimony; it’s real and it’s in front of you. Yes, how many of you realize that you’re thankful for what you have, but you know you were born for more? Born for more; that’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re here as a church family. We have this conviction, this understanding; we’re so thankful. I’ve seen more than I ever thought I’d get to see, but in the journey, I’ve become ruined for less, and so I’ve got to have more. There’s this passion for the more, so there’s this tension we live in with an appetite for more, but a thankfulness for what we have. Maintaining both in a healthy way keeps us positioned for continuous advancement.
I’m speaking on this subject, which I have now for maybe eight weeks. I don’t know; maybe nine. I don’t know how long it’s been, but I’m speaking on this in some ways kind of selfishly because I’m hungry for more. I have a list of things that have never happened. I’ve got a list of things that have happened, but I have a list of things that God has promised me through unique situations, through very intimate times where he has spoken to my heart or ministered to me through another person. I keep this list and I pray over these things, and I’ve not seen so many of them happen. I don’t think the Lord lies.
Hello, yeah, that’s a pretty good guess right there: He doesn’t tease us with possibility and then withdraw. That’s right; he plants dreams and desires in us so that we become the people who can inherit it and not stumble because of the inheritance. Does this make sense to you? Proverbs says, «He who becomes wealthy quickly loses it, but if he becomes wealthy through labor, he manages it.» Why? Because character is formed in the earning. Good, good. We were born for more.
Let’s go to Joshua 1. Did I tell you where to go, or did I just expect you to know by the word of the Lord? Let’s look at Joshua chapter 1. Jericho, the first of ten cities, it’s the tithe; it’s why they couldn’t touch it. Come on, people say, «Well, the tithe is under the law.» It’s not; it came through Abraham, who, by the way, is called the father of our faith. Entire chapters in Romans honor this father of our faith, and it’s upon us to pay attention to the things he valued because he established a course of direction—a way of living, a way of thinking—that shapes everything we are and everything we do.
In that recipe, if you will, was the concept of lordship. We don’t have financial problems; we have lordship issues. And it was challenged here at this point: «I’m going to give you cities to live in. Here’s Jericho; it’s yours. No, destroy it; it’s entirely mine.» The concept—does this make sense? —wars against the logic and reason, the anticipation of what we built up in our thinking that God wanted for us. Amen, Bill. Amen.
All right, Joshua chapter 1. I’m going to read some scripture to you. These verses have been key for my life for about 50 years—51 years. I turn to it often just to encourage myself. Verse 5: The Lord is speaking to Joshua: «No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses"—which is quite a statement—"so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.»
Okay, stop right there. We’re going to stop all the way through this until we’re able to get to the Jericho story. The Lord speaks to Joshua and talks about his covenant with him: «I’m going to be with you as I was with Moses.» Think about this: Moses would go into this tent of meeting. Moses would meet with God literally face to face on a mountain. He would come down, and his face at one point was actually glowing from the glory that he had encountered.
Now he’s in this place where there’s also a tent, what they call a tent of meeting. Moses would go into this tent and have this encounter with the Father. It was for his own relationship, for his own character development, and it was also so he would have a message to give to Israel. He goes into this tent of meeting, and if you can imagine that the door is right here, he’s in this time with God. Outside the door is Joshua. Moses would be before the Lord; he’d get this word to speak to Israel, he would leave the tent, and it says Joshua stayed by the tent. What’s the point? It’s not a random piece of information; it’s a revelation of a value system of the next generation of leadership that had to be maintained.
It was the core value of Moses; it had to be the core value of Joshua. Here was a man who prioritized the presence of God. Come on, yes! Many prioritize the presence theoretically. Picture this: Moses is going to talk to the people. What if Joshua goes with him? Then he appears as the apparent assistant, the powerful man, and he lays aside his opportunity for personal applause to stay in the presence. I’d like to suggest that’s what qualified him. It was that heart for the presence; it was that sense of priority that said, «You know, I want to be responsible; I want to do everything I can, but if I have an opportunity to linger longer in the presence, I’m going to do that instead of receive the applause and the recognition of the favor from people. I’d rather have it here.»
