Bill Johnson - Manifestations of the Holy Spirit Through Your Life (02/05/2026)
Bill Johnson leads spontaneous worship, declares God's goodness, and prays for healings like kidney issues, TMJ, ankle problems, cancer, and bone diseases—many report significant improvement. He shares miracle stories, emphasizes refining focus on God, recognizing His presence, and the biblical mandate for miracles, using Matthew 7 to show obedience and relationship matter more than works alone.
Spontaneous Worship and Declarations of Love
Let's thank him again, would you? I feel like we could have gone on for another hour or two. Wow. Come on, Jesus. You don't ever want to miss an opportunity to love Jesus. Stand just one more time. Just lift your faces, your voices, your hands. Just express your love to God.
We bless you all. We bless you. We give you honor. We give you praise, Lord. We boast in you, mighty God. We boast in you, mighty God. We bless you, Lord God. Speak loud enough that you can hear your own voice. Speak of his wonders. Speak of his greatness. God, just declare it out loud. You are wonderful and great and gracious. So merciful, so kind. We honor you. We celebrate you, God. We celebrate you, Lord. We celebrate you, Lord. We magnify, we boast in you, God.
You're so wonderful. So wonderful. Bless your name, Jesus. We glory in you, God. We glory in you. Just a moment longer. Just a moment longer. So wonderful. So good. So great. Mighty God. Remember, he draws near in these moments. He draws near. He rests upon our praise. He establishes his throne upon the praises of his people.
Continuing in Adoration and Praise
We magnify you, God. We boast in you, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, God. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Wonderful, wonderful, God. You're so good. You're so good. Bless your name, God. We bless you. We bless you. We bless you. Just a moment more. Just a moment more. We're exalted in honor of God. Such a wonderful Father. Such a perfect Father. Such a perfect Father.
Let's just lift up a spiritual song to the Lord, can we? ... ... A little pause... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... and we are back... And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the third sentence. And this is the second one. All you have been listening to is the second one. We are back. We have been listening to is the second one.
Refining Focus and Affections for God's Presence
The more you refine your focus, the more you can see, the more you refine your affections, the more we become anchored in to the manifest presence of God himself, the almighty God. We stand before the throne of God in ways that Old Testament priests longed for. They never had access. But you have access. The way was paved by blood, and with it came an invitation.
So I never like to take these moments lightly. It's not just a musical routine. Our teams have served us so powerfully today. It's all about the face. It's all about the eyes of fire. I like to invite him with those eyes of fire. Turn your eyes on me. Those eyes of fire, just to burn, to purify all that is in me.
These moments of affection, refining our focus, refining the affection of the one we love, the more he allows us to see. We love you, God. We love you, Lord Jesus Christ. Holy Spirit, we love you. Wonderful, wonderful God. Wonderful God. So good.
Healing Words of Knowledge and Prayer
He's just healing people. You know, he's healing. He's healing so many things in people's lives. We've had such a wonderful time here, having people coming to Jesus. And it's just not over, you know. It's just his touch on people's lives.
We'll get in the Word in a few minutes. But there are just a number of things that the Lord is healing. There's somebody here with kidney disease. Somebody here who has continuous, repeated kidney infections. There's just... There's a weakness in your system there. We're just going to pray that thing gone for you tonight.
There's a number of folks with TMJ specifically. There are those in the room you have... You've suffered with pain, especially in the right side tonight. It's an arthritis in the jaw, TMJ. And the Lord is healing that. There's someone who has broken the right ankle, didn't heal correctly. There's... I think there's an ongoing problem, perhaps with the Achilles tendon, or at least the tendons, the tissue around the ankle. There's pain. I think there may be inflammation. Those kinds of things. And Jesus is healing that tonight.
Calling Out Specific Healings and Inviting Response
Is there anybody here with cancer? I always like to make sure we go after cancer. I hate cancer. We have to hate what he hates. Believe me. He bore the pain of it on the cross. He hates it. So we're going to surround you. Yeah.
