Sid Roth - Impact the World Through Kingdom Culture with Bill Johnson
Sid Roth:Hello, Sid Roth here! Welcome to my world, where it's naturally supernatural! My guest and his team have such extraordinary favor in the political, business, media, and entertainment communities. Why? Because when crisis comes and it will surely come at some time they have no answers. They seek them out, because he operates in what he calls Kingdom culture. Bill Johnson wants to teach you how to operate for yourself in Kingdom culture, next on this edition of "It's Supernatural"!
Sid Roth:I'm in here with Bill Johnson, and Bill, every time I meet you, you "provoke me to jealousy" which is what the Bible says. You're very biblical!
Bill Johnson:Yes.
Sid Roth:You're supposed to "provoke the Jew to jealousy". Explain to me what Kingdom culture is.
Bill Johnson:Well culture is the way you do life. It's your value system, it's how you respond to relationships, and money, and all these things. It's just it's the it's the preset values that you carry in your heart that determine how you do life. But Kingdom culture is how Heaven functions. And when we pray this prayer, "on earth as", "as it is in Heaven", it's not just a prayer about eternity; it's actually a prayer for right now. It's God's intention right now to influence my circle of influence, with the manifestation of His presence in such a way that it mirrors Heaven! That means there's no cancer there; there's not to be cancer here. So when we pray for someone to be healed, we do it based on the example given us in that prayer. There’s none there; there's not to be any here, besides the obvious commission of Jesus to heal the sick. But it goes farther than that. What are relationships like in Heaven? In Heaven, every person is honored celebrated. In Heaven, everyone celebrates another person for who they are, without stumbling over who they're not. So when you learn how Heaven functions, and you pray that prayer this is this is my point of pursuit, is I want to see a manifestation of the Kingdom of God, in a measurable fashion. Not just the theory of prayer, uh which is a good place to start, but I I want it measurable. If it Jesus said, "if I cast a demon out of you by the Spirit of God, the Kingdom of God came upon you". So it was measurable; the demon left, a person is free. There's a measured illustration that God's Kingdom came. When we pray things like this about culture, I want it to be measureable as well, and that what I that's what I feel our mandate is.
Sid Roth:Uh, tell me, you told me on the phone about the children and the gold dust. I mean imagine they, the... uh what you're about ready to hear, what effect it's going to have on these children, the rest of their life!
Bill Johnson:We, on 26 different occasions we've had it's like a a thin cloud, sometimes a thick cloud. It looks like gold dust; it's uh shiny flakes. It just appears out of nowhere. It has filled one end of the sanctuary to the other, from the front to the back. And uh, and it it I didn't know what to do! I I s would see this come; I didn't know if we'd continue in worship. If we all get on our face, I didn't know what to do. And I looked down one Sunday, and here's the children. They see the cloud forming over in the corner. And all these little kids run, into the cloud with their arms wide open, and their mouths wide open, as they as they run into the delight of God! I know you can show up other ways where you're on your face, but this was a moment I was perplexed, and the kids weren't. They ran right into the presence, and they just delighted in Him I'll never forget it! In fact I have a little video clip of them just running into the presence of God, and so enjoying Him.
Sid Roth:Well... How would you have liked to have started life, being in a Kingdom culture like that?
Bill Johnson:Yeah.
Sid Roth:well you talk about how purity fits into Kingdom culture. Explain.
Bill Johnson:Well yeah, purity and power are both manifestations of the Kingdom, and we need both. I call them the two legs that we stand on. You don't want to have one shorter than the other. You want to stand solid. And strength, for us, is that purity. It's purity of heart; it's purity of intent. It's the purity that only He can provide for me. But it's the Holy Spirit on my life. Grace that doesn't lead to purity isn't grace. And so we really work hard on that issue of a pure lifestyle. But we we work equally hard on the responsibility to demonstrate His power. And so purity is just a huge part of it; it's the Holy Spirit, it's the Kingdom of God, and it's one where there's no defilement whatsoever.
Sid Roth:So the prayer, "thy kingdom come, on earth,"
Bill Johnson:Yeah.
Sid Roth:"as it is in Heaven"! That's what we should all be praying!
Bill Johnson:Yeah. I consider that to be the Great Commission. All the other commissions are sub points of that primary commission.
Sid Roth:Okay. When we come back, I want to find out why so many leaders in politics, in business, in entertainment come to Bill or members of his team for crisis situations that they're in. Many of these are even non-Believers! What is attracting them to Bill and his team? Could it be this Kingdom culture? Be right back!
Sid Roth:Now, I want to know why Bill and his team operate in such extreme favor! I mean with leaders in the political arena, and uh in the financial arena, and the entertainment arena. Why are they seeking you and your team out?