Come on, good. That’s the one God says, «As I was with Moses, I will be with you.» That phrase is much more pregnant than it might seem at first glance. Verse 6: «Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide an inheritance of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.» I remind you their fathers were given the promise, but they never received it. The lack of their ability to receive it was not God’s fault; it was theirs.
I quote Larry on this one all the time. Larry Randolph said, «God will fulfill all of his promises, but he’s not obligated to fulfill our potential.» Oftentimes, the promises of the Lord come to us as invitations to step into our destiny, to step into our potential. I used to sign my letters—when I would write actual letters, you know, in caveman days where you actually had a pen and wrote stuff. I used to sign them «Possessed by Promise.» See, people who are possessed by promise linger at the tent and are willing to face difficulty in the light of this potential progress and breakthrough.
All right, only be strong and very courageous. Verse 7: «That you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you.» Look at that again: «Be strong, very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you.» Does this make sense?
We need courage to go into that land of promises and defeat the enemy, is that right? He also said you need courage just to obey. The baptism of the Holy Spirit gives us power for miracles, but the flip side of that—the opposite side of that coin—is it’s not just power for miracles; it’s power to endure. Here we have courage, that’s not just for defeating the enemy. The courage is actually to do what he says. Come on, Bill!
«Be strong, very courageous, that you will observe all that God has said in his word.» Wow. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. I get it; there’s a lot of abuse in the subject of prosperity. I get it, but it’s still in the Bible. It’s true, and our neglect of that subject will not make up for someone else’s abuse.
Wow, yes! Really, the only answer to the abuse of Scripture in a subject is to do it correctly. You don’t counter it by going the other extreme. That was really a good point, Bill. It was a really good point. Neglect does not make up for abuse. This book of the law, verse 8, shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Look at this verse again; this is the key verse for me out of this passage. This book of the law, the word of God, shall not depart from your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night. What is that saying? I would have thought if you meditate on it day and night, it will remain in your mouth, in your conversation. But he’s saying if you keep it in your mouth, if you keep it in your conversation, if you keep it in your decree, it’ll be much more likely you’ll meditate on it when nobody’s demanding anything from you.
When we make decrees, we are actually—it’s almost like we’re putting landmarks of where our heart’s going to follow. You make—here, Jesus did it before he performed any miracles. He says, «The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he’s anointed me to open the eyes of the blind.» He goes through this list. What is he doing? He’s putting landmarks out there in his future; he’s putting landmarks—a target—so that God would touch these areas and fulfill the very decrees that he’s making.
When you make the bold confession, the bold decree of what God is saying and doing over your life, even before it gets fulfilled, you’ve set the stage. It’s almost like you’ve put food in the refrigerator that you get to eat later. You’ve put ideas and concepts out in your future where you get to actually meditate on them when you wake up at that unexpected hour in the middle of the night, and your mind goes toward that confession I made—that decree that I made, that prayer that I prayed. It’s much more likely to feed our souls on what God is saying and doing instead of the things that trouble us and worry us.
Verse 8 again: «The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and you will have good success.» I want you to repeat this after me: «Then you will make your way prosperous.» You will prosper. «Then you will have good success.» You will have good success. This is the Bible; this isn’t some self-help book somewhere. This isn’t a quick get-rich-quick scheme. This is the lifestyle of those who are going to live in the land of promise.
You’re going to live fulfilled. Learn how to steward it; learn how to manage your heart; learn how to manage your appetite; learn how to use the breakthroughs that you obtain for the benefit of people around you. You have access to something—a lifestyle—that can have a tremendous impact on society or you can live as a self-centered, self-served victim. So good! And just hope for survival. God doesn’t call us survivors; he calls us overcomers.
What you have to have to be an overcomer is you have to have a fight. You have to take possession of something that wasn’t easy. It required a battle; it required a fight; it required a determination to follow through. You may have tasted failure the first time you tried; it just didn’t work. You know, I see people—I used to hang out with people all the time who would criticize anyone who tried prophetic, maybe prophecy, and failed, or the word of knowledge or whatever, and they were able to say they never made those mistakes because they never tried. Their hands and their minds were clean from mistakes, they were also clean from fruitfulness. Now you’re preaching!