There's also... Is there anyone that has a problem with these bones right in here? Like the pelvic bone? I don't know if there's an old injury there or what it is. I keep... I felt it earlier today. So we've got several people. It's right here, these bones here. It's on either side. I'm feeling it on the right, but I don't know that it's specific. Right here. There's something wrong with the bone there. We've got quite a few here. Wow. Wow.
Okay. Well, I think we ought to pray for these folks. All of you that have anything that I mentioned, put a hand up. All right. Look close to you. Oh, there's... There are people here with chronic sinus infections. And you'd like for that curse to end tonight. Yeah.
Don't put your hand up to receive prayer. Only put your hand up to get healed. So if you had any of those things... If you have any of those things, put your hand up high. Okay, church, look around. You've got people that are inviting you to pray for them. Go to them, find out what the need is real briefly, and then just pray.
Corporate Prayer and Checking for Healing
Thank you, Lord. Just command the TMJ out of their body. Rebuke torment that would steal from these people. Is there anyone here with a disease in the bones? Any kind of a disease in the bones? There's a hand waving back here in the aisle by the TV camera there. Somebody pray for her.
I feel like the Lord is healing various kinds of bone disease. I don't know what there is besides bone cancer. But any bone disease. There's a hand way in the back there. I think some of you are already praying for them. Yeah, just go after it. This is the will of God for each one of these to be healed.
Find out what the Lord has done. Check yourself out. If you can discover through movement, then move in a way. Try it in some way to examine yourself. Anyone who is at least 80% better, would you wave both hands over your head so we can see who you are? Wave your hands over your head.
We've got back over here, back over here. Just wave your hands over your head if that's you. We want to celebrate what God's done. Down over here. All right, let's do this. I want you to turn and pray one more time. Turn and pray one last time. Yeah, we thank you, Lord.
Okay, good. End your prayer. Find out what the Lord has done. Move around. Everyone who's at least, at least 80% better, wave your hands over your head like this. Do it for about 10 or 15 seconds so we can see who you are.
Okay, look around the room. Look around the room. Thank you, Lord. Yeah, we thank you for that. Back over here. Yeah, we do. We celebrate that, Lord. Beautiful. All right, hug a neck or two or 20 and be seated.
Celebrating God's Unpredictable Moves
Yeah. I love when God does stuff we don't understand. I do. I just... I love when he shows up and he does stuff. You know, he doesn't always... In fact, I've never had him once ask for my permission to do anything. And a number of years ago, I stopped asking why for anything. I don't remember the last time I asked why. Probably because he never answered me.
Tonight was just so powerful. The worship is so amazing. I love that. He's in the waiting. Ah, that just rocks me. He's in the waiting. You know, in Psalms 37, he talks about waiting on the Lord. And that word actually, for waiting, actually means to lie in wait. It gives the picture of setting up an ambush. It's not this sitting in a recliner waiting. It's not inactivity. Waiting isn't inactivity. It's focused and directed activity.
It's refining all of our appetites down to the one thing. There are certain seasons in life you can have interest here and interest there. But I think everybody's had the experience where you've had a crisis or a difficulty or something. And all of a sudden, nothing matters. In fact, you don't even... You don't even feel sometimes like you even need to eat and forget to eat a meal or two or three or whatever.
Seasons of Refined Focus on God
I mean, it's just... It's like things get so refined in focus. And there are just seasons where that's vital. It's vital that nothing else speaks to you but the one thing. There are seasons. There are periods of time where we have this invitation by the Lord. And we just cut everything back.
You know, you may be involved in this league and in this activity and that activity. And they're all good. They're all great opportunities to interact with people and to impact community. But there are just times where things are going out so crazy. You just trim everything back but just the one thing. And it's wisdom to know when to do that.