Bill Johnson:You know, the more we discover Kingdom culture the culture of Heaven the more the Lord lifts the veil between the Church and the world, because He wants that kind of influence there. Church culture exists all over the world, but it stays hidden, because it's not Kingdom. If you take church culture, and how money is handled, or conflict, or any of these things, if those were to be the patterns that, say, Apple Computer used in their corporation, it would collapse or it would have great difficulty because it's not transferrable. But when it's actual Kingdom culture, it's transferrable to every environment politics, medicine, education. Every realm is hungering whether they know it or not is hungering for the solutions that His Kingdom brings. His Kingdom has solutions, answers, processes, patterns for every single aspect of life.
Sid Roth:Uh give me give me a concrete example. Give me one real example.
Bill Johnson:Well, a politician calls one of our guys, and says um, "I'm thinking of running for president", higher office, another country, and uh was kind of fishing for feedback. And he said, "You're asking the wrong question". And he said, "God wants to know what kind of man are you going to be? Are you going to be faithful to your wife, or are you going to continue your relationship with your mistress"?
Sid Roth:Wow!
Bill Johnson:This...
Sid Roth:I mean could you picture saying that to, uh to someone running for president in a particular country? I mean do we, you know, one on one? That’s called we Jewish people call that chutzpah!
Bill Johnson:So he got by the spirit, word of knowledge uh a uh it sounds harsh and confronting; it it wasn't. And he really led the man into great deep, deep repentance, um as a result of this conversation. Those kinds of things, uh in the political world, are getting stronger and stronger. And one of the reasons is these many of these guys and gals, they will admit to you they don't have answers for the dilemmas the crises that that their nation, their city is facing. And so when they talk to somebody who has hope, which by the way, the people with the most hope will always have the greatest influence, which is one of the things we learn from one of our our women. The greatest hope will always have the greatest influence. So whenever they talk to one of our team, and our team member is not swayed by the size of their difficulty, but instead lives under being impressed with the size of our God, and how practical He is as a Father, they s they tend to gravitate they gravitate to where there's hope. And then when you see the Holy Spirit operate in ways like that, where answers, solutions are provided in this case it was a correction, a mid-course correction in his life and when they see that, they gravitate, because everybody has a hunger they have a hunger for the wisdom of God. They really do. They have a hunger for God's answers. It's really funny. I've been with my friend on a plane, and he's never he's never had an Atheist turn him down, when he's told them, "I have a word from God for you". They are always interested in what God has to say, because there's this in built need to hear from God. And so we, as the people of God, get to do what Jesus did! Jesus only did what He saw His father do, and He only said what He heard His father say. And as a result, in John 6, Jesus said, "My words to you are spirit, and that spirit gives life". So here's the point: The point is is that when we say what the Father is saying, the presence of God is actually released.
Sid Roth:How does this play out, uh not these spectacular stories. How does this play out when you're cutting the lawn, when you're changing a diaper, uh, what you know the, when you're driving your kids to soccer. Uh, how does the Kingdom play out there?
Bill Johnson:You know, that's the beautiful discovery for me, because as a Pastor I always thought that God was supposed to be number one, my wife number two, my family, my ministry go down this list, and I discovered, in the journey, that when God is number one, there is no number two. And the thing that that hit me was that every part of my life is ordained of the Lord, and I'm to do them as expressions of worship to the Lord! So now, whether it's mowing the lawns, whether it's buying my wife a birthday gift, taking my family on a vacation, preaching, being on this show it doesn't matter what it is, it is all as unto the Lord, and it all has its rightful place. There's always that heartfelt connection with the Holy Spirit. Well what I call it, I turn my heart of affection towards Him. And I like to do that when I go to sleep at night. I turn my heart of affection towards Him. There's this engagement comes with the presence of God, and I like to go to sleep in that context. And I like to do that just throughout the day. So it doesn't matter what we're doing. If I'm driving down the street, or doing some chore at the house, or you know, go to my uh grandkids' little league game or whatever it is, it's going to be the same thing.
Sid Roth:So do you delight in doing these things, knowing that God is delighted?
Bill Johnson:Oh my goodness, yes! All of a sudden, it has added depth, purpose to the mundane parts of life. The mundane that you would write off as not being spiritual, and they are! You write off is not being significant, and yet, some of those little things are the most significant parts of our life, because that's where our character, that's where our faith, that's where our affection for Him, the ability to worship in unusual settings that's all proven right there!
Sid Roth:You know when we come back, Bill Johnson says we believers are hard wired to operate in the glory, 24/7, and it is coming with such a avalanche, I want to find out what he sees coming, and how we, who are already hard wired to operate in it, can do it! Be right back.
Sid Roth:You know, Bill, we were we were talking um, earlier about the Kingdom culture, and how it affects family!
Bill Johnson:Yeah.