I’ve been trying; this is my third effort at this. I’m trying. Honestly, I fear—it’s probably the wrong term, but I’m going to use it, so just give me some grace on it. I fear lack more than I fear excess. Many churches build their services, their ministry, their movement around protecting us from excess instead of protecting us from lack. Lack is somehow considered humble. The reaction to prosperity is poverty; neither are biblical.
All right, I’m not going to get where I wanted to go, so just suck it up and go with me here. Uh, I should do verse 9 first. Have I not commanded you, «Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.» Anyone noticed there’s kind of a demand there for courage? I mean, how many times does he have to say, «Be of good courage»?
Listen, when the Lord says, «Be strong; don’t be afraid,» it’s because it’s within the reach of your will. Yes, that’s good! He would never say reach for the water bottle but don’t move your feet. If I’m on the other side of the room, dumb illustration, but you get the point. You never require a small child to paint the ceiling without a ladder. You wouldn’t require a five-year-old to fix your Ferrari, you know? It’s silly. But the point is when he speaks, he not only creates the capacity; he also puts it within the reach of your will.
Otherwise, it’s absolute divine cruelty for him to come before a people that realize they’re going into a land filled with giants and say, «You can’t be afraid.» Well, that really looks good on paper, but I’ve heard about how big these giants are! That sense of anticipation, if you can imagine—not just terror, because I don’t want to paint that picture—but does it make sense to you? They have a sobering faith for what’s about to happen.
Sober-minded and as they start to get going God says, «All right, that first city, that’s yours, but you’ve got to destroy it.» You’ll never live in it, and you can’t take anything in it because it’s mine. Then they go to that city and they march around the walls of the city once a day for six days in complete silence, which was probably the first big miracle; the capacity to complain had developed into a profession. They had doctorate level abilities in complaining, and yet they were quiet for six days.
This probably helped them to be able to shout on the seventh day. Can you imagine walking around that city talking to somebody saying, «You know what, I thought he said he was going to drive out the enemy before us. I thought he said we’re supposed to inherit cities to live in. He says we can’t touch anything, and the enemy is inside the city»? You can imagine what would have happened if that complaining spirit came upon a people. He says, «You be quiet.»
On the seventh day, walk around seven times. The seventh time, give a shout, and the walls fall. When the walls fall—whatever; when the walls fall, you now have access to victory. You haven’t tasted victory yet. Your prayers, if I can put it this way, sometimes we pray until there’s an open door for victory, and we rejoice at the open door and never go in. They still had to go in and destroy the enemy.
Come on! We do the shout of praise; we do the dance; we do all the things we’re invited to do in Scripture. It opens the door to then go in and possess it. It reminds me of Luke where it says in the Gospel of Luke, «The house is clean and swept, but you didn’t replace it with anything.» In other words, you drive out what the enemy has occupied, and you’ve succeeded there, but you didn’t take possession of it to steward it well or to fill it with what I’m doing.
Yes, and then the enemy comes in seven times worse. I can show you cases in history where ministries would develop in such a strong presence and priority and sense of direction. When they passed it on to the next generation, they never filled what they inherited with what God was saying and doing, and the enemy comes in, and it’s seven times worse than it was at the beginning. Am I depressing you? You look rather…
I might have to find some jokes; I think I’m going to have to find something here. This sense of destiny and appetite—there’s a hunger here. Just about everybody in this room, you’re here because you said yes to the impossible. You’re here because you said, «I was born for more than I’ve seen.» I don’t know how to get there; I want to go with community.
There are some things I’ve been talking about this promised land because I know some things God will not give to me as an individual—we can only get it as a company of people. Some of the things we’ve prayed for, if he gave it to us as individuals, we’d become proud and arrogant. But when it becomes the new lifestyle, the new standard for the people of God, then we share in it, and it’s not a personal accomplishment; it’s a corporate breakthrough.