And the outcome of that is that you see so much more clearly. You see much more clearly. You see more when you refine your focus. And the Lord gave a gift to every person in this room that's been born again. It's the gift of sight. It's the gift of sight, seeing an unseen world. Because he said, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God is invisible. The effects are visible, but the kingdom itself is invisible. I think I mentioned last week or week before sometime that, you know, if we stand out there in the lobby and look out the windows, we can't tell if the wind is blowing. By seeing the wind, we can only see the effects. We can see the flags moving, the leaves on the trees, clothing, somebody's hair. You can only see the effects.
Recognizing the Kingdom and God's Presence
And learning to recognize the effects of the kingdom, the present tense reality of the kingdom, is part of what the Lord is teaching us. He's teaching us how his world works so that we know how to recognize when he shows up.
I remember when we came here 20-plus years ago, there was a lot of excitement in the air because we talked about revival. But when he came different than what everybody expected, it was really difficult for many. You know, after Jesus raised from the dead, he showed up to the guys on the road to Emmaus, and they didn't recognize him. When he walked through the wall where the disciples were hiding for fear of the Jews, his own disciples, that had spent day and night with him for three and a half years, they didn't recognize him.
And he has a habit of showing up different than he did the last time. And what helps us to recognize him is the voice and the presence. When Mary Magdalene was in the garden weeping because of the death of Christ and the body was missing. She was so distraught because Jesus' body was gone. And she's weeping in the garden and Jesus is standing behind her. That's why you're weeping.
She, thinking he was the gardener, said, if you've taken him away, please tell me where you've taken him and I'll take him. And then he said, Mary. It's awesome to know the voice that knows your name. It's amazing because when he speaks, he speaks to the deep of us. It's different. She never would have recognized him by form. She would have recognized him by voice.
Stories of Signs and Miracles
And the Lord has a habit of showing up in ways that we're not accustomed to. And I probably as much, I think as much as anybody in here, I love reading about revival history. The only drawback is, is we tend to expect him to come the way he did sometime in history and he just doesn't always do that.
You know. So he comes, sometimes he does things that just, you know, gold dust in people's hands. What's that for? Or, I don't know, I didn't do it. Ask him. If I was going to ask for something, I'd think of something different. Like maybe golden nuggets.
Pastor, a friend of mine was here once. He had a, he actually had a golden nugget. Pretty, pretty, not a huge nugget, but, you know, like maybe half the size of a, maybe a third of the size of like a little fingernail or something about that size. Just stuck on the side of his face just appeared there. Yeah.
He took it to a gold, an assayer, is that, I guess what they call it? And it's just the purest, purest quality gold. And it had an unidentifiable oil mixed in with it. Wow. That works for me. I, I don't know. We've had feathers fall through the years. That's really brought a lot of, I mean, that basically qualifies you as a cult.
Oh, this is so good. I've decided I don't want to preach anything that somebody wouldn't want to crucify me over. So we had some people that were moving here and this, this feather just appeared in their car. This isn't sermon material, but I'm, I just feel mischievous tonight. Again.
They had a, a friend, an ornithologist, actually a Buddhist man. He's a bird specialist. So they took the feather to him. I never would have thought of that. The guy said, well, I haven't done, I don't know what kind of testing, DNA testing or whatever. I haven't done testing on it. But from the way it appears, it looks like it's the breast feather of a white dove. What's it for?
Just signs that make you wonder. It's legal. I don't worship them. I don't ask for them, actually. To me it's kind of like angels. Angels are really cool. I don't worship them, but I also don't ignore them. And if Jesus does a sign, you know, it always points to him.
Miracles Point to Jesus – Stories Shared
You know, that's what signs do. You know, forgive the old illustration, but when we leave tonight, none of us will crawl through the exit sign. We will all go through the exit that the sign points to. And miracles become boring when they become the end. But the miracle points to the person who never gets old.
Every miracle displays another facet of his wonder, of his beauty. He never ever gets old. If there's boredom, you know, check the distance between you and the master. You know, because he's anything but boring. In fact, he scares me most of the time. He does. He just, he makes me nervous, but it's a good nervous. I pray better from that nervousness. Oh, I do.
