Bill Johnson - Seated In Heavenly Places
To not value holiness is to not value presence. Healing is an expression of his holiness. Sickness is to my body what sin is to my soul. We pray for the sick because we want Jesus to get what he paid for. So, I’m gonna take just a few minutes to talk to you about a new day of miracles. We’re gonna read a portion of scripture out of Malachi 4. And, then you might wanna put a finger in Psalms 19 'cause we might do that one, too, all right? And then, if I’m in a real good mood, we might do Psalms 8:2. Actually, no. I’m teasing. I actually was gonna teach out of Psalms 8, today, but, I had a little change in heart, so Malachi, chapter 4 verse 2. «But to you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings: and you will go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves».
I am so tempted to make comment, but I won’t. «And you shall grow fat», there’s a promise, «'you shall grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes unto the souls of your feet on the day that I do this, ' says the Lord of hosts». Let’s go ahead and read to the end of the chapter. «Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him in horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse».
I love this kind of a chapter. We’re gonna get into verse 2, here, in a moment. But I love this kind of scripture that uses all these different, this imagery of the Lord. He will arise with healing in his wings. Calling him the sun of righteousness (S-U-N, not S-O-N) the sun of righteousness, because it’s like the sunrise. And there’s this passage in Psalms 19, which says the sun comes out of its tabernacle like a bridegroom coming out of a chamber: rejoices like a strong man to run his race. Strange picture, if the sun rises in the morning like a bridegroom coming out of his Malachi says that he is the sun of righteousness and he rises with healing in his wings. «And you will go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves, trampling wickedness under your feet».
There’s a great picture here of a last-days promise, or a promise to a last days' generation. The sun of righteousness. I want you to see the connection between the bridegroom coming out of a stall, the sun rising, righteousness and healing. Healing is connected to the holiness and purity of God. In the measure, we value holiness and purity. In that measure, we will see continuous displays of healing. Healing is important to us, because, in healing, the name of the Lord is vindicated. When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the church before his conversion, Jesus appeared to him and said, «Why are you persecuting me»? He takes things personal.
In Matthew 25, he says: when you give a cup of cold water to one of these in my name, you’ve done it unto me. The servants of the Lord stood before him on that day and said: «When did we give you water? When did we clothe you? When did we come to visit you»? And he said: when you’ve done it to the least of these, this is a very, kind of a bizarre, weaving of the Romance of God for people, the demonstration of his purity. The scripture says it’s in the beauty of holiness. Holiness is the essence of all beauty. All that you love in beauty, in its purest form, is an expression of the holiness of God. The holiness of God has things that you do and things that you don’t do, but only to preserve love. God always opposes anything that is contrary to love. He opposes everything that would destroy your place in being loved.
When holiness, holiness is, it’s such a glorious subject from God’s perspective. It’s the essence of his person. To not value holiness is to not value presence. Because the Spirit of God is the Holy Spirit. By nature, his very essence is absolute purity, undefiled in every possibly way. There’s zero compromise. There’s zero failure. There’s zero deception. There’s zero anything that would contaminate this perfect expression of God’s heart and his nature towards humanity. Healing is an expression of his holiness. Sickness is to my body what sin Jesus asked the question when they lowered this man through the roof. His friends lowered him. It was actually the faith of his friends. It wasn’t the sick man’s faith. It says of Jesus, when he saw their faith, referring to the men that lowered him into the room, when he saw their faith, he said to the man: your sins are forgiven.
And it stirred up such controversy in the room, because, the people were getting accustomed to him healing people. But this whole issue of him forgiving sin crossed the line for many of them. And so, Jesus asked the question: which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven? Or rise up, pick up your bed and walk? And, once again, he put these two subjects like two sides of the same coin: the forgiveness they are a part of the same, they are two different parts of the expression of God’s redemptive work. When the concept of salvation was brought from the back burner to the front burner in the reformation, I don’t wanna say it disappeared through the church age, but it had been kind of swept to the back.