Oh Jesus, how in the world do I wrap this up? I did better in the first service; I actually got through more scriptures. Oh well, let me tell you this about the tithe for a minute. Have I talked to you about the tithe? I mentioned Jericho was a tithe—the first of ten cities. The tithe didn’t come from the law; it came from Abraham. Here’s a scripture for you: They came to Jesus wanting to know if they should pay taxes. Jesus said, «You got a coin?» They said, «Yeah.» He said, «Whose inscription is on it?» They said, «Caesar’s.»
He said, «Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; give to God what belongs to God.» What belonged to God in that culture, in that day, in their understanding, was the tithe. The tithe; they had an understanding that it wasn’t theirs. So when I give my tithe to the Lord, it’s actually not giving; it’s returning. Dick Joyce told us years ago, «It’s our rent payment for living on his planet, breathing his air.» You know, you don’t want to get evicted, you know what I’m saying? Evicted? I should do a Sunday just on this.
I know it annoys people, but it’s just truth. We have to adjust the way God thinks. So he says, «Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; give to God what belongs to God.» There are many people who believe the tithe comes from the law. They say, «Well, everything I have should go.» Well, that’s true, but that statement doesn’t hold up in the analogy, because then you shouldn’t pay taxes either.
Luke says, «If I don’t know how to manage that which belongs to someone else, how can I have something that belongs to me?» What’s the goal? That I would own something. Christianity is not a gospel of no ownership. It’s not a gospel of communism or the state owning everything; that absolutely violates the essence of the gospel. Socialism, which is communism in diapers, violates the essence of the gospel, because the Lord is looking for individual expression, individual success unto corporate blessing.
Yes, good! I’m so far off track right now; I’m not even sure I could do an altar call. I don’t know. Jesus help me! I’m already past time, and I don’t like going past time except on this service. I go over intentionally. So he says, «What belongs to Caesar, give to Caesar.» I talked to my tax guy 15 years ago when he set up my system. I said, «I know you can get me to where I don’t pay taxes. I don’t want that.»
I told him during our first meeting that I want to pay taxes. I don’t want to pay a ton of taxes, but I want to pay taxes. I’m very serious. Give to Caesar—and the privilege of giving to Caesar is a privilege. Good! We have a military that keeps us safe, we have roads that, for the most part, are good… I better not go down that road. I’m going to… yeah, never mind. Never mind.
It’s a privilege to pay taxes; it’s a privilege to give to God what belongs to him. That’s right! On top of that, it’s a privilege to go beyond what he requires. It’s a great privilege. Jericho was the gate to occupying what they wanted, what they were hungry for. Obedience at Jericho set the stage for them to receive their inheritance, and the Lord puts Jericho in our lives to see what we will do. Will I violate what I was expecting? I was expecting to inherit a city to live in, yet he wants me to sacrifice it. Lordship is the challenge because lordship is the test that must be faced constantly to be ready to inherit promise.
Let’s stand. Sorry; I went on and on and over! Here’s the deal for me: I want to hear stories and rumors from your life on how things are unfolding before you that you never thought were possible. Maybe, you know, the issues of a family line that is completely reversed. The family line that had nothing but divorce now suddenly has a marriage that everybody wants to follow. The lifestyle of absolute poverty is now starting to taste breakthrough and building business, etc., and it’s happening in a way that others can benefit from and feed from.
I want to see fulfilled promises because the Bible talks about us being strengthened and encouraged in faith through fulfilled promises. So, Father, I pray that you would infect us, in a sense, with a dreaming and a willingness to pursue fulfilled promises—that you would be glorified through us stepping into the maturity and the places of inheritance you’ve designed for us. I ask this in Jesus' name.
Real quickly, is there anyone here who has never made a personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ? You’ve never been what the Bible would call «born again,» but you’d say, «Bill, I don’t want to leave the building until I know I’ve found peace with God.» Is there anyone here in that position? If so, just put a hand up, because I just want to make agreement with you right where you are. Just put your hand up real quickly. Okay, I’m going to assume you’re all in!