See, I don't have time to do what I was going to do tonight, so. We'll just, we'll do it another time. Another time. Tell us some more stories. I could tell stories. I could tell stories.
Benny and I were going to the coast. I'm just going to do the offensive ones. Is that all right? If I just tell... Just offensive stories. We, several of us, Benny and I, and I forget who else was with us. I think a couple of our kids were with us. We went over to the coast and doing some meetings over there.
On the way back, we stopped at one of the fast food places to get something to eat. We had to drive back. Gabe, you were there. Gabe and Leah. And so we stopped at, I think Carl's Jr., I think it's where, in Eureka, somewhere. I think we were down in Fortuna, and so we were driving like, you know, three hours or whatever to get home.
And we wanted to get something to eat real quick. And so we walked into Carl's Jr., and we were up at the counter ordering. We've just had this crazy night. If it's the night that I'm thinking of, it was the night that club feet got healed, this little boy. Oh, goodness gracious.
This little three-year-old boy got club feet. He's got scabs on his feet from walking on the tops of his feet. And some of our students prayed for him. And his feet are like this. And he's just staring. He's just staring at the tops of his feet. And he would reach over and touch the scabs because they're now on top. They were on the bottom. Now they're on the top.
And he's just touching. And one of his little friends comes over to him and says, run, Chris, run. So he runs in this circle with like a billion-dollar smile, you know, as he runs back. And it was just, you know, it was just a meltdown moment. You don't know if you should shout and dance or just fall on your face and cry or try to do all at once, you know.
It was just one of those moments. I mean, we had a gal out of a wheelchair and we had a blind eye open, deaf ear. I remember nerve damage down the entire side of somebody's body. It was healed. It was the only meeting in my life that I lost total control of the meeting. I lost control of the meeting completely.
I turned people loose for prayer. I never could get their attention again. And it's not like I needed to, but I just kind of wanted to bring a nice close to the meeting stuff. I just lost. I finally quit and got down in the mosh pit and started praying myself. You know, it was like, I honestly, I never, we never did end that meeting. It could still be going. I don't know. That was probably about 18 years ago or something. Long time.
More Miracle Testimonies
So on the way back, we're in Carl's Jr. and we're just, we're buzzing from what just happened and we order whatever and a feather floats down right in between us and the gal that's taking her order. Over here in the booth, is the man of the Gadarenes. I'll let you figure that one out. He was the only one at his table, but he was not the only one there. And there was all kinds of stuff going around in his booth. and it was just the twilight zone that ages me.
But anyway, so we order and this feather floats down and the gal taking her order goes, is, she goes, is that a feather? And I just kind of hugged my head and I go, yeah. I don't want to go, I can't explain it to believers, let alone to, you know.
So we get our food, we're sitting down and here's this guy who's got full-on conversation with all who are with him. And our booth was over on the other side and we sat there, we're eating there and this joy thing hit our table. And this guy in the booth goes, that is the joy of the Holy Ghost.
Several years ago, this family from Norway came to visit us. and they had a young boy who was dying. His body couldn't absorb nutrients and his muscles were just disappearing. He couldn't, he could hardly function at all. They had to feed him intravenously at night while he slept. And they wanted to do one final family event because he's dying. He can't continue to live that way. It's been deteriorating for quite a while. He's in a motorized wheelchair.
So they thought maybe it's one last event as a family to come to Bethel. and you know, you almost can't get here from Norway. You know, I mean, it's just a ways. And they packed up. I think, if I remember right, 350 kilos of medical equipment supplies and stuff for that, if you can imagine that airplane ride.
And they came and they were right over here for one of our conferences. And the child can't eat anything at all. Nothing whatsoever. And we had one of the sessions and the conferences and ended up praying for people. And somehow this young boy was prayed for. I forget all the details now, but he was prayed for.
And they went out to eat, to get a bite to eat after the session. They went over to Olive Garden and he asked for a breadstick and so they gave him one because he liked to be able to smell food, have some kind of interaction with food. A little while later he says, can I have another one? And he said, what did you do with the last one? He said, I ate it.