And when it was brought to the front burner again, for some reason, they didn’t include healing in salvation. It was viewed as something that God could do if he wanted to, but it wasn’t considered a part of the and yet, the word «Salvation» actually means deliverance, healing, forgiveness. It actually refers to those three realms. These are three realms of the kingdom: forgiveness, deliverance, and healing. For that reason, the apostle Paul said the Kingdom of God is not meat or drink, but it’s righteousness 'cause that deals with the sin issue: peace, 'cause that deals with the torment issue: and joy, because that is the expression of healing. That’s why laughter’s good medicine.
So, healing is an expression of the righteousness of God. So, here, we have the Kingdom of God is not meat or drink, but it’s righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. When someone is healed, let me rephrase it. Something that we’ve declared a number of times, here, through the years, is that we pray for the sick because we want Jesus to get if I bought you a car, let’s have Bill Gates buying it, 'cause then it would be a nicer car. So, let’s say somebody buys you a car and they go down to the dealership down here and they buy the car of your dreams. Maybe there’s not a dealership in Redding with a car of your dreams. So, let’s get you down to the bay area. And they go in there and they write up the contract. They write a check for the entire amount of this very fine car that you have. And they pay for the first, your income tax, because you’ve received such a large gift.
The person pays for your insurance for the first five years. Everything’s covered. And it’s yours. But it’s at the dealership. It’d be kind dumb to go down there and to pay for a car that’s already paid for. And yet, a lot of people are trying to pay for what Jesus has already paid for. It’s already been purchased. Illustration that I’ve given a number of times to you that is fun for me 'cause it illustrates this thing so beautifully: when Kris and Kathy moved down here to be a part of the team, he owned a number of businesses and closed them down and moved here to help us. And he still had some debt because of closing these businesses down. But he didn’t announce it. He didn’t tell anyone. But we’re close friends, so I knew what he brought with him.
And, I remember I was standing back there, just greeting people, or, saying goodbye to folks after they left, and when they left after a Sunday morning service. And a lady came up to me and said, «Is Kris here»? And she had a check folded in half. And she said, «Is Chris here»? I said, «No, he’s preaching». He was preaching somewhere else that morning. «But he’ll be here tonight». And she said, «Would you give this to him»? And I said, «Sure». So, I took it and I waited till she walked around the corner. It wasn’t in a sealed envelope. It was like she wanted me to see it. That’s just the way I felt. She wanted me to see it. So, after she walked around the corner, I flipped it open and it said «Thirty thousand dollars».
And then, I looked to make sure it was his name. And it was. So, I thought, «Well, that’s cool». So, I put it in my Bible, knowing I’d see him in our pre-service prayer meeting. So, we were in there praying and stuff. And, Kris walks in. So, I walk over to him. I said, «Hey, Chris, someone gave this to me this morning, before». He looked at it. He said, «Does that say 3,000»? I said: «No, it’s $30,000. It’s for you». And he just ruined the entire prayer meeting. Just, you know, people are praying and he’s «Look what somebody gave me»! And he’s showing them this $30,000 check, which is a great answer to prayer for them. And, you know, the crazy thing was, he never thanked me for all that money. Never said thank you at all. 'cause I didn’t write the check: I just delivered the check. And when you pray for the sick, you’re just delivering a check somebody else wrote.
Here’s what I want you to see: Jesus becoming more manifest among his people. Like a sunrise. And there’s healing in his wing. Interesting: the word «Wings» there can be translated «Edge of a garment». Habakkuk talks about the healing rays that come out of the hands. I’m not trying to make it spooky: I’m just saying when he shows up, you know, you gotta expect stuff to happen. And so, here, the sun of righteousness rises among his people. What is the sunrise? It’s the beginning of a new day. We’re about to see not power for entertainment’s sake, power to illustrate the holiness of God: power that illustrates, demonstrates, manifests the holiness of God against all that contaminates his but that’s not the end of the story. That’s the beginning of the story. The beginning of the story is for the people of God to taste what he bought for us. Why? So, that we can take it to the people who need it, those who are outside the church.