Sid Roth:Uh but this is this is amazing! You had some foster kids uh that many have dubbed "the 4 week miracle". Tell me about that.
Bill Johnson:Yeah, we had uh, we had two boys uh come to us. Their mother had killed herself, uh I don't remember how long before we got them, and then the father had them by himself for a season, and then he killed himself.
Sid Roth:Oh!
Bill Johnson:There was a lot of abuse. You can imagine the condition that they were uh in, emotionally, mentally. There was 5 brothers; we got 2 of them. And uh so we brought them into our home. The first meal, uh, they grabbed all the food on the table, pulled it to themselves, because they, you know, they had had to fight for everything, and uh, so we assured them that, "Listen, there will be food here tomorrow; there will always be enough". And uh, over the next 24 hours or so, they just began to sort that out, and get healed up. Well, just a simple, love and affirmation care for them; within 4 weeks it may have been 3 but within 4 weeks, uh their counselor, their psychiatrist, whoever was working with them, said they didn't need to come in anymore. So they had come into such a place of uh, of unusual peace, uh in the middle of trauma; that they didn't need professional help anymore.
Sid Roth:I have to believe, when a family operates in this love and Kingdom culture, it permeates the whole home, or anyone that comes into the home!
Bill Johnson:Absolutely. Absolutely right.
Sid Roth:Uh I I promised you that he had a second life changing revelation we've never shared on this show, and it actually has to do with a revelation from a Scripture. Tell me about that.
Bill Johnson:The one encounter, it was a power encounter. This one was revelatory, and that seems to be the ways that God moves on us often. And uh, some people want the physical touch when God is actually speaking to their heart and mind about perception. I was reading Isaiah 60, verse 1, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you". "For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but His light will appear on you, and His glory will be seen upon you. Kings will come to your light, and nations to the brightness of your rising". I was reading it; that's the first 3 verses. But I was reading through Isaiah, and you know what it's like. It's like when you read something, and God just breathes on it, it just seems to leap off the page. Even though I couldn't have explained it to anyone, I couldn't. I didn't have the insight to explain it, yet I knew that this was life to me. I could feel the breath of God on those on those verses, "Arise, shine". So I took that verse; I I shared it to our church on Sunday. I said I feel like this is a Word for us right now, and the same thing happened to the entire room. I shared it in another meeting; other leaders were there. They said God has been saying the same the same Word for us, "Arise, shine, for Your light has come". There's a posture of responsibility, in radiating the presence and Glory of God, that every Believer is s is supposed to take. And in many ways it is by choice. We stand on purpose; we rise, and we shine. But what He said is we "arise and shine, because His light has come". Jesus is the light that came into the world, John, chapter 1, and lightened every person. There's not another light coming; so we know that by that context, that this is a present day word. That the people of God are to rise, because the Glory of God will be seen upon us. Many people wait to rise, if I can use that that place of faith, or a place of confidence. Many people wait to rise, until that Glory is manifested. He is saying you rise, and the Glory will be seen. I will answer your posture with Heaven's invasion. I'll put My sign of presence upon you, if you will take your right place. And then He describes it as being at a time when "deep darkness covers the earth", so there's contrast, there's difficulty, there's challenges; but it's in it's in the midst of the difficulty that the people of God say wait a minute, not on my shift. We're not going to we're not going to cower at the face of challenges; instead, we're going to take our place. The end result of that is "nations come to Your light, and kings to the brightness of Your rising". There has to be something happening with us, that would make us the group that people in the world would want to come to. Its' the "come" of the Gospel, that contrasts with the "go" of the Gospel. I go to a garden to pick fruit; I go to a stream to drink water. In the same way, the reality of people reigning in Christ, living victoriously in life knowing how to manage their relationships, their conflicts, their finances, all these things position us into a place where the the Glory of God's purposes, the beauty of His Kingdom becomes visible. And that becomes the very thing that draws people into the Kingdom!
Sid Roth:But you know, the very first thing that is essential, this is what God's Word says in the original Greek, "This is eternal life: that you might have experiential knowledge"
Bill Johnson:Yes.
Sid Roth:"of God". I want you to make sure your sins are wiped washed away, and make sure that Jesus is living inside of you, and make sure that you rise up to make Him Lord.
Bill Johnson:Yeah.
Sid Roth:I want you to repeat this prayer after me, out loud! Audience, studio audience, you at home, I want you to repeat this prayer, and mean it to the best of your ability. Out loud, Dear God, I'm a sinner, for which I'm so sorry. I purposely turn from these sins, but I need Your grace to overcome them. And You are more than enough! I believe the blood of Jesus has washed away these sins, and I am clean. And now that I am clean, I, like King David, lift Holy hands to God. They are holy because they're under the blood. And I boldly proclaim that Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Lord Jesus, come inside of me. Take over my life. Amen!