They made a movie in Norway about this miracle. I mean, it's extraordinary. And I actually wrote a forward for a book that they did. It's going to be released here in English if it's not already. And the way they handled this miracle as they went back to their friends whose children had similar diseases was so wise.
I was stunned reading how they navigated their miracle in the midst of friends who hadn't gotten theirs yet. I mean, it's a masterpiece strategy on how to display grace and kindness testimony on one hand and yet real sensitivity and tenderness to those who are still in process.
How many of you know we're all in process in one way or another and sometimes in our zeal we can actually exclude people from the divine moment that God's given them.
So they went and they did all the testing and it's just an extraordinary miracle. When I was in Norway I think it's been a year and a half ago now. he came up to me he's put on a lot of weight he's a muscular young man right now and he brought me a gift it was a knife a hunting knife actually thank you Jesus. a hunting knife that he got that he bought for me as a thank you. I don't even know who prayed for him it wasn't me. it was just his expression of thanks it was his offering.
The Mandate for Miracles and Matthew 7
So extraordinary to see how miracles affect people. What I wanted to talk to you tonight about was the biblical mandate for miracles. And I'll just have to do it later, because it is rather likely, and I really don't want to do that tonight.
But I'll say this. There's a distortion in the reading of Scripture. And I'll just give you one example here, if you'll just open to Matthew 7. I'll just give you one example. I was going to read two portions of Scripture that are actually used by the critics of the healing movement.
Now, if you've been here any length of time at all, you know that I just don't bother with trying to answer critics. It's just a full-time job, and I don't have the time. But on one occasion, I addressed more than I would normally, because in this case, reporting that had been done could really infect and affect young believers.
And so, I went beyond what I would normally do. And in this case tonight, I want us to have a clear understanding of what the Lord looks for from us. Now, this is an in-your-face kind of verse. And I'm not reading this because I have any sense of rebuke or correction for anyone. Instead, I'd like to use it as an invitation and as a challenge.
And it's a verse that is used, if I give a testimony on Facebook, which I actually don't do anymore, but I don't know, I think that, you know, I was going to say, I think the devil subscribes to Facebook. But maybe... If I ever give a testimony of a miracle, I'll get an email or a Facebook note or something, and people will quote this passage to me.
Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name? And I'm sure they're just trying to encourage me. So, because there's so much confusion over this verse, I want to talk about it, and we'll just do this tonight.
So, you ready? Yes, yes, we're ready, Bill. Verse 21, look at it in your Bible. If you don't have yours, look over somebody next to you. Verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.
This verse is the one that is sent to me as a word of encouragement by people. And my response is, you'll notice that the people who are doing these wonders don't have a personal relationship with God. And so my response is that if people without a relationship with God can do wonders in Jesus' name, then those who are in a relationship with God are without excuse.
Of course, I share that just to encourage. But let's take a look at this real quickly. Verse 21 and verse 22 are addressing two different groups of people. If you don't catch that, you'll miss the point.
Verse 21 addresses those who don't do the will of God. Verse 22 is those who do the will of God but outside of a relationship. Yes, Bill, that's exactly right.
Obedience, Relationship, and God's Will
Verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Stop right there. He is saying those who confess Jesus as Lord but they don't obey, they don't get it.
Jesus said, if you love me, obey my commandments. You cannot separate obedience from a relationship. And so in this passage he says, just because you call me Lord doesn't mean I'm your Lord. You've got to do what I say to do.
So what does he command us to do? Well, there's a number of things. But a good example is two chapters later, three chapters later. He says, go, tell people the kingdom of heaven is at hand, heal their sick, raise their dead, cast out devils, cleanse lepers.
Elsewhere he says, preach the gospel to the poor. So he's giving very specific mandates as to what his will is. We know that the best definition of the will of God, but I think anyway, is found in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. In which he said, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
So what's the will of God? It's on earth as it is in heaven. It means that what's happening here that's not happening there, that needs to change. It means that what's happening there should be happening here. That's the will of God.