I was, this last week, in Portugal. Had such a wonderful time. And, we went out just to hang out for a few minutes, following a meeting. And Ben Fitzgerald and Jean-Luc found this man walking into the back of this restaurant area. And they went over and started up a conversation with him. And moments later, I see them kneeling down around this knee. They’re grabbing his knee and praying for him. And, they had some word of knowledge or something for this guy, you know? Just this innocent guy walking through. To them, he had neon lights, you know. Yeah. «Me. Me. Pick me». And, so, they kneeled down. It was fun to watch. I just sat there and watched 'em. And they laid hands on him. They held his knee. And Ben said, «Man, did you feel that»? The guy said, «Yes, I did»! And his knee was crackin' and poppin' and movin' around. And, the Lord completely healed the guy. And it was just, it was fun to watch. Fun to watch. See, divine health is your inheritance.
Now, we don’t know a lot about it yet, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true. You gotta ask questions, you gotta look in the book. There’s insights there that will unfold to us in the years to come. But don’t deny it because you don’t understand it. The children of Israel had divine health in the wilderness. Who were they? They were not born again. They were in rebellion against God. And they experienced divine health. It would be tragic to come to the end of time and have the only generation that experienced divine health to be a people that were not born again, in rebellion against God.
So, in these matters, this is the knowledge to the burning conviction, where we contend for the purity, the holiness, the righteousness of God to actually be on display in every part of our life. And so, they shook hands with this gentleman and just sharing the Lord with him. And the guy said, «Hi, my name’s bob». And Jean-Luc said, «It’s so good to meet you». He says, «It’s interesting, 'cause I have a friend in the United States by the name of Bob Harrison». And he looked at him. He said: «I didn’t tell you my last name. How did you know my last name»? That was fun to watch, 'cause Jean-Luc heard, when he said, «Bob,» he heard «Bob Harrison». And it wasn’t till afterwards he found out he didn’t give his last name. Needless to say, that had his attention. «How did you know my last name»?
So, he got healed, word of knowledge operated that God knows him, identified him. See, this is the normal expression of the gospel. But as long as we have hang-ups on experiencing that which already belongs to us, it will be magnified as we try to take it out of the house to the people whose hearts could be won with a simple word, a simple gift, a simple prayer. The sun of righteousness will rise with healing, in his why do you think when the disciples tried to cast the demons out of the child, remember, the dad in Mark 9 brought his child to the disciples to be healed and delivered. And the demon threw him in the fire and the water, tried to kill him, and he’s foamin' at the mouth on the ground, and this huge scene.
Why is he creating a scene? To create fear in the people doing the ministry. See, anytime the devil is in the open, that’s his last card: that’s not his best card. His best card is hiding in the pew. His best card is trying to stay concealed in a religious setting, unrecognized, unidentified. So, whenever he’s flushed into the open, his last effort is to try to instigate or ignite fear and so, he does so with extreme manifestations. And the disciples couldn’t deliver him. And they were experienced in deliverance.
And so, the father saw Jesus, brought the child to Jesus, and he delivered him. As soon as he did, the disciples took Jesus aside and said, «How come we couldn’t do it»? And it was a legitimate question, because they had experience. He had already entrusted them to go to their hometowns and they saw great amounts of healing and deliverance. And, they were shocked when it didn’t work, so that tells me they already had a history of success. And, how would you like to be shocked when it didn’t work instead of shocked when it worked, you know? Amen.
And Jesus said, «This kind only comes out with prayer and fasting». It’s a profound lesson that some obstacles are only removed with prayer and fasting. But, for me, the bigger lesson is that when the disciples didn’t get an answer, they took Jesus aside. They had to find out why. They were not willing to live with an unanswered prayer. The lack of conviction, the lack of a burning heart, enables us to coexist with unanswered prayers and it not matter. And so, the Lord is stirring up a zeal that’s based on the righteousness and purity of God, a zeal that helps to bring about a new day, a new day of miracles, a new day of the demonstration of God for people. Deliverance is, I believe, going to become much more pronounced. So, get ready.