That's why healing is the will of God. There's no sickness there. That's why torment, confusion, poverty. Interestingly, Eric was talking brilliantly, a wonderful message this morning. But he talked about that word evil. And that word evil is also used in the Lord's prayer, the disciples' prayer, I should call it.
In which he says, deliver us from evil. And that word evil comes from a word that means pain, which comes from a root word that means poor. What does salvation deal with? Salvation deals with sin, sickness, and torment. Right?
I'm making this too long. I can feel it. The kingdom of God is not meat or drink. It's righteousness, peace, joy. Righteousness is what? Deals with the sin issue. Peace deals with the torment issue. Joy deals with the sickness issue. Laughter is as medicine. Joy is connected to health. Prosperity of soul is a divine connection to health. They've proven medically the effects of joy.
I was talking to John Arnott on the phone when I was having my issues earlier this year. And he said, watch some funny movies. I mean, honestly, it's a divine prescription. Especially in... It's really easy in a move of God to get too introspective and too intense in our focus and lose the joy through labor. And it almost invites affliction. It almost invites disease.
So, this whole thing of evil, the sin issue, the health issue, and the torment, the poverty issue. It's all in that word. So, here he says, those of you who call me Lord, but you don't do my will, you know nothing about the kingdom.
And then he changes, he goes to the second group. And he says, many of you are going to say to me, Lord, didn't we cast out demons? Didn't we do great wonders? Didn't we do all these things for you in your name? And he's going to say, I never knew you. I never knew you.
There wasn't the relationship. I don't know if this has ever occurred to you, but in John 4 is a great, I think, the greatest revelation in the Bible on the subject of worship. And it's with a woman at the well. And Jesus turns to him and he says, the Father looks for worshipers. He doesn't look for worship, he looks for worshipers. Worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth.
In spirit is in partnership with the Holy Spirit himself. But in truth means nothing hidden. Truth means nothing hidden. So, what does it mean? It means in worship, we're not putting up a facade. We come as we are, completely honest, completely bare. Our successes, failures, difficulties, confusions, questions, all of it. It's all an open book as we worship.
See, I can know all about you and never know you. God has the hairs of our head numbered. He knows all about us. But he doesn't know us without invitation and honesty. That's what confession is. Confession is we are agreeing with what he sees. That's what confession is. All we're doing is going, yeah. Yeah, I did say that. So, that's what confession is. It's agreeing.
So, it's a part of the ongoing walking in the light relationship before God. And that's what wasn't being done here in this verse where he says, Depart from me, I never knew you.
So, this verse that is used to correct or to scold people that pray for the sick or to look for miracles. You know, I understand, you know, people can get all crazy in their pursuit of miracles. I understand that. But it still doesn't stop me.
The Fig Tree and Demanding the Impossible
You know, I'll end with this illustration. A little embarrassing. It's probably one I've shared 20 times before. But it'll put it in context. Jesus is walking with his disciples and he goes up to a fig tree. And it's not the right time of the year for figs. And he walks up to the fig tree to get figs.
Now, Jesus is God. He created the fig tree. He knows the laws he created for the fig tree. He's pretty intelligent, knowing that it's not the season for figs. But he goes up for figs anyway. And there's no figs on it. And so he curses it. It's rather harsh. He curses it.
And the disciples are stunned because they walk by it the next day and it's completely dead. It wasn't that they were shocked it died. They were shocked it died so fast. I mean, if you cut off a branch, it's not all withered and dried the next day. It takes a while. But this thing got death all the way through it quickly.
And Jesus cursed it because it didn't have figs out of season. I've heard people say, you know, Jesus had bad days, you know? He just had bad days. I think it's so funny. I've heard others that have great teaching on other fig trees, Israel, and all this, you know, has this big prophetic message. I don't know. It's probably all true. I don't know.
The only thing I know for sure is that Jesus is the only one who has the right to demand fruit of the impossible. When he puts the spirit of the resurrected Christ in us, he anticipates the impossible. It's the mandate for miracles.
I heard a great story just a little while ago of someone that just was fearful to pray for the sick. And they just did so just this week or last week, sometime recently. And they've been kind of sitting on this hope for miracles for like 30 years.
We can become too preoccupied with us in the sense, oh, I don't have that gift. I don't have that calling. Oh, stop it. You're born again. The spirit of the resurrected Christ is in you. Quit trying to figure out who you are. Just do what he said.
It's easier to figure out your identity in obedience than it is in pondering. That's just a good word right there. I feel so good about that. It's just a lot easier to figure it out when you're in motion. You know, you're just doing what he says. I mean, if you actually need to figure it out. I think it's overrated, but if you need to figure it out, it's fine.
And, you know, as long as I'm on the subject. Most of the... You know, have you guys ever taken these tests that kind of analyze what your gifts are? Any of you ever taken those? Yeah, some of you. I'm not opposed to them, so just hear me out here. I'm going to make fun of it, but I'm not opposed to it. I really am not. I've taken them. I'll probably take another because they're fascinating.
Here's common wisdom. Common wisdom is you figure out your calling by your gifts. You look at what you do well, and you come to a conclusion, this is what God's called me to do. I think that's backwards. I think you figure out your calling by God's call. So good. Yeah.
And then you pursue Him for the gifts you need to fulfill your call. Wow. That's why he said pursue earnestly spiritual gifts. Don't define your ministry by what you do. To find your pursuit by what He's called you to do. If He's called you to be an evangelist, you'll need miracles. That's enough.
Closing Prayer and Commissioning
All right, let's go ahead and stand. We'll just crash land it. We'll just pretend that was a sermon. I am going to talk to you someday about this bigger picture for miracles. You know, the whole point that I should have maybe made a little clearer is He's the one who does the miracles. He's the one who does the miracles.
So because that's true, and we all believe that, we need to create the opportunity for Him to do the miracle. That's what the offer to pray is for. Well, would you mind if I prayed for you? That gives Him the chance to do the extravagant act that He loves to do.
Well, what if He doesn't do it? What if He does? You know, the one thing you can... First of all, I think we're going to see a time where everybody's healed. I believe that. And because, as a standard Jesus said. But the one thing you can make certain happens is the person you prayed for knows that you love and care for them.
We've actually had... I remember one of the older gentlemen that got saved here several years ago, he was prayed for on the river trail. One of our young folks saw him limping around and prayed for him. He was so moved for it, he came to the Lord. He didn't get healed. That's awesome. He didn't get healed, but he got saved, which is really the biggest healing anyway. He came to Christ because of the love shown to him.
So... Don't ever say, healing is not my gift. Why? Because you're a fig tree. Don't tell him it's the wrong season. Slap yourself before those words start to come out of your mouth. And just say something that sounds good, like, with you all things are possible. Something like that.
You know, I... I feel like we could probably fix about 90% of the problems that we face if we changed how we talked. I don't mind this... I don't mean this mind over matter thing. I mean, adjust our conversation. Adjust our declaration. See, our conversations are actually prophecies over our own life. And then we get surprised when things turn out bad.
I'm moving into sermon number three, so you better respond here. Because there is a fourth one. All right, put your hands in front of you. Let me pray over you. Then we'll do a fire tunnel or something fun, all right?
Bless these fig trees, God. You know, I honestly want to have fruit to give Him. You know, that's what our life is. I honestly want to come before Him with the fruit of my life. I honestly want to present before Him. These are the things that were impossible for me, but they were possible for you. And all I did was do what you said, and this is what happened. This is for your glory.
So, Father, we set our hearts on this once again. We thank you for the people that came to Christ tonight. We thank you for the reality of heaven that invaded this room during the worship tonight. We just thank you for all of this. And we just set our hearts once again. No excuses. We confess you're the extravagant one.
Use us this week to demonstrate your love and your power in people's lives. In Jesus' wonderful, wonderful name. Amen. Amen. Amen, amen.